Intra-elite, state-centric society is a strategic front, and ought to be defended and put to use in the continued development of a global and decolonial turn in IR.
A reckoning with the traditional diplomatic community
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Recent Posts
NOW The White House Wants To Fight Kleptocracy
The Biden administration just issued the government’s first ever anti-corruption strategy. The upshot: It’s needed. It’s analytically informed. It raises the prioritization of...
6+1 Questions about Armed Guests: Territorial Sovereignty and Foreign Military Basing
The practice of maintaining a long-term, peacetime military presence in another state (or “sovereign basing”) only developed in the last century. Before World War II, a foreign military presence usually meant one of three things: occupation, colonization, or a wartime alliance. This changed radically in the years after 1945.
Robert Jervis
As many of our readers have likely already heard, Robert Jervis died yesterday. The field has lost a gentle intellectual giant. Unlike many of my friends from Columbia, Bob wasn't on my dissertation...
More Recent Posts
US, Canada, and Humanitarian Flights for Syria’s Refugees
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WVWLEcOFqI&index=13 The video above is the YouTube presentation of my remarks this week at University of Toronto's Davey Forum, whose theme this year was "Is Canada Doing Enough to Promote Human Rights?" I attended at the kind invitation of Duck blogger Wendy Wong...
Is Russia a Paper Tiger?
Jeff Stacey has a new piece at Foreign Affairs that is basically a re-skinned version of his post at the Duck of Minerva. It should come as little surprise that I don't find either piece particularly persuasive. Overall, I agree with Jeff's basic assessment of Russian moves as destabilizing....
Where is our collective action on campus gun violence?
By now the academy is well aware of the latest mass shooting that occurred yesterday at Umpqua Community College in Oregon and claimed ten lives as of reporting this morning. While my social media has exploded with outrage by colleagues, professors, and academics that fear for their safety and the...
Rhetorical Entrapment and Syria: Let’s Not Do Dumb Stuff
I'm on team Dan on the question of not freaking out over Syria. I don't think Jeff's assessment on this blog reflects the reality which is one of Russian weakness, nor am I convinced, per Seth's conjecture, that the Obama administration had some master plan to lure the Russians in to...
Russia, Russia Burning Bright? (Spoiler: Not So Much)
The Russian Federation covers more territory than any other country. It has a large nuclear arsenal, skilled weapons designers, and the world's fourth largest military budget—after the United States, China, and Saudi Arabia. But it maintains that budget—which comes it at roughly 12% of US military...
Habebamus papam!
This is a guest post from Nathan Paxton, Professorial Lecturer in the School of International Service at American University and a 2015-2016 APSA Congressional Fellow. Now that Pope Francis has jetted back to the Vatican on “Shepherd One”, we have the chance to talk about the theoretical...
Putin Falls Into Obama’s Syria Trap. (Or Is It The Other Way Around?)
Russia has begun conducting air strikes in Syria, much to consternation of many. But there seems to be some in the Obama Administration who can barely contain their glee at the thought of Putin and Russia getting bogged down in the Syria quagmire: “If he wants to jump into that mess, good luck,”...
Securitization Forum: End, or Beginning?
Cai's post brings to an end our two week exploration of securitization theory and its scholarly audience in the United States and elsewhere. We thank all of the distinguished contributors for generously donating their time and energy to this project. This has been an extraordinary experience for...
Securitization Forum: Back on Tour With the Copenhagen School – Better to Travel Than Arrive
A full twelve posts in to the forum, the question posed by Jarrod and Eric about why securitization theory’s travels in the US have been so pedestrian compared to its extensive tour schedule in Europe and elsewhere has already been explored from a considerable number of angles, with various...
Securitization Forum: Follow the Money and the Mentality
This is the twelfth contribution to our securitization forum. Clifford Bob is professor of political science and Raymond J. Kelley Endowed Chair in International Relations at Duquesne University. His books include The Global Right Wing and the Clash of World Politics (Cambridge, 2012) and The...
Will 2016 Be a Foreign Policy Election?
The Third Way project, a centrist Democratic policy outfit, has just released an interesting survey on public attitudes going in to the 2016 election. They make two arguments that I think are worth exploring, (1) the foreign policy advantage Democrats briefly enjoyed in the wake of the Iraq War...
Securitization Forum: Geopolitics of Securitization Theory
This is the eleventh contribution to our securitization forum. Can E. Mutlu is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Bilkent University. His research interests are located at the intersection of technology, security, and political sociology of global mobility regimes with a...