The ISA statement lacks not only comparative history but also local historical depth. It also distorts moral responsibility.
Why Land Acknowledgements?
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Recent Posts
Backlash and Stigma: Rethinking Restraint in the Age of Trump
This is a guest post from Eric Van Rythoven. Eric Van Rythoven recently finished his PhD at Carleton University studying emotion, world politics, and security. His work is published in Security...
Advice for the New Professor
As August accelerates and academics panic as their summer dreams/plans meet the harsh reality that one usually does not get done all that they want to do, it is time to give unsolicited advice to...
Remembering Robert Gilpin and His Intellectual Legacy
This is a guest post from Peter Henne, Assistant Professor at the University of Vermont. Robert Gilpin passed away recently. Most of us knew him as the author of War and Change in World Politics....
More Recent Posts
Even Uncle Ho’s Hand-Weights Contributed to the Revolution (1)
Our social science faculty association organized a trip to Vietnam last week. It was pretty fascinating. It was my first trip, and I don’t speak the language, so obviously I am qualified to generalize wildly about it now. As Gabriel Almond once quipped, ‘you should never generalize about a country...
How to Be a Good Realist
I'm going to delve clumsily into IR Theory here, so I'd be grateful to get some feedback on the question of the 'Realist' minimum.In a fascinating post recently on US-China relations, Stephen Walt wrote:"First, as a good realist, I think that the basic state of Sino-American relations will be...
China & Snyder’s “Myths of Empire” (2): Does China fit the Model?
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Targeting…targeting: What are reasonable expectations?
Blue moon, you targeted me standing alone...Yesterday Charli wrote a post on whether or not those opposed to the use of drones should use the concept of “atrocity law” instead of “war crimes” or human rights violations.I wonder if others who generally oppose "targeted killings" think the concept...
Begging to differ on Libya and R2P
In a reflective post not long ago, Robert E. Kelly noted:"...we are elated that the Libya operation worked, (against all odds given the Iraq experience and what we know about foreign intervention in LDCs generally). Lots of Duck writers supported the intervention. (I found Jon Western’s arguments...
Quarter-Baked Idea: The Post-Cold War Concert System
This is the first in what may become an occasional series. Over the last year or two, I've drifted out of regular blogging. The usual excuses apply: too much work and not enough energy. I am so badly behind on a number of book chapters, manuscript revisions, and the like that the simple act of...
China & Snyder’s “Myths of Empire” (1): Theory
So I am re-reading Snyder’s Myths of Empire for an R&R. (Btw, not that this is bad book, but is anyone’s reading list in life now primarily driven by anonymous reviewers and the need to get in print for promotion? ) .The book is theoretically complex (almost too many moving parts to my mind),...
“Do not try to out-geek the professor”
Social/Science/Fiction preliminary course outlineSIS-419.B01, Summer session 2012Professor Patrick Thaddeus JacksonThis course will meet Mondays and Wednesdays, 1:00pm-4:10pm, from 21 May until 28 June, excluding the Memorial Day holiday on 28 May.Course Objective and DescriptionSocial science has...
Climate Change and the Axis of Fear
A few years back, when global warming was near the top of the national and global agendas, a surprising new activist suddenly took the field: the Pentagon. In 2009, it called climate change a “threat” to national security. In 2010, it lauded the climate with its ultimate recognition, inclusion...
Travel Notes From The Human Rights Frontier
Guest Post by Joel OestreichA few days ago I met the woman in the attached photograph. Her name is Karima. She is a college graduate who was born a male and, at 21, had gender reassignment surgery. Some time later she entered the “Miss Transgender India” contest and took fifth place. Her...
American Relative Decline? No Dansk!
Go Luxemburg!According to Michael Beckley, the United States should be deeply concerned about the power-political position of Luxemburg, Denmark, Switzerland, and others. Okay, not really. But that's the implication of Beckley's top-line response to Erik Voeten's dissection of his recent article...
Retrenchment & Liberal Internationalism don’t really Fit Together (2): R2P
:Here is part one, where I argued that international relations as a field has become increasingly uncomfortable with the America’s post-Cold War hegemony and the level of force used in the GWoT, but…2. We’re drifting toward R2PSimultaneously, we are elated that the Libya operation worked, (against...