The world is abuzz this morning with the news that the radical muslim group Hamas has apparently won a majority of seats in the recent parliamentary elections in Palestine. The group which in the past has called for Israel to be 'wiped off the map' has apparenlty won a a 53% majority of seats in...

One of the perennial issues for academics, and perhaps especially for academics studying social phenomena (although I can easily see how this would be of concern for those of my colleagues in the physical sciences as well), is the relationship between the issues and topics that we choose to study...

I was going through some of last week's dead tree editions of the NY Times and found this in the January 19 edition:Six former heads of the Environmental Protection Agency, including five who served Republican presidents, said Wednesday that the Bush administration needed to act more aggressively...

Peter Beinart writes in the Washington Post (hat tip: Marc Schulman) about cycles of isolationalism. I tend to cringe whenever I read invocations of "political cycles" in American history, so I was pleasantly surprised to read Beinart's comment that:Such theories, of course, lack social scientific...

In a speech last week at a nuclear submarine base in Brittany, French President Jacques Chirac signaled a shift in his country's nuclear doctrine (for coverage see here, here, and here; for hilarity, see Chirol over at Coming Anarchy). The speech outlined the reconfiguration of French doctrine...

[Updated 1/23]George H.W. Bush, "Global Message", March 19, 2003:In a free Iraq, there will be no more wars of aggression against neighbors...no more poison factories...no more executions of dissidents...no more torture chambers and rape rooms.Nicholas D. Kristoff, The New York Review of Books,...

Spread the quacky goodness and vote Duck for "Best New Blog" in the 2005 Koufax Awards [Voting isn't open yet, so check out our competition and be ready to cast your ballot].Patrick and I just wrapped the Mershon leg of the "realism and constructivism" conference. We'll be back to blogging soon....

The United Nations has cancelled the speaking engagement of Pakistani human rights activist Mukhtaran Mai (a.k.a. Mukhtaran Bibi). For those that don't remember, Ms. Mai was sentenced to be gang-raped by a tribal court as punishment for misconduct by her brother. She fought her rapists in court...

This headline today on Yahoo (from AP) made me laugh out loud: "U.S.: Venezuela Overspending on Military."And we were just discussing this kind of American hypocrisy. Venezuela is planning a "buying spree" for military equipment that goes beyond the country's legitimate needs, the State Department...

Tom, an often-funny blogger at at Functional Ambivalent, today criticizes "liberals" among Kevin Drum's commenters for failing to respond to a direct question Kevin asked concerning the US attack in Pakistan last week. Here's the question from the popular blog: For the sake of argument, let's...

Many critics of the Bush administration -- including those on the left -- have often over the past three years complained that the U.S. was focusing on the wrong state in the war on terrorism. Iran sponsors terrorists (especially Hamas) and pursues WMD. The evidence is arguably much, much clearer...

Over at my blog, I've written a lengthy post on "'Pro-war' Democrats and the 2006 Elections." Since it is about the likely role of Iraq in the congressional midterm elections, it is probably suitable for the Duck. However, I'm resolved in 2006 to generate unique content for each space and to avoid...