In case you are interested in expanding our knowledge of the use/misuse of teacher evaluations, Lisa Martin of Wisconsin-Madison has a short survey that is worth taking: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KDWNCXS Results may make it into what looks like a very exciting...
Another day, another piece chronicling problems with the metrics scholars use to assess quality. Colin Wight sends George Lozano's "The Demise of the Impact Factor": Using a huge dataset of over 29...
According to a new survey I've just completed, not great. As part of my ongoing research into human security norms, I embedded questions on YouGov's Omnibus survey asking how people feel about the...
So, I teach at a policy school, and though our core pedagogical enterprise is the MA program, we have a small PhD program that is a mix of political science, economics, and maybe a dash of public...
I just completed a significant update of the international-relations theory syllabi collection. Although currently hosted at the Duck of Minerva,  this collection is an initiative of the THEORY section of the International Studies Association. Massive props to the former THEORY officers for getting it running. I'm again asking for anyone who is interested in submitting syllabi to contact me. That's all, folks.
Ok, last week, I mentioned with anticipation how much I was looking forward to Game of Thrones. Little did I know it was the Red Wedding episode. I've looked for lighter fare stories this week and only sometimes does the world oblige. On the hopeful side of things, here is some good news: A look back at the millions of lives saved through PEPFAR: 10 years later A photographer captured all of the rare birds of paradise species in Papua New Guinea The EU moves to curb overfishing with lower quotas: enforcement and removal of subsidies still key A new cheap vinegar test can help cut cervical...
Happy Wednesday, everyone! Is Turkey a democracy? Jay Ulfelder is skeptical [Dart-Throwing Chimps] A more optimistic take on Turkey. [Suffragio] Dan Drezner properly criticizes two foreign policy missteps by the Obama administration, including news that Michelle Obama won't attend the PRC-USA summit. Given PRC First Lady Peng Liyuan's successes abroad, this seems like another in a seemingly long line of administration diplomatic misfires. [Daniel Drezner] Forget immigration reform. Are you really surprised? [Kevin Drum] What the age of Rice and Power means for U.S. foreign policy....
In case you don't know, the PRC has censored searches for "Big Yellow Duck." The reason? You can see a larger version here.The arrival of Florentijn Hofman's yellow duck in Hong Kong harbor sparked a great deal of excitement in China, where the duck has become incredibly popular. A number of stories document a proliferation of knock-off ducks throughout the country, including one large in Shanghai and numerous smaller imitations. So it isn't that surprising that a microblogger would appropriate Hofman's duck for memorializing the 1989 failed democratic uprising. Via just about...
We are still mucking around with the official page for the Theory Section. In what I hope will be a temporary expedient, I've created a dedicated page at the Duck of Minerva. There you will find: Links to posts directly related to the Theory Section; General Information about the section; Vital statistics about the section awards; and collected syllabi relating to international-relations theory. If you are interested in adding your own syllabus, please let me know.
A few unconnected recent happenings have reminded me that I've meant to do a short post on Charles Tilly, bellocentric (or "bellicist") theories of state formation, and where all of this stands in 2013. If you mention "Charles Tilly" and "state formation" to knowledgeable social scientists, their first association is almost always his famous line "war made the state and the state made war" (PDF). Scholars most frequently cite his work on state formation in the service of this line of argument.* Indeed, Tilly's argument also invariably gets translated into "more war, more state." This strikes...
Good morning Ducks.  Hope your summer is off to a good start.  Here are some links to start off your week... Joshua Foust argues that a technology ban on lethal autonomous weapons systems (e.g. autonomous drones) will not work.  (I agree but then again I am putting all of my money down on the ED-209 cleaning up Detroit.) Ahsan Butt says there's not enough historical empirics taught in grad school.  In particular, he asserts that a sanitized version of war is taught to IR graduate students.  (I know Phil Arena would disagree, but I think Ahsan has a point.) Guam and Hawaii?  China needs to...