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?
Will Moore decided to punch out, as he put it. He left behind devastated friends, co-authors and students as well as family. I have been trying to put into words how I feel today. Will was upstaged...
.@APSAtweets @MPSAnet @isanet We are losing colleagues to depressive disorders, & many others suffer silently. The pressure in our profession is insane & often unhealthy. — Laura Seay...
Social media was abuzz last week with three big missteps by major corporations. Pepsi unveiled a failed television advertisement intended to render homage to the social protest movement in the U.S....
President Bush acknowledged this morning that he ordered illegal surveillance of US citizens.In a rare live radio address, Bush defended the practice as a "vital tool" in defending the United States against another such attack.The presidential order was first reported in The New York Times on...
So many things going on in the world right now that I'd like to comment on, but can only link to. On top of grading and writing it looks like my sister-in-law could be having her first child any minute now. With that in mind I thought I would recommend some reading this morning. Enjoy.Pelosi Hails...
Reuters:Say what?Did Bush say, in effect, "I'm to blame for the bad intelligence"? Is he taking the blame for using bad intelligence? I know he didn't take the blame for Iraq's enduring struggle against poor intel.Turns out, none of the above:"It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to...
Holiday preparation, grading and related work has seriously cut into the hard-hitting, serious analysis of international political events that I would like to do right now (and I suspect that goes for my fellow members as well as posting has have been a bit slow lately). So for the time being I am...
It appears Rob and I have much in common. From the Which Historic General Are You test (via Curzon at Coming Anarchy):You are...Julius CaesarYou scored 53 Wisdom, 73 Tactics, 59 Guts, and 45 Ruthlessness!Filed as: diversion
Chilling story in the Washington Post this morning on the lack of free speech in Afghanistan four years after the US invasion and toppling of the Taliban regime. What's so disturbing is that it's the type of story I expected to read before we brought down the Taliban.Additionally, Rodger has a...
From my fellow Quakers over at The Apollo Creed, a must read on the fallacious 'War on Christmas'. Check it out.Filed as: War on Christmas
On the topic of why the secularization of politics is not such a bad thing.Short, eloquent, and to the point.Filed as: secularism and sectarianism
Now certainly we can all agree that many of the most inflamatory, anti-Israeli statements from Iran's newest President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been targeted towards a certain segment of his domestic audience and possibly segments of the Arab world. This is quite common for politicians of all...
A friend of mine emailed me a link to Barry Posen's "Exit Strategy: How to Disengage with Iraq in Eighteenth Months", which appears in the next issue of the Boston Review. Posen argues, citing familiar evidence, that the occupation is not going particularly well. The insurgency shows no evidence...
As I alluded to in my last post, I've been doing exploratory research for a possible blog piece on the general vapidness of the "network" metaphor in a great many popular writings on terrorism and global change. In the process, I stumbled upon a Belmont Club post containing this gem:However...
Part of the Duck's ongoing mission is to highlight articles in academic international-relations journals that speak to topics of general concern among the blogging and blog-reading community. In that spirit, I want to call attention to the latest issue of International Security, which includes a...