by Dan Nexon | 31 Oct 2012 | Featured
The impact (so far) of the Syrian civil war on Hizballah (via Andrew Exum). UK conservatives want to export (further) austerity to the EU budget. Steve Saideman's take on the "future of Star Wars." John Scalzi thinks Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm is a good thing for the franchise. PTJ agrees. Indeed, it seems as if everyone is invoking the Marvel precedent. That's really all I have time for this morning. All the best to our readers and...
by Phil Arena | 31 Oct 2012 | Featured
Many conversations about the empirical relevance of game-theoretic models of war begin and end with Bueno de Mesquita and Lalman's War and Reason. That's unfortunate, but it's not exactly surprising. Most game-theoretic studies of war do not include any empirical analysis, whereas War and Reason offered a systematic analysis of European dyads. The standards by which BdM and Lalman would have the predictions of the International Interactions...
by Patrick Thaddeus Jackson | 30 Oct 2012 | Featured
Full disclosure: I am incapable of being completely, or even mainly, a detached observer or commentator when discussing either Star Wars or Disney, having grown up largely surrounded by both enterprises in equal measure. Anyone who walks into my office sees, hanging over my computer, two posters: a 50th anniversary Fantasia one-sheet, and an Episode I theatrical teaser poster. And chances are if it's the first time you've come to visit me...
by Dan Nexon | 30 Oct 2012 | Featured
The ISA-NE conference scheduled for 2-3 November in Baltimore, Maryland will take place as scheduled. Official emails are going out. Hope to see attendees there.
by Dan Nexon | 30 Oct 2012 | Featured
The ISA-NE leadership hopes to make a decision by 1200 EDT concerning the status of the conference. While the DC area looks like it should be navigable by Thursday, we don't have good information about Baltimore or about what the state of east-coast travel will be like. The Baltimore Sun is pretty useless. Any commentary from readers in Baltimore would be appreciated. If you haven't been paying attention, the situation in New York an New Jersey...
by Vikash Yadav | 29 Oct 2012 | Featured
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard stated last Sunday that every Australian child should learn Mandarin, Hindi, or other regional languages as part of Australia's embrace of the Asian Century. While her new agenda set out in a 300 page report has received its share of harsh criticism and questions about funding, one has to admire the audacity of Gillard's vision of an Australia that seeks to engage Asian states and societies through an...
by PM | 29 Oct 2012 | Featured
A cultural milestone has been passed: Political science is now science-y enough that XKCD pays attention.
by Vikash Yadav | 29 Oct 2012 | Featured
What?? It was too good to resist...
by PM | 29 Oct 2012 | Featured
Florida Governor Rick Scott is considering changing the cost of different college majors at Florida's public colleges to influence students' choices. The reasoning is standard rightist dirigisme: STEM degrees would cost less, and artsy ones would cost more, because STEM = jerbs and, presumably, English = liberals. Debate over the proposal has broken down along the usual lines. Unsurprisingly, Marginal Revolution co-blogger Alex Tabarrok offers...
by Dan Nexon | 29 Oct 2012 | Featured
Last year Nate Silver posted numbers going back to 1972. Bottom line: for Obama and Romney to be running roughly even at this point tracks with 2004--and represents an improvement for the Democrat over most pre-2004 cycles. Obama picked up a number of normally Republican-endorsing pages in 2008, which tracks with the general revulsion against the Bush era that swept the country that year. The fact that many of those pages are switching back...
by Dan Nexon | 29 Oct 2012 | Featured
Follow Mitt Romney's storm tips on twitter. Remember that Sandy has already killed over 60 people in the Caribbean, and that many of those deaths are tied (in one way or another) to the unequal distribution of global wealth. Star Wars pork, or how to alienate the Jedi voting bloc? Over at The Disorder of Things, Pablo K. weighs in on the Human Security Report and engages with Megan's critique here at the Duck. Natural-resource policy for Burma....
by Dan Nexon | 27 Oct 2012 | Featured
My daughter is very anxious that Mitt Romney might win the election. Before that she was worried about the European monetary crisis and what might happen if Greece defaults. This suggest that the problem is less one of our partisanship than of growing up the kid of international-affairs specialists who listen to the news during the morning commute. Regardless, her anxiety suggested it was time for "the talk." We'd already had the "Republicans...