A discussion with Nina Kollars and Mark Raymond about the SolarWinds hack, recorded in March, 2021
Episode 7: Duckcalls Events Series 1, Solarwinds discussion with Nina Kollars and Mark Raymond
read more
Featured
NATO Summit Ahead!
Tomorrow, the NATO summit in Warsaw starts.  What do we expect, other than jet-lagged Steve being more incoherent than usual? Lots of decisions to be announced, none to be made. These summits are...
The True Costs of Brexit
British elites have been wondering for decades whether the UK still had clout on the global stage, and now they know: indeed, the country has an outsized influence on world affairs. But what a way...
Brexit Hottake
We will have much, much time to ponder and study what happened yesterday... whether it was the weather that made the difference in London, why Cameron was such an idiot, and on and on. I have a few...
More Featured Posts
The Endlessly Fatiguing Japanese-Korean Squabbling is the Worst it’s been in Decades
I am so burned out on this issue, I’m ready to say we should just nuke the Liancourt Rocks (left) to end this whole thing. But it’s everywhere now in the regional media. Park pointedly won’t meet Abe, which the Japanese media is reading as a huge snub. She even said she’d talk to Pyongyang before Tokyo (yikes!). The Japanese are getting more open in expressing loathing for Korea. The Americans are livid. And the Chinese and Norks are loving it all, I have no doubt. So here’s yet another essay on this topic. This is the English version of a long-form essay I wrote for Newsweek Korea last...
Postscript on Typhoon Haiyan: Hazard Vulnerability, Disasters, and Security
I found two pieces that asked similar questions to my earlier post on why this typhoon appeared to be so destructive and why similar storms in Asia are especially deadly. Both raise interesting questions for scholars of security studies and environmental politics. Max Fisher raises a similar set of concerns in the Washington Post asking why the Philippines wasn't more ready. Beyond the sheer size of the storm and the country's poverty, he also addresses the governance challenges, writing: The Philippines' political system, though, can make centralized governance difficult. Owing to the...
a bear in duck’s clothing: reflections on the end of my blogging career
Blogging is an exercise of academic freedom, like writing journal articles or books.  Blogging is something that has evolving norms and rules, like writing journal articles or books. However, given its nature, the evolution of the field, and the evolution of technology, the norms of blogging are, for better or worse, unique. It is the question of what those norms are and what they demand of us that has dominated the significant discussion about who is accountable for, and who should hold culpability for, the controversy around Brian Rathbun's post and departure from the Duck. The Duck, like...
Monday Evening Linkage
Transgender Veterans are fighting to get their military paperwork to match their preferred gender identity. This raises SO many interesting and important issues for the US military- ones that it will have to face. For example, discharge papers -which may include an individuals former gender identifier- are used for future employment, benefits, funeral instructions etc. A recent Gallup poll revealed that Americans still prefer a male boss- and at a margin that hasn't changed in over a decade. One possible reason offered is that people prefer what they know- and most Americans currently work...
Typhoon Haiyan and Asia’s Special Vulnerability to Climate-Related Hazards
You probably saw the horrific photos and video of Typhoon Haiyan (also known as Yolanda) that made landfall over the weekend in the Philippines, with winds nearing 200 miles an hour and an immense 13 foot storm surge that decimated infrastructure, leading to wide-scale loss of life due to drowning and collapsed buildings. According to reports, the storm left perhaps as many as 10,000 dead in the city of Tacloban alone and displaced hundreds of thousands. Even as domestic and international aid efforts ramp up, there have been isolated widespread reports of looting, as people who lost...
Gender, Civilian Security and the Paradox of War Norms
I am traveling this week for the 40th Anniversary Celebration at the Center for the Study of Women in Society at University of Oregon, where I completed my doctoral work ten years ago next month. CSWS was kind enough to fund field travel for my dissertation back then, which became my first book, and it's a pleasure to be back to present at their event. In a few hours I'll present a short talk on "War and Civilian Security," tying together my earlier work on gender and civilian immunity with emerging and very urgent trends in human security norm development. The YouTube version is here: A...
Friday Nerd Blogging
via Geek in Heels, your friendly Friday Star Wars Meyers-Brigg test. Which character are you? Also: Star Wars VII release date has been, well, released. Doug Mataconis comments.
Flipping the Classroom
I'm going to try it out this spring with my Introduction to International Relations class. (I'll also post my lectures online, which I believe will make mine the second Intro IR course available to the general public---though if you know of others, please provide links in the comments.) Have any of you tried it? If so, I'd love to hear about your experiences in the comments. Below the fold are some thoughts on why I think it will help some students get more out of my class. Giving students the ability to pause, rewind, and relisten... I talk fast (I sadly have but two modes: too fast and way...