Editor's Note: This is a guest post by Sara McLaughlin Mitchell, Professor and Department Chair of Political Science at the University of Iowa. It is Part 1 of a 2-part discussion. Many recent posts (e.g., posts here by David Lake, Dan Nexon, and Laura Sjoberg, and elsewhere by Christian Davenport and Steve Saideman) have discussed professional networking in political science. Given my belief that academic experiences are not universal, a...
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Sunnanæfen Commentary and Linkage
I still believe that some of Snowden's disclosures, and his actions, have forfeited his whistleblower status. But if he'd been a bit more circumspect about what he'd leaked and how he had done it--e.g., not brought US government secrets into the range of Russians and Chinese intelligence agents--that would emphatically not be the case. His disclosures have prompted chilling information about the activities of the NSA and forced a necessary...
Don’t Stress About Networking
Editor's Note: This is a guest post from Professor Peter M. Haas of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Finding myself on the grey haired side of the academic divide and having experienced both sides of the process, let me reiterate David Lake’s points about networking with senior faculty. While networking to make friends is a lovely idea, it doesn’t always work at a large professional event, nor with senior people who aren’t...
Friday Morning Linkage
Update on the international community's reaction to events in Syria: Russia calls on Assad to cooperate with the weapons inspectors. Says it has evidence the attack was propagated by the opposition. Pressure building in Washington and Europe to do something. Obama announces that the time frame for U.S. action may have shortened. Kerry's diplomatic efforts. Congressional doves rethinking Syria. The view from Ankara. And Lebanon. Early...
Friday Nerd Blogging: Into Darkness
Sure, the movie came out months back, but this Honest Trailers does a nice job of capturing why Star Trek Into Darkness was meh. JJ Abrams does not apparently get it that the even numbered movies are supposed to be better. Spoilers boldly go below: This video is perhaps inconsistent in pointing out the retrograde gender dynamics in the movie, but gets its point across.
Ham Omelettes and Taiwan’s Defence
In the old old question of why the weak occasionally beat the strong, my favourite metaphor is the Ham Omelette. In a Ham Omelette, the chicken is involved but the pig is committed. In a clash over the Taiwan Strait, who would be the pig, who the chicken? This matters, because in the end predicting the outcome of a China-Taiwan clash would not be about the absolutes of military victory narrowly conceived, but about the issue of cost tolerance...
Thursday Late Afternoon “Morning” Linkage
It's morning somewhere, right? Here are some belated links to stories, covering Richard Haass and Syria, climate change and the IPCC 5th assessment, a lethal bat-born virus, gay rights and Russia, and the new Fukushima nuclear worry... Syria FT op-ed by Richard Haass of all people urging the president to intervene in Syria Environment Draft IPCC Fifth assessment report on climate change impacts leaks, guess what, more climate change Andrew...
Blogging the syllabus, international security edition: what is security?
With all of the focus on APSA, there’s been little discussion of another Labor Day ritual—the Revising of the Syllabus. In truth, I should have begun this ritual a few weeks ago. Now that the panic dreams have kicked in—you know, the ones where you show up to class on the first day without a syllabus and thus lose all authority over your students for the rest of the semester…you do get those too, right?—I know I must take action. My first task...
Networking at Conferences: Not Just for Graduate Students and Junior Faculty
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by David Lake, who is the Jerri-Ann and Gary E. Jacobs Professor of Social Sciences and Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. I want to weigh in on “networking at conferences” debate here on the Duck (and elsewhere), some of which has been lost in subsequent controversy. I agree with the prior posts by Saideman, Nexon, Sjoberg, and others, available here,...
The Syrian Chemical Attack: Things Fall Apart, the Centre Cannot Hold
The news out of the Damascus suburbs this morning is highly disturbing and, if the reports are confirmed that this was a chemical attack, no doubt will mark a turning point in the conflict. Dan is somewhat skeptical that it will change the intervention calculus. I disagree. For the better part of the past two years, the Obama administration has pursued to a strategy of conflict management and containment. It doesn't look like that policy has...
Social Media Before Conference Networking
This is a guest post by Brent Sasley. Sasley is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Texas at Arlington. He blogs at Mideast Matrix and Open Zion. Follow him on Twitter. The political science/IR blogosphere has been engaged in an interesting discussion in recent days: whether and how junior scholars should network at academic conferences (just follow the links from this piece to get them all or scroll...
Will this be the Straw that Break the Back of Non-Intervention in Syria?
There are gruesome reports out of Syria today of a chemical weapons attack in a suburb of Damascus. If they are accurate, the chemical weapons inflicted mass civilian causalities. As David Kenner reports at Foreign Policy: The information coming out of the Ghouta region, where the rebels enjoy significant support, is still unconfirmed by independent observers. But videos allegedly taken Wednesday in the area showed Syrians lying on the...