I get the sense that lots of scholars are viewing the return (sooner or later) of in-person conference with a good deal of ambivalence. Is it time to take all conference online?
It now looks like the candidate who boasted that he knew more than the generals will be a President who appoints them and asks their advice. There has been considerable criticism of this from those...
Gone are the good old days when I had to explain what the word ‘yarki’ means to my friends and colleagues (for the record, ‘colorful’, not ‘brilliant’). Now I will have to clarify the complexities...
When I was young, I dreamed of Italy. Once in a while, my father would pull out the slide projector and show us pictures from his life on a mountain near Colle Isarco, not far from Italy’s border...
One of the best ways to respond to the ISA Executive Committee proposal is to demonstrate the professionalism and the significant intellectual and scholarly contribution that blogging makes to the IR profession. We've assembled a slate of impressive nominees in four categories for outstanding On-line Achievements in International Studies (OAIS) Awards for this year. If you haven't already done so, please take a moment to cast your ballot. If you haven't received one or would like one, please email us for a ballot. We've had an impressive response thus far and we'd like to do better. We ask...
Dear ISA Governing Council, Greetings. You probably don’t know me but I’m a long-time user of your services. My first real conference experience was at ISA Chicago in 2007. I practiced my 10 minute presentation for hours in my hotel room and had to borrow $250 from my mom to attend. I really benefited, however, from the feedback I received from all 7 people in the audience. I’ve routinely attended ISA conferences in the time since 2007 and have thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I’ve reviewed and contributed to ISA journals multiple times and am currently serving the Association as...
So the IR blogosphere and twitterverse are in the process of exploding over this new proposal from the ISA Governing Council, which would ban those contributing to IR blogs from holding positions on ISA journal editorial boards. I second many of the questions raised by Steve and Jon and Will Moore and will write more on this topic presently. Fortunately for me as a prof, this news-flash happened to occur right as I headed to "Theory/Policy" day in my Human Security doctoral seminar in which we dwell on ISR's "Theory/Policy Symposium." So my initial reaction was to use this as a terrific...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...