Why and how do authoritarian regimes manage their image abroad?
6+1 Questions About MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR Dictatorship
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Featured
Before you leave for the holiday season: Nominate your friends for The Duckies!
Grades are in, reviews submitted, and I'm headed out for the holiday season. Â I hope you are wrapping up the semester and/or enjoying a well-deserved break. Â Please remember to submit your...
The Passing of a Global Health Giant
Halfdan Mahler, the Danish physician who served three five-year terms as Director-General of the World Health Organization, died last week in Geneva. Mahler may not be a household name, but he...
Duck Retirement: what 7 years of blogging has given me
It's time. I'm signing off as permanent member of the Duck of Minerva after seven (7!?!) years of blogging. The experience has helped shape me as a professional, writer, and member of the IR and...
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Online Media Caucus at the ISA: The Time Is Now-ish
The events of the last week within the International Studies Association indicate that there is much ignorance about social media and its role in 21st century IR scholarship and teaching. On the bright side, the reactions to the ISA's misguided proposal demonstrated that there is a vibrant community of scholars who rely on "web 2.0" in a variety of ways. This has led myself and others to conclude that the time has come for an Online Media Caucus to be formed within the ISA. The head of each Caucus (like each section and region) has a seat and a vote at the meetings of the Governing...
Friday Nerd Blogging
May the bard be with you. See also "The Empire Striketh Back."
How Do You Change a Policy That Doesn’t Exist?: the combat exclusion one year later
Despite numerous calls to ‘Let Women Fight’, internal reviews of the policy, and growing evidence of women’s contributions to operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the January 2013 announcement that the combat exclusion would be removed was not entirely expected. For years leading up to the announcement, Congress and the Department of Defense had justified the exclusion as essential to national security. Moreover, less than 12 months before the decision to remove the exclusion, then–Pentagon press secretary George Little announced that although 14,000 new combat related jobs would be opened to...
Thursday Linkage (I’m not even going to pretend it’s morning…)
Your humble blogger (I like saying that. Now that Dan Drezner no longer has a blog [sniff], I will say it for him)...Your humble blogger is in London, and after a red eye flight, a noon presentation, ten hours of a sleep coma, another presentation, I'm ready to provide you with your latest in belated Thursday links. Themes this week (surprise!) - HIV/AIDS spending, conservation, pollution, GDELT lives! I believe there was a slight kerfuffle about blogging and the ISA, though I can't be sure, though my colleagues Amanda, Jon, Charli, and Steve have had a little something to say about the...
Vote Now! Demonstrate the Blogging Contributions to IR Scholarship
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...
“Shame” on you, ISA
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...
“Mind the Gap!” Bureaucracy, and the Regulation/Constitution of i(I)nternational r(R)elations
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...
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...