The Duck of Minerva

Steve Saideman

Steve Saideman is Professor and the Paterson Chair in International Affairs at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. He has written The Ties That Divide: Ethnic Politics, Foreign Policy and International Conflict; For Kin or Country: Xenophobia, Nationalism and War (with R. William Ayres); and NATO in Afghanistan: Fighting Together, Fighting Alone (with David Auerswald), and elsewhere on nationalism, ethnic conflict, civil war, and civil-military relations.

Recent Posts

Lamenting The Loss of the Light, The Ebbing of Grand Theory and The Decline of Old Boy Networks

by Steve Saideman | 5 January, 2013 |

John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt have written a piece that is critical of the supposed move to hypothesis testing and the failure of IR folks to do grand theory.   I have many reactions to this development that I thought I would engage in a bit of listicle: My first reaction was: Next title: why too much research is bad for IR.... As folks pointed out on twitter and on facebook discussions, it seems ironic at the least that someone who made a variety of testable predictions that did not come true (the rise of Germany after the end of the cold war, conventional deterrence, the irrelevance of...

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What I Did Not Know About the Prof Business

by Steve Saideman | 3 December, 2012 |

In the recent conversations about Policy PhDs and such, one of the frequent assertions was that people  going into PhD programs had no idea what they were getting into.  Why do we assert such things?  All I can say is that I had no clue not just about what was involved in a PhD program, but also what was involved in being a prof.  Let me review some of my beliefs and the realities I have experienced over the past two decades.* * I will leave aside the job market stuff (like not controlling where I would live). Despite warnings from my adviser at Oberlin, I thought profs spent much of their...

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Follow Up on Academic-Policy Divide

Follow Up on Academic-Policy Divide

by Steve Saideman | 2 December, 2012 | ,

As it turns out, there are a group of scholars working to bridge this divide.  Check out the Bridging the Gap Project. The project has programs for new and not-so-new scholars in the US and abroad.  This seems to be exactly what we need.   Take a look and consider applying (soon since the Dec 5 deadline is upon us).

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A Semi-Canadian Perspective on the Academic-Policy Divide Debate

by Steve Saideman | 28 November, 2012 |

The semi-annual policy/academic divide debate is back thanks to discussions about PhDs for the policy world (Drezner v. Foust) and Galluci's piece on the debate, with Drezner's response.  I would guess that this event is tied to a lunar calendar as it seems to occur often but not always just after Thanksgiving. Anyhow, I posted my views on this at Canadian International Council--the folks seeking to be the Great White North version of Foreign Policy.com.  My argument parallels Dan's response: that academics are increasingly engaging the policy world especially through web 2.o (so the tweets...

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The Academic Job Market and The Draft

by Steve Saideman | 20 October, 2012 |

No, not conscription (see what I did there), but sports drafts where teams take turns picking the next generation of superstars/busts. I am inspired to think about this as October is when anxiety of academic job aspirants begins to spiral.  The thread du jour is whether the job market is "fair."  As some get heaps of love and attention, others do not, leading them to ponder their fate.  But if we think about the job market as a draft* (despite the fact that there really is no set order of who goes first), then some stuff makes sense: * Am focusing on NFL and NBA as they are better known...

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Friday Nerd Blogging: A Day Early

by Steve Saideman | 20 September, 2012 |

Check out this wonderfully exhaustive application of bureaucratic politics to Star Wars.  The basic argument is that it was not the rebellion that really doomed the Empire but inter-service rivalry.  The best line involves the Army's limited motivation to help the Navy (who lost the plans to the Death Star).  I will not give it away here. Enjoy!

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Minimalist Friday Nerd Blogging

by Steve Saideman | 7 September, 2012 |

Nope, nothing here.  Why?  Google and its doodle.  We need to say no more but to make sure you press on the various characters and realize that you need to go out and read Redshirts by John Scalzi.

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Belated Friday Nerd Blogging

by Steve Saideman | 1 September, 2012 |

Charli was moving, and I was occupied with #APSA2012Hunger Games, so no Friday Nerd Blogging yesterday.  Well, to make up for it, how about some Saturday Poli Sci Silliness:Ok, that is too easy.How about this instead:Ok, way too easy.How about this story about the Quebec Maple Heist?  I have already raised the Breaking Bad possibilities, but is this really about the stickiest case of collusion?  After all, is there a great need for keeping a "Strategic Maple Reserve"?  Why is this necessary?  In case aliens come with a giant pancake weapon that can only be defeated through mass eating?Mais...

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The New Political Science Game

by Steve Saideman | 27 August, 2012 |

As the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association may face cancellation due to Hurricane Isaac, there is only one thing to do: wildly speculate how APSAHungerGames would play out in 2012.*  Spawned on twitter by @whinecough, an ABD (all but dissertation) on the job market, the idea is that in a hurricane-swept New Orleans, the APSA convention-goers must compete to survive.* We honestly hope that all folks make it to and from New Orleans with the smallest amount of tribulations as we violate the classic comedic equation of pain plus time = funny.The best line of the night,...

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