The following is a guest post by Mason Richey, an associate professor of international studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. I am Trump; I am Trump. Trump I am. That Trump I am, that Trump I am, I do not like that Trump I am. ...
I really don't want to write this post. I hate being a feminist or critical killjoy- especially when it comes to issues that seem to unite, motivate, and inspire large groups of people. We all need...
I am in Geneva this week to participate in the Convention on Conventional Weapons' Experts' Meeting on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems. There, I'll present survey data I collected on US public...
As a junior faculty member, I am not in a position to turn down advice. Fortunately, I receive good advice from mentors, colleagues, and friends. I am very thankful. Lately, I have also been...
First off, this is my first post. Thanks to Dan and the rest of the crowd for inviting me, though I fear they – and Duck readers – may soon tire of hearing about how building effective control over a given territory is just really damn hard. But, then again, why else would one invite an Africanist comparativist to hang out on an IR blog? So Goma fell to rebels yesterday. In the midst of war in Gaza, the loss of the largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo didn’t make it onto All Things Considered, merited a few sentences on Newshour, and, so far as I’ve heard from others,...
I got back from an extended trip to London last night. To all the people who hosted me for talks, entertained me, and generally made the trip both fun and productive: a big thanks! I also bought some sweet rubber ducks at the British Museum. I'm going to start repeatedly flogging the nomination process and voting registration for the academic international-studies blogging awards. You can reduce the annoyance factor by submitting nominations soonest possible. Note that just because you don't register doesn't mean that you won't receive a ballot, but registration ensures that you will. I will...
Good morning! Obama became the first sitting president to visit Myanmar/Burma yesterday. Plus, Amnesty International announced the release of political prisoners in the country yesterday, too. It’s a little rare for the organization to “name and praise” instead of “name and shame” so I wonder about the logic of Amnesty’s press release….hmm…that’s an interesting research question Obama is also working on maritime disputes during his trip. Check out Doug Gibler’s post on maritime disputes (and territorial disputes more generally) at The Monkey Cage And: ISQ just posted a bunch of Early View...
Today, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a new report, Losing Humanity: The Case Against Killer Robots, becoming the most influential NGO to date to join an emerging call for a preemptive norm against the deployment of autonomous weapons. The International Committee for Robot Arms Control, an association of scientists and philosophers, proposed such a norm back in 2010 at a meeting in Berlin; the outgoing President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Jakob Kellenberger, issued a statement in September 2011 suggesting the organization remained seized of developments in...
I'm at the end of a rather long trip to London, which is why I haven't been able to process or upload either Duck of Minerva or NBN podcasts yet. Nevertheless, I've got some good stuff coming on both fronts. So stay tuned. Today's linkage focuses on Gaza. Al-Jazera reports that 92 Palestinians have now been killed by Israeli attacks. The Washington Post leads with essentially the same story. CNN is certainly paying attention to the civilian death toll, even as it reports on the "success" of Iron Dome in protecting Israeli cities. Wired has an interesting report on the "social media" war with...
The Canard “All the Fake News that is Fit to Print” The Duck of Minerva, considered one of the nation’s top international relations blogs, has recently come under attack from Cat Fancy magazine. Aggressively trying to expand their market share and brand, the leading source of information for feline aficionados looking for the latest reviews of mechanical litter boxes is looking to acquire new assets, through hostile takeovers if necessary. Duck readers are known to fit certain key demographic that are particular attractive to Cat Fancy – they are academics who like to cuddle up in bed...
From our infatuation with swing states to the pageantry of the Chinese Communist Catwalk -- great night of TV in China as Xi Jingping steps out first from behind the curtain. I miss the old days when it was a surprise.... This isn't going to end well. This morning's Jerusalem Post editorial: "Operation Pillar of Defense – like Operation Cast Lead – will not change the fundamental dynamics in Gaza." Twitter goes to war. Aren't there Twitter rules? Open thread A fundamental transformation? Competition over the rescaling of governance. Shahar Hameiri and Lee Jones on the Politics and...