Just like any other medium, video games can serve pedagogical purposes.
Sid Meier’s Clash of Civilizations
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Recent Posts
Light Summer Reading
Ah, those days when you did not feel guilty for reading something that does not contain the term “poststructuralism” and/or footnotes. Back in my teenage years, I used to devour all the books I...
Is it time to abandon in-person academic conferences? or “Who’s kind of meh on going to APSA?”
I get the sense that lots of scholars are viewing the return (sooner or later) of in-person conference with a good deal of ambivalence. Is it time to take all conference online?
Episode 18: Name Your Discord Server “and Collaboration”
Arnold Wolfers is one of the most important figures of “mainstream” mid-20th century internationa…
More Recent Posts
Theory as thought
Recently a friend and colleague wrote me to say: “The SS piece is actually really useful to me as a model for dealing with Political Science post paradigm wars.” Which prompts me (as if academics ever need such a prompt) to revisit an issue I raised almost a year ago: the role of...
Friday Nerd Blogging: Star Wes Awakens
The folks here are big, big fans of Star Wars, so we were most happy this week with the new teaser. Many parodies have/will ensue. Here is the Wes Anderson take:
Clans
Rutgers University law professor (and blogger) Mark S. Weiner has been awarded the 2015 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order for ideas set forth in his 2013 book, The Rule of the Clan: What an Ancient Form of Social Organization Reveals About the Future of Individual Freedom. The award...
The Perils of a M/W/F Class
Greetings, fellow Duck readers. I realize I've been MIA this semester - DGS duties and ISA-Midwest stuff took too much of my non-research time. Another factor in my absence, however: a Monday Wednesday Friday schedule. And, it sucked.[1] Like large-tornado-near-my-hometown sucked. Today marks...
Not Surprised is Not Good Enough: what soldier atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan can teach us about Ferguson
By some strange twist of fate I happened to watch the Kill Team, a documentary about the infamous US platoon that intentionally murdered innocent Afghan men while on tour. When, in 2010 the military charged five members of the platoon, the case drew international...
2015 OAIS Blogging Awards: Call for Nominations!
It's that time of year folks. We are now receiving nominations for the third annual Online Achievement in International Studies (OAIS) Blogging Awards -- aka the Duckie Awards. We are asking Duck readers to reflect back over the past year to consider the best blogging contributions to the field of...
World AIDS Day 2014: Five Data Points, Four News Items, and Three Films
Today is World AIDS Day, an annual day of remembrance and reflection on the global AIDS crisis held since 1988. Overshadowed this year by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, we should keep in mind that this problem is not over even if it has receded from news coverage in recent years. Here are 5...
Ebola is Not Over
The Ebola crisis isn't over. In the absence of new infections in the United States, Americans have moved on to other preoccupations (Ferguson anyone?), but the problem hasn't gone away even if Google searches have plunged. There has been some positive news out of Liberia with a decline in the...
Meaningful or Meaningless Control
In May of 2014, the United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) first considered the issue of banning lethal autonomous weapons. Before the start of the informal expert meetings, Article 36 circulated a memorandum on the concept of “meaningful human control.” The document attempted to...
Friday Nerd Blogging: Twitter Much?
As a very frequent tweeter, I could only watch this SNL sketch/dance number (didn't make it to the show, just to dress rehearsal) with just a hint of shame:
Privacy, Secrecy & War: Emperor Rogers and the Failure of NSA Reform
On November 3, Britain’s head of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) published an opinion piece in the Financial Times, noting that technology companies, such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, (and implying Google and Apple), ought to comply with governments to a greater extent to...
Friday Nerd Blogging: Princess Bride FTW
Check out this set of tweets tying together feminism and Princess Bride. My guess is that you check out #feministprincessbride you will find many more. The movie keeps on giving.