Middle East scholars recently released the results of the new Middle East Scholar Barometer. What does it tell us about Middle East Studies itself? Does it suggest the field is rich and progressing, or in need of an intellectual shakeup?
This is a guest post from Seva Gunitsky, an associate professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. His book Aftershocks: Great Powers and Domestic Reforms in the...
We all know the traditional narrative in International Relations of the state as a unitary act. Despite substantial volumes of work in the foreign policy analysis subdiscipline as well as in IR...
Y’all are probably sick and tired of hearing about Russia: hacking, colluding, obstructing, peeing, meddling, trolling, spying... I'm waiting in terror to see what Stephen Colbert has filmed in the...
[Updated] If I have to hear someone else, whether it is an administration official like Tony Snow (scroll down) or a member of the wingnutty club (pick one, any one), tell me that Iraq is 'getting better' and 'we are making progress' my head might explode, alla Scanners (not for the feint of...
A significant majority of Catalans voted for greater autonomy today. The Financial Times reports on the diffusion of devolutionary rhetoric in Spain:Spanish regions began clamouring for sweeping new powers on Monday after Catalonia approved a new self-government charter in a referendum on...
[updated]Japan scores a victory at the IWC: Japan and other whaling nations on Sunday for the first time in two decades won support for a motion criticizing a global whaling ban.The approval of a non-binding pro-whaling declaration by the International Whaling Commission, or IWC, does not...
The latest NRO fund-raising gimmick: Since this Trek-ban backlash seems to be motivating many Corner readers to give, I’m upping the ante. If the Trek-o-Meter hits $20,000 by the end of the weekend, NRO will launch a line of Trek-inspired merchandise.Jonah Goldberg on intellectual property:As I am...
By now we are all familiar with the current status of the civil war in Somalia. Last week, Islamic militias in Somalia seized the capital of Mogadishu, defeating the US-backed coalition of warlords. The Christian Science Monitor had an interesting article discussing the next step for the US in its...
During my guest stint at Lawyers, Guns and Money I got involved in a spat with Unfogged's LizardBreath over Linda Hirshman's argument that highly-educated professional women who choose to become stay-at-home moms are the contemporary Quislings of the feminist movement.Despite our disagreement, I...
Some interesting Sunday morning reading:The Washington Post today reprints a rather lengthy cable from the US Embassy in Iraq to Main State. Its worth a read.The Post introduces the Cable: Hours before President Bush left on a surprise trip last Monday to the Green Zone in Baghdad for an upbeat...
Not long after I started the Duck of Minerva I began a series called "Wednesday's Maxim". Like a number of my series, I let it fall by the wayside. Witness the revival of "Wednesday's maxim," but on Friday!Considering its origin carefully, all political power is rooted in violence. There is no...
A couple of weeks ago the Cunning Realist wrote:This has probably been discussed at great length elsewhere, and undoubtedly will strike some as a dumb question. But before tonight was anyone besides me unaware that U.S. citizenship is not a requirement for military service?Which reminded me of a...
President Bush made a surprise visit to Baghdad today.For several days, the Administration had been promoting a "major" cabinet meeting to "hone" its post-Zarqawi Iraq strategy. Up at Camp David, Bush had all of his Cabinet and senior advisors either in attendence or hooked in via...
As the Czech Republic leads the United States 2-0 at the half in the first World Cup match for both teams, it occurs to me how odd it is to be able to watch the game live on ESPN2 (which I am in fact doing at the moment). Last World Cup, it was much harder to get live coverage, even of the US...
A mutual friend sent my wife an email about EssayFraud.org. The site claims to protect students against "fraudulent" mail-order foreign-operated academic paper services. These scam artists, claim the staff at essayfraud.org, will either steal unsuspecting students' money or send them papers...