In this “Whiskey Optional” episode, PTJ facilitates a conversation among four colleagues from dif…
Episode 23: Being Academic and Pandemic Time
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Recent Posts
What Daenerys’ Error Teaches Us About American Tolerance for War Crimes
Alex Montgomery I have a new post up at Foreign Policy arguing that "The Bells" - and audience reactions to it - tell us something about American attitudes toward just war theory. A relevant topic...
Will the Dominos Fall in Westeros: When Secession Spreads (or Not)
Folks have been picking on the last Game of Thrones episode for a variety of unrealistic or unearned developments. Here's my take on the secessionist element. Folks have been picking on the last...
What Game of Thrones Got Wrong About Firebombing
Much ink has been spilled since last Sunday about the massacre at King’s Landing. Why did Dany carpet-bomb a civilian population after a city had surrendered? Was this a sign of her growing madness?...
More Recent Posts
Liberalism all the way down? …. six hours on a plane with Judith Butler’s Frames of War
On a plane ride a couple of days ago, I picked up Judith Butler's Frames of War, perhaps a couple of years after I should have. Though there is a lot of the book that I disagreed with, reading it was a transformative experience. It is perhaps particularly relevant to the subject and content of...
Gang Rape and “Peaceful Death”
The world has payed attention to the gang-rape of a young woman (her name has not been made widely public) in Delhi and her struggle to survive over the last few weeks. The reports of the brutal incident on December 16th broke through the national news of India and set waves of reports through the...
Saturday Afternoon Linkage
James Scott Linville passes along Anuradha Roy's comments on the protests engulfing India and the death of the 23-year old victim whose brutal rape galvanized them (via 3QD). Reactions to the Japanese election as covered by the Rising Powers Initiative blog. You know, GWU is much better at...
National Security and Civil Liberties meet Securitization and State Formation
Corey Robin's Jacobin essay is getting a lot of attention, including from Jon Western at the Duck and Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns & Money. I don't think that it detracts from Robin's essay to note that the argument he's making is long-standing in international-relations scholarship. It...
Friday Afternoon Linkage: Threat Edition
Last week I attended our annual neighborhood holiday party and caught up on all the news about the neighbors' kids. One recently graduated with an advanced degree in computer science and is now an "ethical hacker" working in "the U.S. intelligence community." What exactly is an "ethical hacker"?...
Planning to be Shocked
One of the most repeated, and most dubious, axioms about strategy is the notion that being proactive is wiser than being reactive, and that reactivity is something we should be allergic to. In the words of Briain's foreign secretary William Hague, 'the nation that is purely reactive in foreign...
Scholar/Policy Gap – Filling Up The Glass
I have read with great interest over the last few days posts by Jeffrey Stacey and now Sean Kay on the gap between scholarship and policy. I agree with much of what they said - seriously - and I want to raise a more positive spin on some of these issues. I the gap between policy and scholarship in...
Penultimate Call for Award Nominations
The deadline for nominations and voter registration is fast approaching. The list of nominees is unchanged since my last update. You should feel free to add nominations there, to email us, or in he comments section below. Please do check the eligibility criteria. The two most common ineligible...
Sean Kay: “The Scholar/Policy Gap in International Relations Revised”
This is a guest post by Sean Kay. Jeff Stacey’s introductory blog post at the Duck of Minerva gives important perspective showing that scholarly training helped him in government to frame issues and develop policy. Stacey suggests academic perspectives should inform policy and, indirectly,...
The Academic-Policy Nexus: a few more thoughts
Regarding my previous post and the very useful comments, first the matter of what do we do once we realize that a policy problem in search of a policy solution is the equivalent of a social scientific puzzle in search of an explanation, for both the solution and the explanation are outcomes. In...
Oh, Shoot! I Forgot Morning Linkage!
I'm now on my sixth day of the sick, so in lieu of a post that requires much thought: Yay for USB-powered microphones and pop filers. The first will make it much easier to record podcasts at conferences. The second will make it much easier to record podcasts. Lyra heartily endorses the...
Happy Merry from the Duck of Minerva
Thanks so very much for your continued support, interest, and engagement with the Duck of Minerva. This has been an exciting year for the blog thanks to all of you. At the same time, 2012 has, like every other year, been a difficult 12 months for many. Our hearts go out to all those who have...