The Bidens are serving the Macrons US-made wine and cheese. A cute gesture or a clumsy diplomatic move?
Say “cheese”!
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Recent Posts
An American died in an Egyptian jail. Why didn’t this well-connected human rights community speak out?
Earlier this week, Mustafa Kassem, an American held in Egypt, died. The Trump Administration did little to help him. That wasn't surprising. What was surprising was that the international religious...
Twilight of Hope
Last year I attended the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties (CoP) for the first time. It was an experience in dichotomies. The events on the...
Audit Culture in UK Higher Education
In 2016 I took a job at university in the UK. As an American, British academic culture was new to me, especially its ‘audit culture’. The key elements of audit culture are mechanisms for the...
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Tuesday Morning Linkage Club
The Globe and Mail investigates why Japan is falling in love with robots (by the way, I know we're supposed to love longform journalism now because it's long, but you can read either half of this piece and you won't miss the other half) [The Globe and Mail] U.S. Naval War College Professor Tom...
Iraq 10 Years Later (2): What was the Neocon Theory behind the War?
My first thoughts on the war’s ten year anniversary are here. There I asked if there was any defensible theory behind the war, anything that might explain why we launched it, because weapons of mass destruction were not really the reason. Paul Wolfowitz notoriously admitted they were just a...
A (very reluctant) case for Airport Security
For students of international affairs and security, especially from either side of the Atlantic, its that time of year again when we congregate at the ISA Conference to muse on the globalisation of everything in a borderless world...after enduring an increasingly unpleasant border regime at the...
Human Rights Treaties Are Like Virginity Pledges
In the category of “pop-culture-not-talked-about-by-normal-Ducks,” People magazine’s cover story last week was on ABC’s The Bachelor, Sean Lowe, and his pledge to remain a virgin re-virgin until his wedding night. As someone who graduated high school in town of less than 1500 in Kansas, I think...
Monday Morning Linkage
Good mornin' duck fans! Let's start the week by revisiting last week's firestorm in ... Afghanistan Hamid Karzai has become a bewildering enigma for many Americans as he launched yet another verbal tirade against the US last week. This time he recklessly accused the US of colluding with the...
Washington “Cancels” Fourth Stage of European Phased Adaptive Approach
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel de facto announced on Friday that the US will scrap deployment of ground-based ballistic-missile interceptors in Poland and Romania. At a Pentagon press conference today, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced that the planned deployment of the high-speed SM-3...
Cold War: Old or New?
In the aftermath of a long war, a new degree of suspicion ensues between two powerful countries that were nominally on the same side…one rattles its sabre, threatening small countries on its borders…the other shores up relations with the very same countries… a tit-for-tat arms race begins, waged...
Agriculture and Husbandry: The Slow-Motion Singularity
I often listen to the radio when following laundry, and today was no exception. Our local NPR affiliate was playing the TED Radio Hour. Remember when TED was kind of neat and exciting... before it revealed itself for what it is: a cliché-ridden academic variant of "business book summaries for...
The International Studies Blogging Reception at ISA
Blogging is light this week because almost all of the crew are at the ISA Annual Convention. But... We will be announcing the winners of the 2013 Outstanding Achievement in International Studies (OAIS) Blogging Awards at the reception. Come one, come all. If you are registered to attend ISA, that...
Saturday Linkage
I am teh sick, so this will be short. Dan Trombly on the future of power in world politics. Bhartendu Kumar Singh on Sino-Indian defense talks. Somalia's achievements and challenges. Robert Farley looks at the future (or lack thereof) for aircraft carriers. Ned Lebow does Theory Talks. Check out...
Friday Nerd Blogging: More Mashup
Here is a second helping of mashup (spoiler of GoT season 1), so good: Too good.
Friday Nerd Blogging: Triple Mashup
Homeland is the series for national security folks. Walking Dead is the series for those belonging to the Drezner cult. Combined? Oh my.