Various and Sundry

Making Sense of “Rules-Based” Anti-Liberalism

by Van Jackson | Sep 26, 2022 | International Organization, Political Economy, Various and Sundry

Dozens of regimes around the world are anti-liberal—autocratic to varying degrees—but also big fans of a "rules-based" international order, which for the past 50 years or so has been a neoliberal economic order. Not a coincidence. The reason an anti-liberal might also be a neoliberal seems rather obvious: Because they're kleptocrats and oligarchs who are getting paid! A regime doesn't need to embrace democracy in any meaningful sense in order to be a productive part of global...

Geopolitical Rivalry: Great for Princes, Bad for Paupers

by Van Jackson | Jul 17, 2022 | Race, US Foreign Policy, Various and Sundry

If you’ve spent any amount of time in Washington, there’s a good chance you’ve internalized a rosier narrative of the Cold War than the actual history warrants (I certainly had). To correct...

Duck of Minerva Roundup*

by Dan Nexon | May 23, 2022 | Various and Sundry

What's been quacking at the blog? The Duck of Minerva opened for business in 2005, so it’s had a lot of time to accumulate duck-puns and stupid duck references. Over the years, contributors...

Whisk(e)y and Epistemic Pluralism: A Quack-and-Forth (Part III)

by Adam B. Lerner | Jan 26, 2022 | Interviews, Theory & Methods, Various and Sundry

This is the third and final part of a three part interview between Adam B. Lerner (ABL) and Patrick Thaddeus Jackson (PTJ). It is the first instalment of a new series of interviews on Duck of Minerva entitled Quack-and-Forths.

More Various and Sundry Posts

Whisk(e)y and Epistemic Pluralism: A Quack-and-Forth (Part II)

by Adam B. Lerner | Jan 24, 2022 | Interviews, Theory & Methods, Various and Sundry

This is part II of the first instalment of a new series of interviews on Duck of Minerva entitled Quack-and-Forths.

Where does the Academic Work End? or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Burnout

by Adam B. Lerner | Dec 20, 2021 | Academia, Various and Sundry

that I actually conceived of the idea for this post last week but was only able to force myself to write it today by promising myself a variety of self-care rewards like naps and whiskey.

Van’s Favorite Political, History, and IR Reads of 2021

by Van Jackson | Dec 15, 2021 | Various and Sundry

I read a lot of crap this year, but the good stuff was really good. The Causes of World War Three, by C. Wright Mills This book is from 1961, just after Mills's famous "Letter to the New Left" and just before the Cuban Missile Crisis. The book basically predicts the Cuban Missile Crisis down to the U-2 incident. But what's remarkable is his ability to marry analysis and prose. His passionate critique of power rivals the evocative language of Fanon or Du Bois, and his criticisms work at the level of both extreme specificity and general frames and mindsets. Nearly every page has memorable...

Playing the Waiting Game: The Harsh Truth of Academic Timelines

by Adam B. Lerner | Nov 7, 2021 | Academia, Featured, Various and Sundry

Academics depend on slow processes subject to unfortunate slowdowns. And, unfortunately, academic timelines can make or break careers.

Want to Start a National Security Think Tank?

by Van Jackson | Oct 22, 2021 | US Foreign Policy, Various and Sundry

You're going to need some help. Since 2017, when I departed the Beltway in favor of (literally) greener pastures, I've been trying to figure out how to create an institutional presence for alternative (ok, progressive) voices on foreign policy. Why? Although I don't like the "Blob" epithet, there is a lot of consensus thinking in Washington — especially circa 2017 — and it's historically really difficult to promote competing perspectives without your invitation to the cocktail party getting lost in the mail. Worse than that though, I was appalled watching the "ideas industry" line up to...

Fighting Analogies in International Relations

by Van Jackson | Oct 12, 2021 | Security, US Foreign Policy, Various and Sundry

“Kuzushi” is the concept of off-balancing. It refers to a tactic of getting your opponent out of a fixed position where he’ll be vulnerable, maybe getting his weight tilted too much to one side or making him overcommit to a move. With kuzushi, you aren’t achieving anything; you’re opening up a window of opportunity. Window ajar, you have a split second to advance your position. A sweep or submission attempt that would’ve been impossible under normal conditions suddenly works against an unbalanced opponent.

Grand Strategists Need to Dump Kissinger

by Van Jackson | Sep 30, 2021 | Academia, US Foreign Policy, Various and Sundry

So the New York Times reported on Beverly Gage, a history professor at Yale University, resigning from her post as head of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy because of donor pressure. There's a lot at stake in this. As an academic field, grand strategy has a reputation for being very conservative, and for advocating a didactic, great-man view of history. The Yale program has not only been the premier school for grand strategy, inspiring a few similar programs at similarly prestigious universities; it has also been the premier focal point for critics of grand strategy who see it as...

Why isn’t IR funnier?

by Adam B. Lerner | Sep 21, 2021 | Academia, Theory & Methods, Various and Sundry

While political comedy thrives, IR comedy, whatever that phrase might mean, is virtually non-existent. omedy gap’? Is it a figment of my imagination or a real problem?

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