I am in Geneva this week to participate in the Convention on Conventional Weapons' Experts' Meeting on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems. There, I'll present survey data I collected on US public sentiment around autonomous weapons, joining global civil society in reminding world governments of the Marten's Clause in the preamble to the Hague Convention. This clause, originally inserted to protect irregular non-combatants in guerilla wars,...
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I’d like some lemonade with my advice, please
As a junior faculty member, I am not in a position to turn down advice. Fortunately, I receive good advice from mentors, colleagues, and friends. I am very thankful. Lately, I have also been getting advice from a few organizations for faculty development. They provide free tips on writing and productivity, navigating the job market, and balancing responsibilities as well as seek to debunk some of the myths about success in the academia. On...
Friday Nerd Blogging: Call for ISA Paper Proposals on “Game of Thrones”
CALL FOR PROPOSALS: "Game of Thrones and International Relations: Empirical Investigations" Deadline: May 26, 2014 Dan Drezner and I seek paper abstracts for an International Studies Association 2015 Conference panel proposal examining the relationship between the A Song of Ice and Fire book series and/or HBO hit series Game of Thrones and global political phenomena (or "first-order" representations of those phenomena). In other words, this...
Pitching Your Article?
Dan Nexon has instituted a new Ask the Editors feature on his editor's blog on the newly revamped ISQ website. If you haven't seen it yet, PTJ has done a great job developing the site and Dan hasn't missed a step in the transition from his great blogging here at Duck to his new role at ISQ. In the first installment of Ask the Editors Dan responds to a reader's question on what information should be conveyed in the dreaded cover letter included...
Thursday Linkage
Editor's note: this post first appeared on my personal blog. 1. Tensions in the South China Sea are rising. Exhibit A (h/t Sean B. Rogers), exhibit B (h/t Jay Ulfelder). Right now, all eyes are on Ukraine. And rightfully so. But this is one to watch too. 2. Speaking of Ukraine, the National Interest wonders if that crisis could spark a world war (h/t Charli Carpenter). The article is a bit sensationalistic, and I doubt anyone would have written...
The War against Neologisms: Calling Out “New” Types of War
It seems that every pundit, scholar, and borderline academic publishing online has developed a new term to describe the state of war in the system. I can’t browse the pages of Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, or even the New York Times without someone making up a new term to articulate basic and common features of modern warfare. When I was younger (a wee political science bairn in Scottish), I thought all political scientists ever did was...
Thursday Heading into Summer Linkage – Climate Change Edition
Apologies for the missing linkage from last week. I took a team of students to DC to present to policymakers the key findings from my year-long course on climate change and the major economies (see the embedded video at the bottom). The timing was opportune because this was a big week for climate policy. Thousands of world leaders gathered in Abu Dhabi to prepare for the UN Secretary General's fall meeting on the topic. China appears poised to...
An Academic Woman’s Rant of the Week: Personal Information and Office Hours
It’s that time of year again: the magical time when my 10 page undergraduate research proposal deadline is enough to cause a health scare among the geriatric population of mid-Missouri. As the semester comes to a close, my office is typically filled with both undergrads and grads coming to tell me a plethora of problems and stories. Many times, these problems preface a request for an extension of some sort. Can I please have an extra week?...
Friday Nerd Blogging Part Two: Who Says There is a Gap?
One of the constant refrains one will hear in civil-military relations is that there is a gap between the civilians and the military--a deep, wide gap in values, perceptions and so on. Well, here is some proof (not great video) that the gap is over-rated: H/T to Mrs. Spew
Friday Nerd Blogging: Make Mine Marvel
This summer may be the most Marvelous yet with Captain America 2, Spider-Man 2, X-Men Days of Future Past (otherwise X-Men First Class 2) and Guardians of the Galaxy. Sure, not all are by Marvel Studios but all are based on Marvel Characters. Do we need so many sequels (with GoG being essentially a sequel to Avengers)? Of course not. But more Marvel is more Marvel, and for that I am thankful. Here is a most un-superheroic video that promotes...
Things to do after finishing a book
I just finished my cyber security book, provisionally titled Cyber Hype versus Cyber Reality. The feeling of loss has set in. I don’t know what to do with myself now, I am sleeping more than normal (but that could just be jet lag). Working on articles seems like too small a task. Starting a new project seems too big. How to get over this hump? On such occasions, a moment of reflection is order. If you had asked me two months ago, I would...
Classroom Activity: Shared Threat and Delayed Elections
This activity comes after students are to have listened to a lecture (slides) about domestic politics helps us understand variation in the likelihood of international conflict. I focused particularly on whether the spread of democracy explains Europe's transformation from one of the most violent parts of the world to one of the most peaceful and how the the fear of coups and rebellion in Sub-Saharan Africa helps explain why there have been so...