From 1997 to 1999, I served in the Peace Corps in the Andean country of Ecuador. Ecuador is rich with contrasts. With the Galapagos, the Andes, and parts of the Amazon, the country possesses stunning natural beauty. The people have an incredible generosity of spirit,...
We gave out the Online Achievement in International Studies (OAIS) a.k.a. the Duckies, Thursday night, in a wonderful reception sponsored by SAGE. Given that this is Oscar night, we should say that...
Yesterday at ISA, I participated on a panel on technology and international security. One of the topics addressed was the “successfulness” of the Obama administration’s decapitation/targeted killing...
We hope to see you all at the Duckies this evening, the annual blogging awards with the reception this evening sponsored by Sage. It will be held at 7:30 in Quarterdeck A&B Ballroom at the...
Welcome to sunny and warm New Orleans (or at least sunnier and warmer than wherever most of us have come from!). If you are stepping away from conferencing for a bit, here are a few good reads on the security front. I'll likely come back in the new few days with one on energy/environment and health. Here I link to work from Alan Kuperman, Jay Ulfelder, Phil Hazlewood, Paul Staniland, and Graeme Wood, covering Libya, body counts, insurgencies, and ISIS. Enjoy. LIBYA In the wake of ISIS's emergence in Libya, my colleague Alan Kuperman weighs in on the debacle that is Libya in Foreign Affairs:...
Yesterday, the Governing Council met for 17 days and nights .... or about six hours to discuss the various issues on the agenda. I will not get into the details of the meeting (I live-tweeted the highlights). The key bits of news are this: I learned how to do emoji on my Ipad. The blogging issue from last year produced a report by the Professional Responsibilities committee, and the recommendations which became policy essentially said that we ought to expect everyone to be professional and treat each other with respect and dignity. This applies to not just ISA journal editors who were...
This is a guest post from Brian J. Phillips who is a research professor at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) in Mexico City. A number of studies in recent years have systematically examined terrorist groups, exploring lethality, longevity, and other outcomes. However, much of this research does not explicitly indicate what it means by a “terrorist group.” When definitions are offered, they differ considerably. These differences have empirical implications and matter for how we think about terrorism. There are a number of types of definitions of terrorist groups, and...
The annual meeting of the International Studies Association kicks off on Tuesday and runs through Saturday, Feb 17th-21st. The program is chock full of all kinds of IR. Of course, there is much to do and see during and after Mardi Gras in New Orleans beyond the panels. Using my power here as Duck-ster, let me point out a few ones that you might want to consider attending/joining: The Duckies! We hand out the IR Blogging Awards at 7:30pm on Thursday, February 19th at the Hilton. Go from the Duckies to the annual ISA Caberet, Thursday, February 19 at 8:00pm, Grand Salon 3 at the Riverside...
Greetings, Ducks! Thanks to Josh for such a wonderful facelift of the Duck website! I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in New Orleans next week. This is been a very service-intensive year for me – first year post tenure – and I’m still trying to figure out how to manage my time. Unlike common "wisdom," my colleagues and I in academia work an incredible amount of hours. And, yet, we never actually feel caught up. In an effort to work smarter, I’ve been looking into different time management techniques and tips. Most of the tips you can find in the literature or from self-help gurus...
After a hiatus, we will be back with some regular Morning Linkage. Look for the icon and the application of the new topic. I'm going to be brief here with some links. And it's not even morning! Blogging Andrew Sullivan ends his blogging on the Dish Professor loses tenure after blogging gone wrong Ukraine Steve Walt weighs in on Ukraine, suggests spiral model more appropriate than deterrence model and therefore arming risks escalation Mearsheimer (he of one name now) makes a similar case and calls for Ukraine to become a buffer state like Austria to which Dan Drezner and Steve Saideman note...
In advance of this year's ISA convention and the OAIS awards, we're happy to launch a new and improved Duck of Minerva with a revamped look and feel. You will notice automatically a direct link to duckofminerva.com which should make access more straightforward. The new site is also responsive so will resize automatically on your phone or tablet. We've also added a new set of topics to classify posts by subject so you can find them easily. The Twitter feed and blogroll have been updated. We wanted to thank permanent contributors Robert Kelly and Vikash Yadav who have decided to step down. In...
This is a guest post by Grant Dawson, assistant professor of social science and international politics at The University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China and Cyrus Janssen is an American expat based in Asia. The global order established by the West and led by the US since 1945 is gradually changing. China and the ‘rising Rest’ are catching-up to the US and the West in terms of economic and political power. Unfortunately, as was clear during the Hong Kong protests, the West’s ideas and attitudes about China are not keeping pace, and may lead to misunderstandings that undermine political relations...