It’s our first “actual” installment of Whiskey & IR Theory in Space! We discuss Star Trek: Th…
Episode 30: A Long, Strange Trek
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Recent Posts
The True Meaning of a Hot Christmas Prince
In the spirit of holiday cheer and Paul Musgrave's great Foreign Policy piece "The True Meaning of Christmas Movies Is a Cozy American Worldview" as well as our common poli sci curse of "being...
Episode 14: Campbell Writes Security, part 2
It’s not quite Song of Ice and Fire territory, but we’re sure a few people will be pleased that t…
Voldemort, Trump, and the other usual suspects of Putin’s press conference
Klimentyev, RIA Novosti. Sing it with me: It’s the most Putinist time of the year! For the 16th time the Dear Leader addressed the nation and the world from through their TV screens during a...
More Recent Posts
Thursday Linkage – China’s Environmental Impact Edition
I came across this news story which underscored to me the challenges that the Chinese government has in confronting their air quality problem, what I previously likened to rapidly turning a supertanker. An official Chinese study described Beijing air as "barely suitable" for living, the second...
Guest Post: Considering the BDS Movement from a Human Rights Perspective
The following is a guest post by Joel R. Pruce, a post-doctoral fellow in human rights studies at the University of Dayton. The transnational movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel continues to capture headlines and prompt crucial debate on the status of Palestinian...
Tuesday Noon-ish Linkage
As it is my turn again for Tuesday links, heaps of NATO and security stuff dwell below. I am most NATO-obsessed these promoting my new book with Dave Auerswald so I was interested in seeing that NATO is the preferred organization for peace-keeping a potential Israeli-Palestianian agreement....
OAIS Blogging Awards: And the Finalists Are….
Thanks to all of you who voted over the past month for this year's OAIS Blogging Awards finalists. And a very special thanks to all of the nominees for transforming this platform into a strong and vital part of the IR intellectual community. We had an outstanding class of nominees this year -- a...
Monday Linkage
Hello Ducks... here are your Monday links... Theory Talks #63 interviews Siddharth Mallavarapu on "International Asymmetries, Ethnocentrism, and a View on IR from India." Oliver Stuenkel asks whether Intra-BRICS cooperation can advance amid economic gloom? Shanthie Mariet D'Souza gives India four...
Nuland: Comic misunderstanding?
Have Duck readers been following the latest glitch in U.S.-European relations? Josh mentioned it in his recent roundup. Here's how the Washington Post explained the story: On Thursday, a video was posted on YouTube in which Victoria Nuland,, the top U.S. diplomat for Europe, disparagingly...
Classroom Activity: Interpreting Regression Results
Editor's note: this post originally appeared on my personal blog. As I mentioned in a previous post, I've decided to try "flipping the classroom" this semester, meaning I'm posting the lectures online and using class time mostly for activities that reinforce core concepts and create incentives for...
Friday Nerd Blogging
Fans must content themselves with some trivia this week. Here are "15 Things [Most People] Don't Know About Game of Thrones."
Thursday Linkage: Sochi Winter Olympics Edition
This Duck spent the day in the car en route to the Brazilian consulate in Houston to get visas for a summer field course so I'm running behind in my linkage for the week. In the car, I had the amazing experience of listening to an audioversion of The Idealist, Nina Munk's magisterial account of...
OAIS Blogging Awards: Last Call to Vote
Voting closes tomorrow at 5pm EST for this year's OAIS Blogging Awards. If you haven't already done so, now is the time to cast your ballot. You can review the nominees and get more information here. Once the votes are in, we'll identify the finalists for each category and turn the process over to...
Book Review: “Making Human Rights a Reality”
My students and I have just read Emilie Hafner-Burton's grand treatise on the human rights regime, Making Human Rights a Reality. Following her earlier empirical studies, this is a sweeping descriptive appraisal of how human rights law works and why it works so poorly, coupled with a level-headed...
Tenure Letters: To Sling or to Shoot Arrows?
This piece has been making waves in the academic world (for a much better set of recommendations, see this piece). It gets much attention because it both identifies a real problem and then suggests awful ways to handle it. The latter is easier to deal with quickly. However, first let me be...