I stayed up too late last night drinking cheap Scotch and playing Borderlands 2. Then I accidentally snagged the wife's computer -- she's somewhere that has a high of -40° today -- but, thanks to the wonders of multiple-user operating systems and Dropbox, I think I'll get some work today. Anyway.... I know that the point has been made before, but during the 2012 election the opposition party in the United States attacked the President...
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Silicon wafers: Why we need to move religion online
As one of the two great still-extant medieval institutions, the church confronts the digital age with a mixture of trepidation and hope. Hope, because congregations and ministers with online presence can build up new types of community and remain in contact through a variety of media; trepidation, because the church, like any incumbent industry, looks with fear at the fate of travel agents, small retailers, and print newspapers. Having seen...
10 Steps to Finishing a PhD Thesis (or book) in 6 Months
Most academics will admit to themselves and students that the majority of dissertations and books are written in a 6 month block of time (the remainder of the post focuses on a PhD process, but it can be easily applied to book writing). I'm talking here about the WRITING process- not the research, figuring out the question, organizing the chapters etc (no wizard can do all that in 6 months- at least not this wizard). But once you've done your...
Albert O. Hirschman (1915-2012)
If you haven't heard yet, Albert O. Hirschman passed away today. Some good discussion at Crooked Timber, including a link to a terrific piece by Rajiv Sethi. Hirschman's stature in the social sciences was of such magnitude that, while still alive, the Social Science Research Council named a lifetime achievement award after him. I don't have a great deal to add myself. I learned a tremendous amount from his works, including The Passions and the...
Tuesday Morning Links
Let's make like a blacksmith and forge some linkage: A detailed examination of how China's military-industrial complex is making surprising advances. (The Diplomat) Chris Blattman reviews James C. Scott's new Two Cheers For Anarchism. With 30 pages left to go, I can say that it should have been on my "best books read in 2012" list. Why do academic job searches take so long? One would expect that given the surfeit of applicants it would take...
International Studies Blogging Awards Update
With less than a month left to nominate awards and guarantee voting rights, here’s where we stand: Nominees for Best Blog (Group): Abu Muqawama Arms Control Wonk Crooked Timber The Disorder of Things IPE at UNC Kings of War Nominees for Best Blog (Individual): Abu Aardvark’s Middle East Blog (Marc Lynch) Chris Blattman Dart-Throwing Chimp (Jay Ulfelder) International Political Economy Zone (Emmanuel Yujuico) iRevolution (Patrick Meier) M....
Monday Morning Linkage
Morning Ducks! Here's your Monday morning round-up: South Asia: The US has informed the UN, in compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, that the US military detained more than 200 teens for about a year at a time on average in a military prison next to Bagram Airfield. Most of the children were around age 16 but some were as young as 11. The youth were kept in the general facility for "enemy combatants" population. Under...
Happy Hanukkah!
I am a very bad Jew: the kind who not only married a shiksa, but pretty much only does Hanukkah and Passover. Well, the wife's out of the country for the entire holiday this year, but Lyra and I managed to have a nice little first night before rushing off to her tumbling-and-trampoline clinic. I always find Chrismukkah challenging. How do I distribute the loot? How do I prevent an avalanche of gifts? As Lyra gets older, it gets easier; the...
Black Pete’s Breakout Year
It's that time of year that Dutch people living outside of Dutchland are beginning to hate: the time of Zwarte Piet. To be fair, the feast of Sinterklaas, a holiday that displays none of America's advanced marketing techniques, was a couple of days ago, but that actually just means that Americans and others have been recently primed to make conversations awkward for their Dutch friends at holiday parties. (This is distinctly different from...
Saturday Linkage
Musical Politics and Political Science: I'm currently downloading the free EP by Hey Anna, a well-reviewed band involving Mike Tierney's nieces. Hume's Bastard discusses PSY's profanity-laden anti-Iraq War stylings. More from Juan Cole. Apparently this is a big deal, or something, given the mass emails appearing in my inbox. Prosaic Politics and Political Science: Daniel Drezner weighs in on the political-science-job-market controversy....
Podcast No. 15 – Interview with Barry Buzan
2012 interview with Barry Buzan.
The All New, New Transatlantic Pivot – Trade
This is a guest post by Sean Kay. Professor Kay is chair of the International Studies program and professor of politics at Ohio Wesleyan University. He is also Mershon Associate at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at The Ohio State University. He has written extensively on NATO and Europe, with his most recent book, Global Security in the Twenty-first Century: The Quest for Power and the Search for Peace (2011). In a...