This is more of a riff on Phil's post from last week than a direct reply; the post that Dan and I wrote addresses more directly the issue of actor autonomy that we think Phil misunderstood us on we and Phil were clearly on different semantic pages, so I am not going to go back over that ground here. Instead -- and since we all basically agree that rational choice theory, as a species of decision-theoretic analysis, is located someplace in the...
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Tiwesdæg: the Left-hand of Linkage
David Silbey on the long century of the US surveillance state. Don't throw the espionage baby out with the domestic-surveillance bathwater? Tom Nichols throws the gauntlet down at opponents of more active US involvement in the Syrian civil war. Dan Trombly ruminates on the concept of "blowback" in light of recent domestic terror attacks in the west. Developments in Arabic translation. Many people in my circles are gleefully forwarding a...
Academic Freedom, Financial Allure, and Overseas Research, Programs, and Campuses: Do We Self-Censor?
Chen Guangcheng, the Chinese dissident who found refuge last year in the United States with a fellowship at NYU is now claiming that he is being pushed out of NYU because his human rights advocacy and criticisms of the Chinese government is upsetting NYU's relationship with China. From the NYTimes: In a statement released Sunday, Mr. Chen said university officials were worried that his outspoken criticism of the Chinese government might...
The Baby Penalty
I keep seeing this article pop around websites this morning: "Rule No. 1 for Female Academics: Don’t Have a Baby." I'm happy to see all the family friendly policies mentioned concerning assistant professors. But, as the article points out, the "baby penalty" is also a concern for graduate students who are parents. My question: do you know of any family friendly policies for grad students?
Monday Morning Linkage
Good morning. Here are some loosely connected articles on development, bureaucracy, and state power... I am quite taken by James Ferguson's metaphor of "swarming state power" as an alternative to James Scott's "controlling state power" and thus as a way of understanding contemporary "development" (a discourse whose objects have apparently all but abandoned progress for the "hope of egress"). Ferguson helps us to understand both why so many...
Is There a Right Way to Do Development?
In our newish MA program in Global Policy Studies, it turns out "International Development" is the most popular concentration. Now, many of our students who are interested in this "specialization" have what I call a distinct project-based approach to development. They think of international development as projects foreigners go out and do. Since most of our students are from the United States, they envision themselves doing development the same...
Weekend Link-a-Rama
Contrasting views on Obama foreign-policy and realism from Daniel Drezner and Sean Kay. The BBC's profile of Iranian President-elect, Hassan Rouhani. Michael J. Geary and Kevin A. Lees examine how the NSA scandal might impact Obama's trip to Europe. Chris Fair's testimony at the Hearing on “Protecting the Homeland Against Mumbai-Style Attacks and the Threat from Lashkar-e-Taiba" (PDF). Vladmir Putin: the most powerful man in Russia, sex symbol,...
Tenure Denial, Public Relations, and Asymmetric Voice
I'll admit that this is a rather anodyne title, but the alternatives involved language not suited for above-the-fold content. The tenure process involves power asymmetries that make life very unpleasant for assistant professors. They have to worry about alienating their colleagues and their administration. They interact daily with people -- who are too often petty, fickle, or, at least, mysterious -- who hold tremendous power over their...
The Aussie Military Redefinig Masculinity Amidst Another Scandal?
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) finds themselves in yet another sex scandal this week. The force has barely recovered from last year's 'skype scandal,' which involved members of a defense force academy videotaping sex without permission and streaming it to other members of the academy. This time it is alleged that officers have videotaped sex with other colleagues and civilian women and distributed the videos via the defence email system. It...
Belated Friday Nerd Blogging: Classics Mashup
I thought Charli's return meant I was off this beat, but what the hey. What if Shakespeare wrote Star Wars? Check it out here. Come to think of it, the whole brother and sister not knowing each other and almost falling in love seems like a Shakespeare comedy, does it not? Oh really? Never mind.
Svalbard Blogging
Why, yes that is the Indian Foreign Minister, Salman Khurshid, and Norway's Foreign Affairs Minister and Political Scientist, Espen Barthe Eide, in Svalbard. Are they trying to tell Duck fans something? [Discuss]
APSA & African Politics
For those of you who don't monitor the front page of the APSA website on a daily basis, you may have missed the online petition for the recognition of a new African Politics section of APSA. I urge all of you -- including those who don't work in Africa -- to take a look at the petition and consider signing. At first glance, this may seem a strange throw-back: area studies has been passé in political science for some time, and it has become...