There is more continuity in the history of U.S. military basing policy than is typically assumed.
On Continuity in U.S. Military Basing Practices
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Recent Posts
The Noble Lie: Prosocial Lying in the Economics Profession
Imagine it’s time for your yearly checkup at the family doctor. Sitting on the paper covered medical bench in a fluorescent room, you submit to the full array of tests. You say “ah,” you squint at...
America’s Democratic Shortcomings and the “Liberal International Order”
This is a guest post from Manuel Reinert, a PhD candidate in international relations at American University and consultant with the World Bank. As the COVID-19 crisis illustrates, international...
Coffee and TV: Election Edition
A couple of years ago, I conducted a Gary Steyngart-esque experiment and watched Russian TV for a day, to find out in what kind of information bubble a regular Russian person lives. This...
More Recent Posts
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...
Classroom Activity: Simplification is not a Sin
Editor's note: this is a slightly modified version of a post that originally appeared on my personal blog. As I mentioned here, I've decided to try "flipping the classroom" this semester, meaning I'm now posting the lectures online and using the class time this frees up for Q&A and for...
What is Cyber Hygiene?
I was struck this morning to read a post on a Cyber Security forum with a link stating the "Super Bowl was Hacked!" Clicking on the link lead to this write up and picture. I can't think of better visualization of the need for basic cyber hygiene. The cyber security industry kills many trees and...
Monday Morning Linkage
Howdy. Here are your Monday links... A useful graphic on which countries are taking Syrian refugees. The best tribute to Pete Seeger I saw came from Outlook India, which has audio of Seeger singing Gandhi's "Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram" and Indians singing "Hum Honge Kamyaab" ("We Shall Overcome")....
How the Blogosphere Helps Junior Scholars?
Dear Readers, In this post, I would like to focus on the few ways in which the blogosphere and social media more generally help junior scholars. I will use myself as an example. It is not easy for me to reach out to senior colleagues and start a dialogue. I find it much easier to respond to a blog...
Online Media Caucus at the ISA: The Time Is Now-ish
The events of the last week within the International Studies Association indicate that there is much ignorance about social media and its role in 21st century IR scholarship and teaching. On the bright side, the reactions to the ISA's misguided proposal demonstrated that there is a vibrant...
Friday Nerd Blogging
May the bard be with you. See also "The Empire Striketh Back."
How Do You Change a Policy That Doesn’t Exist?: the combat exclusion one year later
Despite numerous calls to ‘Let Women Fight’, internal reviews of the policy, and growing evidence of women’s contributions to operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the January 2013 announcement that the combat exclusion would be removed was not entirely expected. For years leading up to the...
Thursday Linkage (I’m not even going to pretend it’s morning…)
Your humble blogger (I like saying that. Now that Dan Drezner no longer has a blog [sniff], I will say it for him)...Your humble blogger is in London, and after a red eye flight, a noon presentation, ten hours of a sleep coma, another presentation, I'm ready to provide you with your latest in...
Vote Now! Demonstrate the Blogging Contributions to IR Scholarship
One of the best ways to respond to the ISA Executive Committee proposal is to demonstrate the professionalism and the significant intellectual and scholarly contribution that blogging makes to the IR profession. We've assembled a slate of impressive nominees in four categories for outstanding...
“Shame” on you, ISA
Dear ISA Governing Council, Greetings. You probably don’t know me but I’m a long-time user of your services. My first real conference experience was at ISA Chicago in 2007. I practiced my 10 minute presentation for hours in my hotel room and had to borrow $250 from my mom to attend. I really...