Alongside research and teaching, most tenure-track jobs come with some expectation of service.
Strategic Service on the Tenure Track
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Recent Posts
Want to Improve Equity and Inclusion in Political Science? Address White Supremacy
Last week, the American Political Science Association released a milquetoast statement on the January 6 white supremacist attack at the U.S. Capitol that got buried in the onslaught of news...
Uncomfortable Conversations at a Distance: Lessons from Teaching the Israel-Palestine Conflict
Daniel J. Levine is Aaron Aronov Associate Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Alabama, where he divides his time between the Departments of Political Science and Religious...
Trump’s Budweiser Putsch
US President Donald Trump gestures as he arrives to a "Make America Great Again" campaign rally in Cincinnati, Ohio, on August 1, 2019. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo credit should read SAUL...
More Recent Posts
The Importance of Screening
Editor’s Note: this is an abbreviated version of a post that originally appeared on my personal blog. In my previous post, I articulated one way international institutions can deter bad behavior. In this post, I'll argue that even if we assume institutions don't have access to information that...
Friday Nerd Blogging: Seasonal Silliness
In the spirit of the holidays, here's a fun movie trailer that actually kind of depicts a war on Christmas.... ok, a war on Santa. H/T to OTB for providing the video. And a big H/T to the Duck-sters out there who read our stuff here, give us comments, and otherwise make this place a fun place to...
Why Does South Korea View Japan as a National Security Threat Worse than China? My Hypothesis: Competition with North Korea
This has been on my mind a lot because the Korea-Japan meltdown has been so bad recently. And I think it’s a good research question if you are into Asian IR. I have written about this before and just did again this month and yet again. I’ve argued repeatedly that the reason America’s allies in...
Thursday Morning Linkage
What's right and wrong in the world this holiday season? This is a sundry list related to recent interests of mine, mostly related to humanitarian assistance. UN seeks record $13 billion for humanitarian assistance in 2014, half of it for Syria More than half of Syria’s population of 22 million is...
Dear Kansas Board of Regents
Dear Kansas Board of Regents, Greetings. You probably don’t know me but I’ve been a long-time user of your services. I started my college career taking dual-credit courses at Pratt Community College in 1996, I attended the Kansas Board of Regents Honors Academy in 1998, and I am a graduate of...
Quacking is Dangerous to Your Health?
I might have to re-think this whole life choice. Tenure is supposed to mean more than just job security--that it is about academic freedom. To teach and research in ways that may not always be popular and certainly in ways that are not politically desirable. Yet in the past couple of weeks, we...
In Defense of Teaching (and Grading) the Long Research Paper
There's a Slate article titled "The End of the College Essay" circulating in various Facebook and Twitter circles critical of assigning long essays to undergraduates. The gist of the complaint mirrors the complaints I've heard over the years from students and colleagues (and others outside the...
Tuesday Afternoon Linkage: A Dish Best Served Cold
I hope cold links are good as the temperature up in Ottawa is now just at 0F (known as the temperature where dogs whine and snot freezes in one's nose). Anyhow, here are my last links of 2013: Lots of stuff out there on the Chinese Air Defense ID Zone, so here is one that clarifies what it is and...
Blogging Awards Nomination Update
The nominations are trickling in, but there's more work to be done. We had some major IR blogging events this year -- Snowden, Egypt, Syria, Russia, etc.... and we're looking for nominations for the best work out there in 2013. We're still taking nominations through the end of the month. Sage...
Having it All? A Male Academic’s Perspective
With Thanksgiving behind us and the winter holidays and family time approaching, the season encourages some stock-taking and reflection. We at the Duck have been having a bit of behind the scenes emailing about the challenges of finding child care, and I wanted to recount a happier story from my...
Friday Nerd Blogging: The Tasty Sequel
Much baking to be had this time of year, so it only makes sense that we play the Hungry Games again:
Human Rights Week Roundup: New Work by (Somewhat) New Scholars
December 10th was UN Human Rights Day, starting off Human Rights Week. In many regards, 2013 has been a very good year for human rights practices around the world. In other regards, 2013 has had some abysmal failures when it comes to human rights on the ground, especially the rights of sexual...