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Recent Posts
Need some evidence of America’s waning influence?
One of the (many) concerns about the Trump Administration's foreign policy is the impact it will have on US influence around the world. Will Trump's rhetoric and actions restore US dominance in the...
Ukraine’s New PreZE!dent
"Servant of the People" The history of the Next President Cue in the Twitter hot-takes in which Ukrainians elected themselves “a TV show star” with “no political experience”. Relax, not all TV stars...
Understanding Israel
This is a guest post from Brent Sasley, Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington. He tweets at @besasley. Israel holds a prominent place in the American popular imagination. It’s...
More Recent Posts
Iver B. Neumann on The Hydrogen Sonata: Religion and the Sublime
General Warning: this is emphatically not a spoiler-free Forum! Hence all of the text all of the contributions will be safely below the fold, and only the identifying information for the author of the contribution will be here for even causal browsers to see. If we are to begin with author...
Friday morning linkage
Some random findings for the day.... Putin's idea of transparency. Look for more private security firms profiting in the post-Benghazi world... Also, the IDF's use of Twitter during its recent operation in Gaza was just the beginning. The Naval Postgraduate School is working on Dynamic Twitter...
Gerard van der Ree on The Hydrogen Sonata: “Learning From Utopia”
Three particular themes stand out when reading The Hydrogen Sonata as a utopian narrative. The first is that whatever happens, politics seem to be an inevitable feature of human life. Second, that however advanced technology may become, nothing beats human communication. Third, that purpose is essential.
Chris Brown on The Hydrogen Sonata: “A Triumphant Return to Form”
General Warning: this is emphatically not a spoiler-free Forum! Hence all of the text all of the contributions will be safely below the fold, and only the identifying information for the author of the contribution will be here for even causal browsers to see. Chris Brown is Professor of...
Sex is Better Thursday Afternoon Linkages
Here's your daily roundup of sex/gender links. First, NPR has reported that sexual assaults have spiked at military academies (a 23% increase with continued evidence that victims are resisting litigation). Yikes. A well-known anti-gay Ugandan (the land of the new and terrible anti-homosexuality...
A Christmas present: a Forum on Iain M. Banks’ new novel
Introducing a new Duck of Minerva forum!
Some Thoughts on the Korean Election: Left Blew a Good Chance to Win
This pic is from the TV election coverage on the Korean version of CNN. That would be the two main candidates (the liberal Moon Jae-In on the left, and conservative Park Geun-Hye, who won, on the right) as dancing electronic cartoon avatars. Yes, they do look like boogying Nintendo Miis, and yes,...
Crooked Timber Petition
As I sorta implied below, you don't need to agree with Erik's political views or his manner of expressing them to recognize that the President of the University of Rhode Island's statement is all kinds of appalling. The good folks at Crooked Timber have put together a petition to that effect. Go...
Podcast No. 16 – Interview with Robert Farley
The sixteenth Duck of Minerva podcast features Robert Farley of the University of Kentucky and Lawyers, Guns and Money.
Why no Cuban Spring?
I am currently at the Social Science Research Center in Berlin to present a paper on norm suppression. While here, I had the opportunity to learn more about some of the work being done by the Civil Society, Conflicts, and Democracy research unit. Listening to these folks talk about the stability...
Duck Takeover of Foreign Affairs on Schedule
Robert provides Foreign Affairs a "snapshot" on the South Korean election -- which Park won today. An excerpt: For all the talk of the "pivot" to Asia in the United States, the idea is not widely discussed in South Korea. And South Koreans are not all that interested in containing China. Although...
Academic Administrative Fecklessness
I wasn't going to post anything about the cyber-intimidation campaign being directed at Erik Loomis, as that seemed like a job for Big Important Liberal Blogs and not for the Duck of Minerva. But now the issue has strayed directly into our territory. In brief, Erik Loomis is a history professor at...