Professor Julie Kaarbo discusses Foreign Policy Analysis.
Episode 4: Julie Kaarbo
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Featured
PETA’s Shock Tactics: Irresponsible Advocacy or Strategy and Positioning?
[As two fellow NGO researchers, Wendy and Maryam are going to collaborate on some posts to provide contrasting views on hot-button issues related to NGOs. Think of us as the Siskel and Ebert of NGOs...
#BringBackOurGirls, Feminist Solidarity and Intervention – Part One
As a new Duck, who (like Cai & Tom) took a while to consider what to blog about, I finally decided - long-winded academic that I am - to write a series of posts on the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag...
Thoughts on Subjectivity in Writing about Israel
This is a guest post from Mira Sucharov, an Associate Professor at Carleton University. Particularly in areas of contested politics — controversial policy issues, protracted conflict, clashing...
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Ham Omelettes and Taiwan’s Defence
In the old old question of why the weak occasionally beat the strong, my favourite metaphor is the Ham Omelette. In a Ham Omelette, the chicken is involved but the pig is committed. In a clash over the Taiwan Strait, who would be the pig, who the chicken? This matters, because in the end predicting the outcome of a China-Taiwan clash would not be about the absolutes of military victory narrowly conceived, but about the issue of cost tolerance and the fear of a Pyrrhic result. Relations between Taiwan and Beijing have eased in the latest 'detente.' But some worry that their mutual aims...
Thursday Late Afternoon “Morning” Linkage
It's morning somewhere, right? Here are some belated links to stories, covering Richard Haass and Syria, climate change and the IPCC 5th assessment, a lethal bat-born virus, gay rights and Russia, and the new Fukushima nuclear worry... Syria FT op-ed by Richard Haass of all people urging the president to intervene in Syria Environment Draft IPCC Fifth assessment report on climate change impacts leaks, guess what, more climate change Andrew Revkin muses that a focus on current weather and climate attribution may feed into uncertainty and inaction New study - action on short-lived greenhouse...
Blogging the syllabus, international security edition: what is security?
With all of the focus on APSA, there’s been little discussion of another Labor Day ritual—the Revising of the Syllabus. In truth, I should have begun this ritual a few weeks ago. Now that the panic dreams have kicked in—you know, the ones where you show up to class on the first day without a syllabus and thus lose all authority over your students for the rest of the semester…you do get those too, right?—I know I must take action. My first task is to revise my introductory-level course on security studies and, luckily, it’s in pretty good shape, thanks to some major overhauls I did over the...
Networking at Conferences: Not Just for Graduate Students and Junior Faculty
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by David Lake, who is the Jerri-Ann and Gary E. Jacobs Professor of Social Sciences and Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. I want to weigh in on “networking at conferences” debate here on the Duck (and elsewhere), some of which has been lost in subsequent controversy. I agree with the prior posts by Saideman, Nexon, Sjoberg, and others, available here, that networking is less important than good research, and that networking among peers is far more valuable than networking with senior scholars. The most...
The Syrian Chemical Attack: Things Fall Apart, the Centre Cannot Hold
The news out of the Damascus suburbs this morning is highly disturbing and, if the reports are confirmed that this was a chemical attack, no doubt will mark a turning point in the conflict. Dan is somewhat skeptical that it will change the intervention calculus. I disagree. For the better part of the past two years, the Obama administration has pursued to a strategy of conflict management and containment. It doesn't look like that policy has worked. Today's events appear to have been a major chemical attack with a large loss of civilian life. The raw and devastating images will alter the...
Social Media Before Conference Networking
This is a guest post by Brent Sasley. Sasley is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Texas at Arlington. He blogs at Mideast Matrix and Open Zion. Follow him on Twitter. The political science/IR blogosphere has been engaged in an interesting discussion in recent days: whether and how junior scholars should network at academic conferences (just follow the links from this piece to get them all or scroll down through Duck of Minerva’s main page). My own two cents is that it depends on the conference, on the specific sub-field, and on the individual...
Will this be the Straw that Break the Back of Non-Intervention in Syria?
There are gruesome reports out of Syria today of a chemical weapons attack in a suburb of Damascus. If they are accurate, the chemical weapons inflicted mass civilian causalities. As David Kenner reports at Foreign Policy: The information coming out of the Ghouta region, where the rebels enjoy significant support, is still unconfirmed by independent observers. But videos allegedly taken Wednesday in the area showed Syrians lying on the floor gasping for breath, medics struggling to save infants, and rows of bodies of those who had reportedly died in the attack (warning: the footage above is...
Wednesday Linkage
While the IR blogosphere navel-gazes, history marches on: Media is reporting a massive civilian casualties from a chemical weapons attack in Syria. The UN is holding an emergency meeting. More from Reuters. Great coverage w/ updates at NuclearDiner. In sharp contrast, an elementary school clerk in Georgia prevented a school massacre by deploying empathy, respectful language and an appeal to a gunman's human dignity. Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison yesterday for his leaking of classified documents. Joshua Foust and Scott Lemieux discuss. Pervez Musharraf has been indicted...