If there is an Obama Doctrine in the realm of foreign affairs, it comprises robust multilateralism—being multilateral when the U.S. can, unilateral when it must. Subjected to scrutiny, however, the Obama Doctrine can only work if the U.S. has capable and willing partners. Yet under conditions of widespread fiscal austerity among western allies—and the political austerity of skeptical western citizens—meeting the challenge of securing their...
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Belated Thursday Links – It’s Still Thursday Somewhere Right?
So, your humble blogger found himself subsumed by first week of class duties and fell behind on the job! To make amends, I've flagged some stories that caught my eye, which should make for some welcome weekend reading. My eye this week was mostly trained on energy and environment stuff (U.S. greenhouse gas emissions on the rise again - boo!), with a dash of global health (spending up by USG on global health up slightly - yay!) with a side of...
OAIS Blogging Awards Voting Begins
We're a week behind, but the nominees are in and voting is now open. We sent out ballots today to those who registered for voting. If you did not receive one or if you haven't registered yet, please email us for a ballot. Voting runs through February 7. As with last year, we will use a Borda-count process to create a list of finalists and then proceed to a second round in which a panel of judges (last year's winners and Duck permanent...
Friday Nerd Blogging
The new and quite awesome-looking Season 4 trailer promises "war, death, hell," or as the Christian Post puts it, "action and intrigue." Duh. But it also hints at many more diversions from the books to come. Here is a breakdown. For Game of Thrones book fans, this may be appropriate:
I wish I could quote Marry Poppins
When you do not know what to say, “summon up this word and then you've got a lot to say! Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!” says Marry Poppins. I wish I could quote her when I do not know what to say to an MA student who wants to get a Ph.D. but perhaps should not. I think I am not alone. Engaging a student who may be better served by a non-academic career must be difficult for anyone. Yet anecdotal evidence suggests that it may be harder...
Tuesday Linkage
Digital Media and Human Security At Lawfare Blog, Jean Marie Simon's review of Robert Nickelberg's Afghanistan: A Distant War explores the role of digital photography in constructing wartime imaginaries. At Reductress, Andi Sharavsky describes the "Cutest Ways to Photograph Yourself Hugging Third-World Children." Is there no end to the damage caused by Edward Snowden? Iranians are now privy to the US' most important national secret: that...
The Ethics of Casual Teaching Contracts: how we are all implicated in selling out academia and exploiting our students
For the last few years in particular, there has been a marked increase in the number of sessional, casual, teaching-only, adjunct, fixed term, temporary job 'opportunities' listed and circulated in the usual IR job venues. These various titles and categories point to one reality: precarious labor is a permanent reality within academia. The trend has been quantified and well documented: in US in the last 30 years the percentage of positions held...
Book Review: “North Korea in Transition” – Oh Wait, it’s Not in Transition…
I know book reviews bore everyone, but the journal where I published this doesn’t post electronic versions of book reviews. So I thought this would be a good place to put it for internet accessibility. I tried to make this interesting by focusing on trends in NK, rather than just summarizing the constituent essays. It’s a great introduction to North Korea with lots of big names. I learned a lot from it. But I had to object to the title, likely...
Monday Morning Linkage
Hi. Here are some links to help you get your week started... Richard Shapcott reviews Daniel J. Levine's Recovering International Relations: The Promise of Sustainable Critique. The book is compared to P.T. Jackson's The Conduct of Inquiry. Shapcott says that "Levine’s goal is to place the idea of a moral/ethical vocation at the heart of the discipline and to argue that the vocation requires international relations thinkers to approach their...
Polar Vortex Nerd Blogging
Also, disturbing rumors are circulating about Darth Vader's involvement in the annihilation of the Death Star.
Digital Video Games and International Interactions
It has been an interesting week, I have been at a small conference in the US on cyber security and the question frequently asked is what are you working on? I think the assumption was that I would reply with something in the realm of cyber security, but that would be too clichéd for me. This week my research focus has been video games (we prefer to use the digital games since it encompasses all forms of the gaming industry). Digital games...
Belated Thursday Linkage
Apologies for the delayed linkage. This Duck has been in flight all day and just landed (insert joke here...). I'm attending the launch of the new AidData Research Consortium (ARC), which is a USAID funded research effort to use geospatial data on foreign assistance to ask and answer interesting questions. My bit is related to disasters and humanitarian assistance. I'll have more to write on the topic soon. It's been quite a newsy week, aside...