Today is World Wildlife Day, and species we think of as part of the fundamental awesome creatures of the natural world - elephants, rhinos, and sharks - face unprecedented risks of extinction, particularly as a result of rising demand from Asia and China in particular. I'm currently teaching a year-long class on Global Wildlife Conservation for which my students have been writing some excellent posts on the poaching crisis and what can be...
Last week the New America Foundation hosted its launch for an interdisciplinary cybersecurity initiative. I was fortunate enough to be asked to attend and speak, but the real benefit was that I was afforded an opportunity to listen to some really remarkable people in the cyber community discuss cybersecurity, law, and war. I listened to a few very interesting comments. For instance, Assistant Attorney General, John Carlin, claimed that “we”...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s looming address to the United States Congress has me thinking about the nature of authority in security. I think this is an issue that often gets overlooked, especially in security studies where the materiality of power (i.e. the ability o blow things up) takes up most of our collective attention. Certainly, Netanyahu seeks to make a security claim in his argument against the possibility of a deal...
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...
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...
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...
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!
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...