According to conventional wisdom, Disney’s Andor is the best Star Wars narrative in years. Political scientists seem to agree. Dan Drezner speaks for many when he writes that the show's "writing is stellar," its "locations...
Sadly, it took the extrajudicial killing of yet another unarmed black man at the hands of the police for me to find my voice about finishing a dissertation under quarantine during a pandemic. I have...
In case you missed it, quite the IR controversy has broken out. In August 2019, Alison Howell and Melanie Richter-Montpetit (hereafter H&RM) published “Is securitization theory racist?...
This is a guest post from Ashley Fox, an Assistant Professor of Public Administration and Policy at Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at Albany, SUNY. who researches the...
Editor's Note: This is a guest post by Sara McLaughlin Mitchell, Professor and Department Chair of Political Science at the University of Iowa. It is Part 1 of a 2-part discussion. Many recent posts (e.g., posts here by David Lake, Dan Nexon, and Laura Sjoberg, and elsewhere by Christian...
I still believe that some of Snowden's disclosures, and his actions, have forfeited his whistleblower status. But if he'd been a bit more circumspect about what he'd leaked and how he had done it--e.g., not brought US government secrets into the range of Russians and Chinese intelligence...
Editor's Note: This is a guest post from Professor Peter M. Haas of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Finding myself on the grey haired side of the academic divide and having experienced both sides of the process, let me reiterate David Lake’s points about networking with senior...
Update on the international community's reaction to events in Syria: Russia calls on Assad to cooperate with the weapons inspectors. Says it has evidence the attack was propagated by the opposition. Pressure building in Washington and Europe to do something. Obama announces that the time frame for...
Sure, the movie came out months back, but this Honest Trailers does a nice job of capturing why Star Trek Into Darkness was meh. JJ Abrams does not apparently get it that the even numbered movies are supposed to be better. Spoilers boldly go below: This video is perhaps inconsistent in pointing...
In the old old question of why the weak occasionally beat the strong, my favourite metaphor is the Ham Omelette. In a Ham Omelette, the chicken is involved but the pig is committed. In a clash over the Taiwan Strait, who would be the pig, who the chicken? This matters, because in the end...
It's morning somewhere, right? Here are some belated links to stories, covering Richard Haass and Syria, climate change and the IPCC 5th assessment, a lethal bat-born virus, gay rights and Russia, and the new Fukushima nuclear worry... Syria FT op-ed by Richard Haass of all people urging the...
With all of the focus on APSA, there’s been little discussion of another Labor Day ritual—the Revising of the Syllabus. In truth, I should have begun this ritual a few weeks ago. Now that the panic dreams have kicked in—you know, the ones where you show up to class on the first day without a...
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by David Lake, who is the Jerri-Ann and Gary E. Jacobs Professor of Social Sciences and Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. I want to weigh in on “networking at conferences” debate here on the Duck (and...
The news out of the Damascus suburbs this morning is highly disturbing and, if the reports are confirmed that this was a chemical attack, no doubt will mark a turning point in the conflict. Dan is somewhat skeptical that it will change the intervention calculus. I disagree. For the better part of...
This is a guest post by Brent Sasley. Sasley is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Texas at Arlington. He blogs at Mideast Matrix and Open Zion. Follow him on Twitter. The political science/IR blogosphere has been engaged in an interesting discussion in...
There are gruesome reports out of Syria today of a chemical weapons attack in a suburb of Damascus. If they are accurate, the chemical weapons inflicted mass civilian causalities. As David Kenner reports at Foreign Policy: The information coming out of the Ghouta region, where the rebels enjoy...