Jarrod is joined by Daniela Lai and Adam Lerner to talk about the role of big questions in IR scholarship and teaching.
Does IR ask big questions?
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Recent Posts
State, Regime, Government, and Society in COVID-19 Response: Establishing Baseline Expectations
This is a guest post from Sofia Fenner, an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Bryn Mawr College. Her research explores co-optation under authoritarianism, with a regional focus on the...
Flattening the curve
This is a guest post Jonathan Powell, an Associate Professor in the School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs at the University of Central Florida (Twitter: @prof_powell) and...
Deconstructing the blob
"The blob" has become a common term during the Democratic Primary. The DC foreign policy establishment, so the argument goes, has an overwhelming effect on all who engage with it, sucking them in...
More Recent Posts
Time to Wind Up a Long-Standing Debate?
In the vein of recent graduations everywhere and the exams students had to take to get there, and thinking there is now ample evidence out there to get closer to winding up a debate that has raged in both policy and academic circles, let's keep in succinct: "Fukuyama was right. Huntington was...
Friday Morning Linkage
The PRISM slides: two nice touches you may have missed (Someone put some real thought into presentation -- this is not your grandparents' NSC-68): Top secret, code word, art work. There's a special seal for "Special Source Operations" that has an eagle lifting a bundled globe -- very impressive;...
Friday Nerd Blogging: Predictable But Enjoyable Mashup
Do not click if one has not read the third book of Game of Thrones or did not see the most recent episode, as spoilers dwell within: Ah, any deployment of Princess Bride is, well, magical, but, in this case, given the over-reactions on the internet Sunday night and Monday morning, this is just...
Who’s on Duck?
Having been newly promoted to permanent contributor, I'm delighted to join the esteemed Duck blogging crew (pictured above) on a more long-term basis. I'm looking forward to more lengthy substantive blog posts beyond the Thursday updates. I feel like I've been trapped in reviewer hell for weeks,...
SAGE and the Duck of Minerva
This is just a short note to explain the appearance of the phrase "temporarily un-gated PDF" in Peter Henne's guest post about contagion and the Syrian civil war. We've been linking to academic articles for quite some time, but usually to the abstracts or random versions available on the web. But...
Is Syria Infecting the Middle East?
This is a guest post by Peter S. Henne. Peter received his PhD from Georgetown University in May 2013, and was a Fellow at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia during 2012-2013. His research focuses on religion and foreign policy; he has also written on terrorism and religious conflict....
IR Theory Syllabi
I just completed a significant update of the international-relations theory syllabi collection. Although currently hosted at the Duck of Minerva, this collection is an initiative of the THEORY section of the International Studies Association. Massive props to the former THEORY officers for...
Thursday Morning Linkage
Ok, last week, I mentioned with anticipation how much I was looking forward to Game of Thrones. Little did I know it was the Red Wedding episode. I've looked for lighter fare stories this week and only sometimes does the world oblige. On the hopeful side of things, here is some good news: A look...
Wednesday Addams Linkage
Happy Wednesday, everyone! Is Turkey a democracy? Jay Ulfelder is skeptical [Dart-Throwing Chimps] A more optimistic take on Turkey. [Suffragio] Dan Drezner properly criticizes two foreign policy missteps by the Obama administration, including news that Michelle Obama won't attend the PRC-USA...
Contentious Politics and Ducks: China Edition
In case you don't know, the PRC has censored searches for "Big Yellow Duck." The reason? You can see a larger version here.The arrival of Florentijn Hofman's yellow duck in Hong Kong harbor sparked a great deal of excitement in China, where the duck has become incredibly popular. A number...
ISA Theory Section Page at the Duck
We are still mucking around with the official page for the Theory Section. In what I hope will be a temporary expedient, I've created a dedicated page at the Duck of Minerva. There you will find: Links to posts directly related to the Theory Section; General Information about the section; Vital...
“War Made the State and the State Made War”
A few unconnected recent happenings have reminded me that I've meant to do a short post on Charles Tilly, bellocentric (or "bellicist") theories of state formation, and where all of this stands in 2013. If you mention "Charles Tilly" and "state formation" to knowledgeable social scientists, their...