via Geek in Heels, your friendly Friday Star Wars Meyers-Brigg test. Which character are you? Also: Star Wars VII release date has been, well, released. Doug Mataconis comments.
Friday Nerd Blogging
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Year: 2013
Hypotheses Tested
The Duck has a symposium which engages the European Journal of International Relation's special issue on "The End of IR Theory."Â One of the pieces is the final version of the draft that John...
Win Phil’s Money
My views on the role of assumptions are no secret. Â Nor are they without detractors. Â In hopes of advancing the debate, I invite anyone who disagrees with me to enrich themselves while proving me...
Symposium — In Defense of Simplistic Hypothesis Testing
Editor's Note: This is a guest post by  Dan Reiter. It is the fourth installment in our "End of IR Theory" companion symposium for the special issue of the European Journal of International...
More Year: 2013 Posts
The Stupid Things People with a Ph.D. say on Airplanes
"My main job [as an assistant professor at insert-flyover-university-here] is advising presidential policy on public religious life." I actually heard a Ph.D. tell his neighbor that on an airplane. I know that there might be more worthwhole topics for my first post in months (I haven't been a total slacker, I have been doing some programming), but none is more pressing ... I have made back-to-back trips to conferences (first ISA and then MPSA) this week, and have connected through Atlanta each time, providing me with the rare opportunity to ride the airplane with other political scientists...
Guest Post – David Kang: The Media Coverage of the Korean Crisis is Inflammatory
My own thinking on the current Korea flap is on The Diplomat. I argue it’s a faux crisis, which promptly got me accused of being an air-head academic in the comment section. Lovely. I was also pleased to respond to Kim Jong Un’s threat that I should leave the country. And I managed not to explode laughing when a reporter asked me point blank on live TV if Kim Jong Un was ‘just bonkers.’ Was itching to say yes to that one actually. Good times… Never waste a missile crisis, right? Anyway, here’s David Kang suggesting the cable and satellite news services are overhyping this thing, a point I...
ISA Theory Section Book Prize
Despite the lack of an update at its website, I am now the Chair of the International Studies Association (ISA) Theory Section. Obviously, all ISA members should join and contribute $5 to our budget. But the reason for this post is that we've promised public discussion of the wording of our new book award. I've set up a page for the section at the Duck of Minerva, but the comments aren't working. So I'm putting the basic text here and inviting comments. We also need to figure out if we are honoring a "distinguished scholar" next year. Suggestions on both the text of the award and possible...
Is there a Downside to Open Access Publishing?
Robert Farley's post last week about how long the journal publication process is struck a chord. One of my journal articles took three years from submission to appearance and was gated (I had to get my own piece through inter-library loan since it came out and the library didn't have a subscription for the most recent issues). I have often felt as Farley does: If you are reading this article in PS, the article has gone through a vetting and editing process that has probably lasted at least 18 months. This process undoubtedly improved the quality of the article, but it also substantially...
Monday Morning Linkage
Good Mornin' Ducks!  Here are some links on the crise du jour... Tim Shorrock discusses what what the US media is missing in its coverage of North Korea on FAIR's CounterSpin. (MP3 Podcast at 9.30 - 18:25) Kongdan Oh discusses how to understand North Korea and the "Republic of Pyongyang" on Brookings FPRI E-notes. UCSD's Stephan Haggard argues that Kim Jong-Un is not crazy. Professor Yoon Young-kwan at Seoul National asks us what would have happened if the Realism of Metternich guided our approach to North Korea. The CFR's Scott Snyder and the Duck's very own Robert Kelly discussed the...
While the Ducks Are Away — Can We Bridge the Gap When They Get Back?
Practically the whole roster of Duck bloggers is out at the biggest IR conference of the year--the ISA Conference is in San Francisco this year--leaving this think tank Duck in DC alone and further pondering the divide between the policy and academic worlds.  In light of this cri de coeur from a high ranking Navy officer, I had a long conversation this weekend with a former high ranking Army officer who before recently joining the private sector spent two years back in higher education studying classics/philosophy/politics. In my first and second post after joining this group blog--whose...
OAIS Awards: and the Winners are….
I am currently at the ISA of Madness. Near the top of the list of insanity is the Blogging Reception, which included an overflow crowd and some great "spoken blog posts" by Erica Chenoweth, Rob Farley, Amanda Murdie, and Dan Drezner. I recorded the event, and whatever the camera caught before the battery gave out will be posted at some point in the near future. We also announced the winners of the awards.... In the "Best Blog Post" category, Amelia Hoover Green, Dara Kay Cohen, and Elisabeth Jean Wood received an honorable mention for “Is Wartime Rape Declining On a Global Scale? We Don’t...
Friday Morning Linkage
ISA News:  Congratulations to Dan and Patrick!  They will be involved with ISQ -- ISA's flagship publication for the next five years.  Dan has been selected as the lead editor, Patrick as the web editor.  Congrats! I'm not a fan of the new grading software technologies, but maybe I can be persuaded -- grading while at ISA does suck. Already?  Minerva (note: not Duck of) a threat to MOOCs. We have an answer to the universe?   It's all code? Cool. The decline in critical thinking in the US is becoming a national security concern. Can we securitize the liberal arts? Barbara Walter, Daniel...