by Dan Nexon | 16 Jan 2013 | Featured
I should probably be wary of taunting the coming moopocalypse, but, as everyone knows, I laugh in the face of obsolescence. So, without further explanation, here are my top ten reasons for MOOCs: 10. The "sage on a stage" isn't just dead... she's undead and in high-definition. 9. Web 1.0 monetized those eyeballs like nobody's business. 8. When your acronym is homophonous with "mook" what could possibly go wrong? 7. MMOCs would probably be too...
by Adrienne LeBas | 16 Jan 2013 | Featured
This time last week, international intervention plans in Mali consisted of a rather under-powered African (ECOWAS) force, which was expected to arrive no earlier than September. This force was not backed by overpowering consensus. Nigeria and Mauritania, the two best-equipped militaries in the region, were reluctant to pledge serious troops. The United States insisted that free and fair presidential elections must precede any international...
by Dan Nexon | 16 Jan 2013 | Featured
Chris Blattman links to a paper (PDF) that finds no relationship between oil production and violence. He comments: Regardless what you believe, however, there’s a striking shortage of null results papers published in top journals, even when later papers overturn the results. I’m more and more sickened by the lack of interest in null results. All part of my growing disillusionment with economics and political science publishing (and most of our...
by Dan Nexon | 16 Jan 2013 | Featured
In the spirit of last night's post, two blogs worth reading: Empirical Legal Studies and The Cultural Cognition Project at Yale. Here's Carolyn Shapiro at the former talking about two posts by Dan Kahan at the latter. Every once in a while I attempt to goad PTJ by sending him links to pieces that are sure to raise his hackles. I tried that with Gary King's "all your case studies are belong to us" paper (PDF). Now I'm trying it with Phil...
by Dan Nexon | 15 Jan 2013 | Featured
PM's latest post, "Nobody cares about foreign policy" (note to self: we need a style manual to resolve whether, for example, post titles should be capitalized), was prompted by a proseminar we both attended on Monday. At this proseminar, the always-interesting and invariably thoughtful Elizabeth Saunders presented part of her book project: a paper entitled "The Electoral Disconnection in US Foreign Policy." Among other things, Saunders argues...
by PM | 15 Jan 2013 | Featured
It bears repeating that nobody votes on foreign policy, and most folks don't know anything about it anyway (remember that a nontrivial number of Americans think South Korea is our greatest enemy). I'll quote myself: [N]obody gives a damn about foreign policy. Theories of democratic responsiveness and empirical models of foreign policy choice need to begin with this fact. Nobody cares! That thing we do? The international relations bit? It's...
by PM | 15 Jan 2013 | Featured
Good morning, Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ducks at sea! China The New York Times reports Western studios are giving Chinese censors early access to their films. Wikipedia's background on Chinese film censorship. Alyssa Rosenberg discussed this in June. Some Chinese directors don't like censorship Some in Taiwan are suspicious of cross-strait media deals More traditional censorship of Chinese media persists (more, more) But the media can...
by Jeffrey Stacey | 14 Jan 2013 | Featured
Quite a weekend, the opening of Zero Dark Thirty in the U.S. reminding everyone of the interventionist elements of the Obama Doctrine (see my next post) and a full-fledged French intervention in Mali, not to mention U.S. assistance with a French hostage liberation operation tucked away on the inside pages. Washington, D.C. is a funny place these days...all but two of the think tanks here are obsessed with the rise of China and just about the...
by Vikash Yadav | 14 Jan 2013 | Featured
Good mornin', here's your morning linkage... Mali Pascal Fletcher provides a good analysis of the challenges ahead for the French-led intervention in Mali. Angelique Chrisafis also examines the domestic stakes and neo-colonial implications of Mr. Hollande's War. Saudi Arabia The Saudi government beheaded a maid, who was a minor employed for two weeks when a child in her care died. She was tried without legal representation. Executing a minor...
by Dan Nexon | 13 Jan 2013 | Featured
Me: And, in fact, bargaining theory suggests that [abandoning the "platinum coin" option] strengthens Obama’s hand. Krugman: Meanwhile, I get calls. The White House insists that it is absolutely, positively not going to cave or indeed even negotiate over the debt ceiling — that it rejected the coin option as a gesture of strength, as a way to put the onus for avoiding default entirely on the GOP.
by Dan Nexon | 13 Jan 2013 | Featured
I completely forgot to flog this at the Duck. I'm sure that disappointed, oh, about zero people. Nonetheless, I persevere. From the write up: I first learned about Felix Gilman‘s work from the influential academic blog Crooked Timber. I proceeded to read Thunderer, Gears of the City, and Half-Made World and found myself impressed by Gilman’s distinctive settings, themes, and voice. It should surprise no one, in my view, that Thunderer received...
by Dan Nexon | 12 Jan 2013 | Featured
Some prominent liberal commentators are upset that Treasury and the Fed have ruled out the "$1 trillion coin" option. The basic reasoning: the declaration weakens the President's bargaining position and forecloses a way that it could have ameliorated the consequences of a failure to extend the debt limit. I suspect that the reason for the declaration was sincere: key players believe that it is neither legal nor prudent. The second is Ezra...