Perhaps the problem isn’t that theories leak from the lab, but efforts to seal the lab in the first place. If political scientists spent more time observing the policy world, me might get both better and more careful theories in the first place.
2017 was not a great year for international politics. The sentence I heard the most during conferences and other academic gatherings was that “the global order is in crisis.” Granted. It all started...
If anybody is planning to collude with some Russians for New Year's (but not in order to swing an election), I compiled a brief checklist. Originally, I wanted to take apart an article from a...
We knew it was coming and here it is. An open source spreadsheet designed by The Professor Is In blog's Karen L. Kelsky for the purpose of collecting up stories of sexual harassment, abuse, and...
This is a follow-up to my earlier post, “Why Foreign Intervention in Nigeria is a Bad Idea.” That post focused on larger issues that make Nigeria a particularly problematic context for foreign involvement of any kind; this post focuses on what policies -- mostly domestic -- might work. In the past week, things have not gotten better with regard to Nigeria and the effort to #Bringbackourgirls. On the US front, the administration began a blessed crawl away from direct US military involvement in Nigeria the day of my earlier post. In last Thursday’s hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations...
Zack Beauchamp followed the CCW Experts Meeting on Autonomous Weapons and concluded: The debate about robots in warfare comes down to the question of whether they would make war crimes more or less likely. There are serious arguments on either side. In many ways, this new argument about robots is an extension of much older argument about why war crimes happen and how to prevent them. This isn't a joke anymore: the debate over military robotics is about preventing horrific abuse of real people. I agree with Zack that this is right way to think about the debate. Proponents of these weapons...
The CCW Expert’s Conference on Autonomous Weapons ended yesterday with a draft report from the Chair (France) that set the stage for further discussions in November. For the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, a continued discussion had been the primary objective at this stage, so this is good news for campaigners. NGOs were pleased with the inclusion in the document of the term “meaningful human control” as a principle around which to evaluate all weapons systems. Sarah Knuckey has more. The official report from the global coalition is here. A round-up of social media coverage by the coalition...
Am I the first to use the pun “ducking out”? I can’t be, someone has to have used that to describe leaving the Duck of Minerva before. Regardless, this brings up two key problems with blogging, the quick move towards the cheap pun and to the tendency to do no actual background research on before a post. I am probably prone to both. In any case, I am moving on from the Duck. I will be moving over to RelationsInternational to help build a new blog. I think blogging is an increasingly important part of our academic jobs and we need more voices in this community. Therefore it is in our...
Let's face it, most commencement speakers aren't really all that inspiring. Every spring, tens of thousands of graduating seniors, proud parents, faculty, and others sit through seemingly endless speeches filled with those insipid "inspiring life lessons," those essential "kernels of wisdom that will guide graduates through life's challenges," and the hopeful "ten ways this year's class of graduating seniors will change the world." Humor sometimes -- but only sometimes -- helps. And, then occasionally the stars align and we get that memorable commencement -- with a speaker whose presence and...
Brian Cranston and Godzilla apparently did not get along that well: Check out the story here.
This is the first of two posts about Boko Haram & possible US involvement in Nigerian counterterrorism operations. For the second, see "What is to be done in Nigeria?". Note: two sentences added shortly after publication to clarify that my concerns encompass the full range of foreign intervention, from direct intervention to operational support to limited strikes to an expanded role in shaping Nigerian policy. Yesterday, American drones began flights over northern Nigeria in hopes of locating the 276 girls abducted a month ago from a school in Borno State. American and British...
This will be nothing like a comprehensive overview on the topic (for one thing I have been in and out of plenary, for another I am filtering this event through the lens of my specific research agenda on framing and norm development). That said, here are a few notes and observations about the nature of the debate and the process here since I arrived yesterday - angles I am not likely to blog about in depth but which are worth noting in passing. Hope others will take them up and link to whatever others are writing - I am mostly following events here rather than online, with the exception of...