I spent most of yesterday reading through a great many scholarly articles on the influence, or lack thereof, of "norms" on outcomes in international politics. Discussion of international norms - where they come from, how they spread, who adopts them and why, how they change over time, and so forth...

Why does Coke Light taste so much better than Diet Coke?Actually, a wealth of information at the wikipedia, which suggests reasons why I prefer Diet Coke with Splenda to Diet Coke, but prefer Coke Zero to both.Filed as: Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Coke Light, Of Paradise and Power

This started out as a comment on Rodger's post, but quickly got too long for that and so I converted it into a stand-alone post.Rodger's probably right about the actual use of the term "critical constrctivism" in the discipline these days; truth to tell I haven't been paying much attention to...

One of the more venerable theories of social unrest focuses on a process of rising expectations and relative deprivation. The basic argument is that individuals and groups won't resist their conditions if they have grown accustomed to them; people in conditions of abject deprivation, so the theory...

If you're coming here via Henry Farrell's Chronicle of Higher Education article, take a look around and let us know what you think. A particularly warm "hello" to any international-relations scholars who might be new here. I think it is about time to admit that we all read (at least) Daniel...

Yesterday, Vice President Dick Cheney gave a speech at Camp Lejeune, N.C., to Marines who recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. In that speech he, of course, reminded the audience that the Bush administration will vigorously pursue terrorism “in Iraq and every other front”. While this is...

William Bennett -- you remember, the guy who used to be Secretary of Education before he went out and wrote The Book of Extremely Reactionary Virtues -- made an even-more-ridiculous-than-usual comment on his radio show yesterday. To quote a Washington Post article on the incident:"But I do know...

For those of you who where wondering where I have been (yes, all three of you:)), I have been stranded in comprehensive exam hell. Thankfully the process is now over and I passed with flying colors. Now its on to prospectus hell and dissertation hell (why do I get the feeling that grad school is a...

'Tis the season to be a neurotic mess - if you're late-stage ABD or newly minted PhD.Between, on the one hand, emails from students and friends and, on the other, trolling around anonymous academic blogs, I have reached the inescapable conclusion that it is, indeed, the time of darkness and pain...

I've been reading the International Security forum on "soft balancing." I'll have more to write about it when I finish my next installment of "Balancing and the balance of power." My initial reaction is that the "soft balancing" arguments, at least as presented by Robert Pape and T.V. Paul, are...

Mansur Mirovalev of the AP reports:TASHKENT, Uzbekistan - A senior State Department official said Tuesday the president of Uzbekistan made it clear that American forces must leave their air base in the Central Asian country, and the U.S. intends to do so "without further discussion."The demand...

A while back, Marc Lynch threw down the gauntlet and declared the last decade of international politics a vindication for the constructivist approach to international relations.Warning: what follows is a very long post, one that will be primarily of interest to people who care about academic...