Some political-science lab leaks are more difficult to control than others.
How Can We Vaccinate Against Viral Political Science?
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National Security Generalists and Learning the Lessons From Lost Wars
A friend posted this piece on facebook: "Why Nerds Should Not Be In Charge of War."Â It draws from the new PBS Vietnam War documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick to argue that it happened because...
The Rise of the Trauma State: Afghanistan and America’s Unwinnable War
This is a guest post by Erik Goepner, a visiting research fellow at the Cato Institute. During his earlier military career, he commanded units in Afghanistan and Iraq. He is currently a doctoral...
Magic Lines and Escalate Ladders
A colleague asked me if there will be war between the US and North Korea. I said maybe, which is pretty damned scary, given the likely consequences. Why am I worried? Basically for two reasons...
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Friday Nerd Blogging: Exceptional That Proves the Rule
I stopped collecting Spider-man long ago when it got all clone-tastic. I tend to hate TV/movies/comic books that use clones in their plots. However, there is one exception Orphan Black is back tomorrow night. Only ten episodes last season so plenty of time to binge to catch up. Just heaps of fun and some amazing acting.
Classroom Activity: Gambling Over War
This activity comes after students are to have listened to a lecture (slides) on information problems as an explanation for war—which I'd say is the most useful explanation we've got. The broad contours of the argument are pretty straightforward, but the full implications are not. (That's something of an understatement. As I've discussed a few times before, a lot of very smart people have made incorrect statements about what this argument implies. In fact, while I'll gladly admit we've hit the point of diminishing marginal returns, I still think there's a lot we've yet to learn from this way...
Thursday Linkage: Get the Duck out of this Semester
With the tale end of this semester bearing down on me, this Duck is barely keeping his head above water. Fortunately, time has stopped and nothing has happened in the world. Ukraine is fine (no more Russian incursions). The global environment has put the threat of major disruption from climate change on pause. It's clear skies in Beijing. All the poachers of wildlife around the world have dropped dead. I wish. Read on for what's really happening. Ukraine/Russia Russia-sympathetic protesters in eastern Ukraine occupy government installations, encouraging a response from the Ukrainian...
Call for Proposals: ISA Midwest 2014
Dear all, I'm currently the program chair for ISA Midwest 2014.  The conference will take place from November 7th to 9th at the Hilton Ballpark in St. Louis.  This is a fabulous conference - one I'd really recommend for all scholars but one that is especially inviting for junior scholars.  Here is the call for proposals: https://www.isanet.org/Conferences/MidwestStLouis2014/Call.aspx Please feel free to email me if you have any questions about the conference.  I look forward to seeing you in St. Louis! Best, Amanda
Joining The Club?
Dan Nexon argues that efforts to have Ukraine join NATO could be self defeating: Moscow’s greatest fear is that Ukraine winds up a member of NATO. The more that NATO suggests it views Ukraine as worthy of military confrontation, the more Moscow will become convinced that an autonomous Ukraine — rump or otherwise — will someday become a member of the NATO alliance. The net result: escalating efforts by NATO at military deterrence actually increase the pressure on Moscow to take decisive action in the near term.The whole post is worth reading, and those few Duck readers who don't follow Dan's...
John Vasquez, Territoriality, and Staying Ahead of the Game
by Brandon Valeriano and Andy Owsiak What follows is a dialog between us on John Vasquez’s contributions to the field of IR based on a recent roundtable honoring his work at the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association in Toronto in March, 2014.  Our remarks are cribbed from our statements on the panel.  Brandon-  Sometimes it is so hard to find a picture of a Duck that looks like your mentor… For many scholars, the cap on their career might be a roundtable covering the contributions they have made to the field and the scholars they have ushered into our community. For John...
Preventing Further Russian Aggression
 "The hour is getting late...all along the watchtower, princes kept the view...two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl." Bob Dylan America and Russia are not engaged in a new Cold War, but Russia is playing the global menace du jour. The U.S. and Europe need to take more aggressive action to prevent the annexation of eastern Ukraine, and time is short. Beyond this crisis the West needs an updated defense posture, but for now the road ahead is clear. Russia will take as much of Ukraine as the West allows, nothing more, nothing less. Yet few in Washington and Brussels seem to...
The IPCC Working Group III Report on Climate Mitigation in 11 Tweets
The IPCC released the Working Group III summary report for policymakers on Sunday. I wrote about the Working Group II report on impacts on The Monkey Cage. Working Group III covers climate mitigation, that is the challenges of reducing greenhouse gases. Tonight, I read through the report and tweeted my sense of the main findings in an 11 part series that I embed below. My short take: there is not nearly enough in the 33 page document on barriers to implementation and international cooperation. I'm really looking forward to the release of the longer chapters. In the meantime, I encourage...