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Five Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me in Graduate School: Summing Up
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Why Do People Buy #Pizzagate?
Pizzagate, the conspiracy theory started by alt-right Twitter which alleged that John Podesta's emails exposed some members of the Democratic party as being part of a DC pizzeria-based child-sex...
A Plea for Cease Fire in the New American Civil War, Part I—A Trump Unity Agenda
Before the election, I offered that I would write three posts on bridging the sharp divides that have us in warring camps--one on a unity agenda, the second on changes in the tone of our public...
Ice Thin Memory
Usually when news about Russia makes it to American late night shows, Russia either gets hit by a meteorite, or it annexes part of a neighboring country. Either way, it is illustrated by Putin’s...
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Blogging and Teaching — and the Wrongheaded ISA Proposal
Steve has a nice roundup of many of the central concerns with ISA's misguided policy proposal to limit those involved in editing ISA journals from blogging. Â I'd like to focus on one additional element. For many of us located principally in the teaching side of the profession, we realize and appreciate the significance and utility of blogs for pedagogical purposes. Â Here in the Five Colleges, a key part of communicating with students is through various forms of social media. Â My department has a Twitter feed and a Facebook page that features a fantastic daily blog by my colleague Vinnie...
Tuesday Morning Linkage: ISA and Blogging Edition
The International Studies Association Executive Committee has forwarded a proposal to the Governing Council that meets at the Association's annual meeting that addresses blogging. The proposal and my take on it are discussed at my blog. The essence of it is to prohibit those involved in the editing of journals from blogging. The text of it goes beyond that, assuming/asserting that blogging is inherently unprofessional. That is not a message that the ISA should be sending out now or ever, really. Will Moore takes a swing at the policy as well. I am sure others will do as well here and...
Can You Pass the Cricket (errr.. Soccer) Test?
Its World Cup season again. That time a year when I start getting interview requests about soccer/football, fandom, and loyalty. The assumption for many seems to be if you are a citizen of a state, you must give a certain amount of loyalty to said state.  Fixed nationalism for many is an assumption. With global immigration patterns and international connectivity, these sorts of ideas can no longer be assumptions. This leads us back to the mythical test of national loyalties.  Can you pass your local cricket test? It’s a simple proposition, basically, do you support your national team...
More on Moral Hazard in US Alliances: Explaining Japan-Korea Tension (and Greece-Turkey?)
So this post is a bleg to those of you who know more about alliances than me. I am considering writing this up for an article, so I thought I would ‘crowd-source’ early comments on the basic argument. I also wonder if someone elsewhere has already suggested this idea in the vast alliance literature. So please let me know. The motivation is inductive – the deepening tension between Japan and Korea has suggested the addendum to alliance theory I am proposing here. But I wonder if others have said this before. Put briefly, I don’t think entrapment or abandonment captures the US position between...
Five Ways IR Editorial Boards Can Combat Gender Bias in Citations
I spent last weekend with the International Organization editors and editorial board at their retreat. As a newcomer to the board, I didn't know what to expect and was happily surprised by the depth and richness of the conversations that took place for a full day and half, mostly around how to more fully realize the academic principles to which we're all committed - rigor, equity, transparency, methodological pluralism - in the context of a publishing environment that is constrained by the business model of publishing houses and the ever-changing landscape of social media. One of the most...
Monday Linkage
Hi Ducks. Â Here are your Monday links: The Disorder of Things has a great post on "Cavity Searches in Intern(ation)al Relations" and ... umm... other forms of intercourse between states. Hamza Saif at Chapati Mystery reviews "Globalism and Vernacular in Contemporary Pakistani Rap." Â (Apparently the real Slim Shady is Pakistani. Who knew?) Juan Cole at Informed Comment explains "Why Tunisia's Transition to Democracy is Succeeding while Egypt's is Failing." Max de Haldevang at the LA Review of Books discusses Kyrgyzstan and the Uzbeks. Â De Haldevang writes, "Since 2010, Kyrgyzstan has...
A Small Farewell
It is cold in the scriptorium, my thumb aches. Actually, it isn't. I've just always wanted to use that line from the end of Name of the Rose. In fact its about room temperature in the American Institute Library and my thumb is thriving. Anyway, I don't blog much any more because of work and other things, and its even a job pushing out opinion on the barbaric form of Twitter. So I'd like to say farewell to the Duck. Its been a real privilege. Many thanks to Dan Nexon for the invitation to come on board a few years ago. The Duck is a great site and its allowed yours truly to talk about IR,...
Friday Nerd Blogging: Mocking the New and the Old
Because we are late with Friday Nerd Blogging, we have a two-fer--one that is mocks a TV program to come and one that mocks an old show but lovingly so: And for the kids out there, Bosum Buddies is among the very best short-lived TV shows. No spaceships (Firefly) but realistic portrayal of the desperation that is apartment hunting in NY