From 1997 to 1999, I served in the Peace Corps in the Andean country of Ecuador. Ecuador is rich with contrasts. With the Galapagos, the Andes, and parts of the Amazon, the country possesses stunning natural beauty. The people have an incredible generosity of spirit, yet the country is riven by racial and regional differences. Until recently, high oil prices papered over some of these differences, but the president, Rafael Correa, is a left...
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The Duckies of 2015
We gave out the Online Achievement in International Studies (OAIS) a.k.a. the Duckies, Thursday night, in a wonderful reception sponsored by SAGE. Given that this is Oscar night, we should say that there are no winners, just that the Duckies went to: Best Independent Blog: Dart Throwing Chimp. Runner Up: Chris Blattman Best Group Blog: The Monkey Cage. Runner Up: PV@aGlance Best New Blogger: Allison Beth Hodgkins. Runner Up: Brandon...
Drones, Decapitation, ISA and Impossible Strategies
Yesterday at ISA, I participated on a panel on technology and international security. One of the topics addressed was the “successfulness” of the Obama administration’s decapitation/targeted killing strategy of terrorist leaders through unmanned aerial vehicles or “drones.” The question of success, however, got me to thinking. Success was described as the military effectiveness of the strikes, but this to me seems rather wrongheaded. For if...
The Duckies: Tonight 7:30 Feb. 19
We hope to see you all at the Duckies this evening, the annual blogging awards with the reception this evening sponsored by Sage. It will be held at 7:30 in Quarterdeck A&B Ballroom at the Hilton. The nominees are here. We hope to see you there!
ISA Linkage Edition
Welcome to sunny and warm New Orleans (or at least sunnier and warmer than wherever most of us have come from!). If you are stepping away from conferencing for a bit, here are a few good reads on the security front. I'll likely come back in the new few days with one on energy/environment and health. Here I link to work from Alan Kuperman, Jay Ulfelder, Phil Hazlewood, Paul Staniland, and Graeme Wood, covering Libya, body counts, insurgencies,...
ISA 2015 Update: Bloggers Win
Yesterday, the Governing Council met for 17 days and nights .... or about six hours to discuss the various issues on the agenda. I will not get into the details of the meeting (I live-tweeted the highlights). The key bits of news are this: I learned how to do emoji on my Ipad. The blogging issue from last year produced a report by the Professional Responsibilities committee, and the recommendations which became policy essentially said that...
What is a terrorist group? Concepts and measurement
This is a guest post from Brian J. Phillips who is a research professor at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) in Mexico City. A number of studies in recent years have systematically examined terrorist groups, exploring lethality, longevity, and other outcomes. However, much of this research does not explicitly indicate what it means by a “terrorist group.” When definitions are offered, they differ considerably. These...
ISA Non-Panels: Fun and Games In IR
The annual meeting of the International Studies Association kicks off on Tuesday and runs through Saturday, Feb 17th-21st. The program is chock full of all kinds of IR. Of course, there is much to do and see during and after Mardi Gras in New Orleans beyond the panels. Using my power here as Duck-ster, let me point out a few ones that you might want to consider attending/joining: The Duckies! We hand out the IR Blogging Awards at 7:30pm on...
Working in 25 Minute Stretches
Greetings, Ducks! Thanks to Josh for such a wonderful facelift of the Duck website! I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in New Orleans next week. This is been a very service-intensive year for me – first year post tenure – and I’m still trying to figure out how to manage my time. Unlike common "wisdom," my colleagues and I in academia work an incredible amount of hours. And, yet, we never actually feel caught up. In an effort to work...
Morning Linkage
After a hiatus, we will be back with some regular Morning Linkage. Look for the icon and the application of the new topic. I'm going to be brief here with some links. And it's not even morning! Blogging Andrew Sullivan ends his blogging on the Dish Professor loses tenure after blogging gone wrong Ukraine Steve Walt weighs in on Ukraine, suggests spiral model more appropriate than deterrence model and therefore arming risks escalation...
Welcome to the New Duck
In advance of this year's ISA convention and the OAIS awards, we're happy to launch a new and improved Duck of Minerva with a revamped look and feel. You will notice automatically a direct link to duckofminerva.com which should make access more straightforward. The new site is also responsive so will resize automatically on your phone or tablet. We've also added a new set of topics to classify posts by subject so you can find them easily. The...
Global shift – the US, China, and the Hong Kong Protests
This is a guest post by Grant Dawson, assistant professor of social science and international politics at The University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China and Cyrus Janssen is an American expat based in Asia. The global order established by the West and led by the US since 1945 is gradually changing. China and the ‘rising Rest’ are catching-up to the US and the West in terms of economic and political power. Unfortunately, as was clear during the...