PTJ and Dan discuss Cynthia Weber’s 1994 book, Simulating Sovereignty: Intervention, the State an…
Episode 28: Are We Living in a Simulation… of Sovereignty?
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Recent Posts
Episode 15: Understanding Remains an Open Question
Patrick and Dan discuss J. Ann Tickner’s 1997 article, “You Just Don’t Understand: Troubled Engag…
Remembering Sean Kay
This is a guest post from Sahar Khan, an editor at Inkstick and adjunct fellow of Defense and Foreign Policy at the Cato Institute. She tweets at @khansahar1. This is the third post in our...
Tribute to Sean Kay
Sean Kay, a much beloved international relations professor at Ohio Wesleyan, died suddenly of a heart attack in November. Though I blogged about Sean in December, we will be publishing a series of...
More Recent Posts
And The Winner Is?
Obviously, too soon to tell. But with the new Obama announcement setting an enddate-ish, my nominee might just be: Pakistan. Pakistan got to have heaps of aid despite spending the entire time subverting American/NATO efforts in Afghanistan. Much American, Canadian, British, Danish, French,...
5 Degrees of Internet Procrastination (or, from Al-Jazeera to Perez Hilton in 5 clicks)
It is nothing new to say that the internet is a major distraction. But I'm particularly amazed at how well-intentioned online searches lead to bottom-feeder-celebrity-gossip trolling. How does a quick writing break to check the news end in mindlessly clicking through the best-dressed list at...
Friday Nerd Blogging: Preparing for the Future or the Past
I was a fan of X-Men long before I was a fan of Poli Sci. So, I am eagerly awaiting the chance to see Days of Future Past, which may or may not do kind things to one of the very best X-tales. + For those who have opted out of one or more of the movies, here is a nice, snarky summary of the...
What is to be Done in Nigeria?
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...
Can Democracies Be Trusted with Autonomous Weapons?
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...
Men in Disarmament Push for Inclusion of Women’s Voices as CCW Process on Autonomous Weapons Moves Forward
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...
Ducking Out…
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...
Note to Controversial Commencement Speakers — Don’t Quit!
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...
Friday Nerd Blogging: Godzilla Edition
Brian Cranston and Godzilla apparently did not get along that well: Check out the story here.
Why Foreign Intervention in Nigeria is a Bad Idea
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...
Dynamics of Debate at the Experts Meeting on Autonomous Weapons
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...
Dear Kansas Board of Regents, Part Deux
Dear Kansas Board of Regents, Greetings. I don’t know if you received my first open-letter to you in December. My parents have pretty slow Internet in central Kansas so maybe the page is still loading. Hopefully, you’ll read the letter once you get it. In December, I wrote about your proposed...