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
At what point do we call this a right-wing terrorist campaign?
America is reeling from the horrific attack on a synagogue in Pennsylvania, in which an anti-Semitic man killed 11 people. And we were already reeling from a series of attempted mail bomb attacks by...
Writing Wednesday: embracing criticism for book revisions
Many a postdoc are likely in my position this year, dissertation defense safely in the review mirror and settling into the groove of their research. Those who, like me, are fortunately enough to...
Congress, Trump, and Internationalism in U.S. Foreign Policy
This post comes from Bridging the Gap co-director Jordan Tama, Associate Professor at the School of International Service at American University. American presidents have typically been more...
More Recent Posts
NATO intervention in Syria Wouldn’t be Easy
That's the takeaway from a new working paper by Brian Haggerty, a doctoral student at MIT. His conclusion:The United States and its NATO allies no doubt possess the capabilities required to achieve some measure of air superiority over northwest Syria and to maintain patrols over population centers...
The Sexual Scandal Factor in Military Policy Making
Do scandals- particularly the kind that receive international attention- inspire progressive gender policies? While there is no conclusive research on this question, there are indicators that sexual violence scandals may be as important as public opinion or operational changes in influencing...
Crime and Punishment in Syria
The ICRC has stated that the violence in Syria constitutes an non-international armed conflict. This is significant because it means the organization tasked with guarding and promoting the Geneva Conventions is declaring that at least portions of the Geneva Conventions (especially Common Article...
Saturday Afternoon Video
Should Romney Talk More About Foreign Policy?
In these summer months while we wait for the Olympics to start and for Romney to pick his VP candidate, the foreign policy cognoscenti has started in on Mitt Romney's campaign with conflicting advice about whether or not his announced foreign policy trip this later this summer is worthwhile and...
Friday Nerd Blogging By Proxy
Charli has volunteered me to sub for Friday Nerd Blogging duty for her for the next three weeks. It turns out that sending her links to fun stuff is a bad idea. That will teach me.The most important pop cultural event of the next week is clearly the return of Breaking Bad. Too bad it does not...
Peter Piot’s Memoir on Infectious Disease
I just finished reading Peter Piot's lively memoir No Time to Lose of his time as an epidemiologist helping identify the Ebola virus in the 1970s through to his service as the first director of UNAIDS. It is an engaging read not least because Piot conveys a profound empathy for those affected by...
Extreme Dissertation Writing
Wow. If you can write a dissertation on the politics of shark attacks as an IR specialist, I think you can do pretty much anything. From the Ted website:Chris Neff is a third year PhD candidate in Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. He is conducting the world's...
Fear of Relativism part three: the task of translation
[The following essay, posted here in three parts over several days, was solicited by and is cross-posted at e-ir. Read part one here. Thanks to Aaron McKeil for editorial input and html formatting assistance.] III. The Task of Translation In the preceding discussion I have assumed, albeit tacitly,...
A Failure to Communicate?
Political science, alas, has been facing much hostility as of late. Selected out by a Republican for de-funding, attacked by one of our own in a highly publicized and reputed piece, it is time that we wielded our tools to figure out what is going on. Thankfully, Huber, Dowling and Hill have done...
Missed That! Korea-Japan Treaty Debacle Edition
Japan-Korea treaty killed by Seoul at last minute about a week ago.Jennifer Lind provides a quick explanation:East Asia, where states don't even need to practice wedge politics to bring about division.....
Friday Nerd Blogging
'Game of Thrones': The Board Game -- powered by Cracked.comH/T Rob Farley.