Did you see the photos like the one above out of Shanghai? For the first time ever, Shanghai's air pollution, like Beijing's before it, exceeded the scale for particulate matter. For the past seven days, the air quality has been so bad that schools and flights were cancelled, cars were forced off the roads, industries were shut down (Though a marathon last Monday went on as planned. Runners complained that their lungs hurt. Go figure!). This...
Have yourself a gender-neutral Christmas, let your toys be yellow. From now on our princess costumes and toy guns will be out of sight.... Well, you try to rhyme with this material. The Daily Mail asked yesterday "how to shop for gender neutral toys" noting the sea of blue and pink dividing stores like Toys R Us. But when Toys R Us introduced a gender-neutral toy catalog, in Sweden, France, Finland, Norway, Germany, Denmark and France-...
We're a few weeks into the call for nominations for the 2014 OAIS Awards. It's time to get serious. We've had a number of impressive nominations, but given the excellent content out there, we're looking for a much larger pool of nominees. We want to hear your suggestions. Post your nominations in the comments section below -- you may also email us a nomination directly. Please specify the award in the body of the text, provide the name of...
These syllabi are submitted by our members. If you have course syllabi that you would like us to include then feel free to email us. Stephane Baele, "Contemporary Theories of World Politics" (.pdf) Felix Berenskoetter,"Identity in International Relations" (.pdf) Felix Berenskoetter,"Power in World Politics" (.pdf) Benjamin de Carvalho and Halvard Leira, "International Relations Theory" (.pdf) Inanna Hamati-Ataya, "Dissident Perspectives on...
This section collects international-theory syllabi and links to journals that publish on cognate subjects.
According to its charter, "the aim of the [Theory Section] is to encourage and promote theoretical debates in the study of international politics. As such, it provides a platform for scholars to interrogate the meaning and purpose of theory in the field of International Relations (IR), to engage the task of theory building, to explore the relationship between theory and history, and the impact of theories on policymaking. "To accomplish these...
The Theory Section recognizes superlative scholarship in international theory through five awards: its Distinguished Scholar Award, Best Book Award, Best Edited Collection, Special Issue, or Symposium Award, and two for papers presented at the International Studies Association Annual Conference.
The effort to develop a single 5th generation fighter plane has been a challenge for the US and its allies. The F-35 is very expensive and may underperform. The quality of debate about this plane has varied. So, we turn to the experts for a reasoned discussion of the F-35 and an alternative: Does that help make up some minds? Ok, so a Boeing subcontractor made it, but I find it convincing... do you? H/T to @drfarls for the...
With the assumption of an ongoing global cyber arms race, Western governments signed an agreement to limit the sharing and selling of dangerous cyber technologies. David Livingstone notes, “[Cyber security technology] is a lot like the arms race. What you want to do is slow down how fast your foe develops equivalent technologies.” This is an important and needed step in the cyber discourse and I look forward to reading the details of how...
In 1987, I was a high school sophomore and somehow, no doubt through rock music, became aware of the anti-apartheid struggle. As it was for President Obama, the movement to end apartheid was my political baptism. It's what got me engaged and interested in global politics. I remember going to the Texas A&M campus and participating in meetings of Students Against Apartheid. I joined rallies to encourage the university to divest from any...
One of the recurring subjects among folks using data is: why does person x not share their data with me? Mostly because they are fearful and ignorant. Fearful? That their work will get scooped and/or their data might be found to be problematic. Ignorant? That they don't know that they are obligated to share their data once they publish off of it and that it is in their interest to share their data. There is apparently a belief out there...
This week's stories have no unifying theme other than they kind of capture the end of term mood, a certain grumpiness on the part of the writer (Bjorn Lomborg's tsk tsking of clean energy advocates, Paul Collier's screed against immigration) or not altogether pleasant images (an elephant run amok in a wedding, modern conflict with bows and arrows). Happy grading! Or dissertating! Or turning in those final papers! Enjoy. (My wife pointed out a...