It's happened to all of us. You get that email "Decision on Manuscript...," open it with a bit of trepidation, just to find a (hopefully) politely worded rejection from the editor. Sometimes this is justified. Other times, however, the rejection is due to the...
As a very frequent tweeter, I could only watch this SNL sketch/dance number (didn't make it to the show, just to dress rehearsal) with just a hint of shame:
On November 3, Britain’s head of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) published an opinion piece in the Financial Times, noting that technology companies, such as Twitter, Facebook,...
Check out this set of tweets tying together feminism and Princess Bride. My guess is that you check out #feministprincessbride you will find many more. The movie keeps on giving.
This is just a short note to explain the appearance of the phrase "temporarily un-gated PDF" in Peter Henne's guest post about contagion and the Syrian civil war. We've been linking to academic articles for quite some time, but usually to the abstracts or random versions available on the web. But after The Monkey Cage announced a partnership with academic publishers to temporarily un-gate political-science articles, it occurred to me that nothing prevented us from asking publishers to do the same for the Duck of Minerva. I'm pleased to announce the SAGE is the first to do so. Thanks to David...
This is a guest post by Peter S. Henne. Peter received his PhD from Georgetown University in May 2013, and was a Fellow at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia during 2012-2013. His research focuses on religion and foreign policy; he has also written on terrorism and religious conflict. A recent article in The New York Times illustrates much of what, in my opinion, is concerning about US debate over the crisis in Syria. The piece makes the bold claim that the conflict in Syria is not only affecting the region, it is infecting it with sectarian tensions. The authors use dramatic...
I just completed a significant update of the international-relations theory syllabi collection. Although currently hosted at the Duck of Minerva,  this collection is an initiative of the THEORY section of the International Studies Association. Massive props to the former THEORY officers for getting it running. I'm again asking for anyone who is interested in submitting syllabi to contact me. That's all, folks.
Ok, last week, I mentioned with anticipation how much I was looking forward to Game of Thrones. Little did I know it was the Red Wedding episode. I've looked for lighter fare stories this week and only sometimes does the world oblige. On the hopeful side of things, here is some good news: A look back at the millions of lives saved through PEPFAR: 10 years later A photographer captured all of the rare birds of paradise species in Papua New Guinea The EU moves to curb overfishing with lower quotas: enforcement and removal of subsidies still key A new cheap vinegar test can help cut cervical...
Happy Wednesday, everyone! Is Turkey a democracy? Jay Ulfelder is skeptical [Dart-Throwing Chimps] A more optimistic take on Turkey. [Suffragio] Dan Drezner properly criticizes two foreign policy missteps by the Obama administration, including news that Michelle Obama won't attend the PRC-USA summit. Given PRC First Lady Peng Liyuan's successes abroad, this seems like another in a seemingly long line of administration diplomatic misfires. [Daniel Drezner] Forget immigration reform. Are you really surprised? [Kevin Drum] What the age of Rice and Power means for U.S. foreign policy....
In case you don't know, the PRC has censored searches for "Big Yellow Duck." The reason? You can see a larger version here.The arrival of Florentijn Hofman's yellow duck in Hong Kong harbor sparked a great deal of excitement in China, where the duck has become incredibly popular. A number of stories document a proliferation of knock-off ducks throughout the country, including one large in Shanghai and numerous smaller imitations. So it isn't that surprising that a microblogger would appropriate Hofman's duck for memorializing the 1989 failed democratic uprising. Via just about...
We are still mucking around with the official page for the Theory Section. In what I hope will be a temporary expedient, I've created a dedicated page at the Duck of Minerva. There you will find: Links to posts directly related to the Theory Section; General Information about the section; Vital statistics about the section awards; and collected syllabi relating to international-relations theory. If you are interested in adding your own syllabus, please let me know.
A few unconnected recent happenings have reminded me that I've meant to do a short post on Charles Tilly, bellocentric (or "bellicist") theories of state formation, and where all of this stands in 2013. If you mention "Charles Tilly" and "state formation" to knowledgeable social scientists, their first association is almost always his famous line "war made the state and the state made war" (PDF). Scholars most frequently cite his work on state formation in the service of this line of argument.* Indeed, Tilly's argument also invariably gets translated into "more war, more state." This strikes...