If last's week Thursday morning linkage was Africa-themed, this week's links are China-related and inevitably harken back to the events in Boston: Laurie Garrett, as she is wont to do, wonders if this recent bird flu outbreak in China is "the big one" Beijing air is so bad they are canceling recess, kids at grave risk Oh, and Shanghai air sucks too China's shale gas revolution has yet to begin (Armond Cohen thinks it will take too long to take...
The difference between pets in Diablo III and Torchlight II. Blah blah blah Game of Thrones blah blah credible commitments blah blah blah prisoners' dilemma. Taylor Fravel says that China hasn't abandoned no-first use. Pavel Podvig demolishes "SDI ended the Cold War" claptrap. Key graf: "The evolution of the Soviet attitudes toward SDI suggests that the main factor that contributed to the ending the confrontation of the Cold War was the...
Note: this is the first in what I hope will be a series of posts opening up issues relating to journal process for general discussion by the international-studies community. Although many readers already know the relevant information, let me preface this post with some context. I am the incoming lead editor of International Studies Quarterly (ISQ), which is one of the journals in the International Studies Association family of publications. We...
Good morning... These aren't the linkages you're looking for... Owen Jones reviews the hierarchy of death in the wake of the Boston bombing or what Judith Butler, in Frames of War, might call (un)grievable lives. Deepak Sarma at Racialicious writes about "Being Brown After the Boston Bomb Blast." (Hey the dudes who did it turned out to be white. Brown and black people can chill now right? right?? Those false early reports about "dark skinned"...
Our readers may have noticed the lack of Saturday linkage. I was at the MD/PA/WV/VA combined state Tumbling and Trampoline state championships, in a facility with Faraday-cage properties. I am pleased to say that my daughter qualified for National Junior Olympics in her two main events -- trampoline and double-mini trampoline. Along the way she took first place and fourth place, for Maryland, in her age-group and level. Below is video for her...
Charles King at The Daily Beast: In other words, the focus now should be on the Tsarnaevs as homegrown terrorists, not on the ethnic or regional origins of their family. Journalists’ initial conversations with family members in Dagestan amplify that point: a sense of shock that two nice boys who had gone to America for their education could have been involved in such a brutal act. Dzhokhar, for example, was reportedly a successful student and...
Boston on lockdown. One suspect dead. One--apparently a CRLS graduate--still at large. The fact is that we still don't have adequate information for much in the way of meaningful speculation. But I do think it useful to call attention to three related issues: One of the major memes developing among the online national-security community is a welcome one: dread about the inevitable emergence of self-styled regional experts and terrorism-analyst...
On this awful news week, I'm feeling like some Thursday Morning Linkage needs a little opening joy before launching into the useful reads of the week: Here are some useful Africa-centric readings on this awful, awful news week: Cullen Hendrix examines the links between food price rises, regime type, and subsidy policies in Africa Jennifer Bussell researches why some African governments are more able to prepare for and respond to potential...
The Yale H. Ferguson Book Award The Yale H. Ferguson award, presented by International Studies Association-Northeast, recognizes the book that most advances the vibrancy of international studies as a pluralist discipline. Any book or edited volume published within the field of international studies in the previous calendar year is eligible for consideration. The award winner is selected based on two criteria: (1) that it makes an outstanding...
With the increased likelihood that Assad will fall, even were he to hang on until a Gaddafi-style bitter end, pressure is mounting on the U.S., Europe, and Turkey inter alia to come up with a game plan for the post-endgame. The good news is progress is rapidly being made: stepped up aid from the U.S., aid from Europe, intelligence sharing among Turkey-Jordan-US-Europe, and direct training of Syrian opposition forces. All of this may be...
Because we don't know enough to engage in anything resembling responsible commentary. And those things that we can say something worthwhile about--including comparisons with other terrorist attacks past and present, such as what happened on the same day in Iraq; and the socio-political dynamics of the US response so far--don't exactly demand my input. That's all.
Via Marginal Revolution, the always-interesting Xavier Marquez writes about Randall Collins' sociology. [Abandoned Footnotes] Obama staffers find jobs in white-shoe Washington. It turns out that the new boss is much the same as the old boss [The New Republic] Phil Schrodt talks about GDELT: Global Data on Events, Location, and Tone, a global events database that Jay Ulfelder has called the future of political science. Rolf Friedheim gives a...