by Jon Western | 22 Oct 2012 | Featured
I'm guessing we'll get more of the standard fare tonight: that the Benghazi attacks were bad; that Iran has to be deterred (will Romney bring Bibi's bomb sketch?), that Syria is tragic, that the Arab Spring is scary, and that China and Russia are both really mean. Afghanistan will get some attention, Iraq almost none. Apparently, Bob Schieffer is not going to address a broader list but if he does, here are three issues I'd...
by Dan Nexon | 22 Oct 2012 | Featured
Dan Drezner is very unhappy about the outline for tonight's foreign-policy debate. If he's got the list of sections right, I'll be pretty outraged as well. So I guess we'll just talk the drinking game. My suggestions: take a swig of your favorite beverage whenever you hear: "resolve," "apologize," "values," "economy." "credibility," "unravelling," "strength," "exceptionalism," "that's just not true," "energy independence,"and "kill." David...
by Phil Arena | 21 Oct 2012 | Featured
To the best of my knowledge, no prominent peer-reviewed article in political science has reported a difference in the frequency with which the United States enters into conflict under Democratic presidents relative to Republican presidents. That's not because no one has looked for such a difference (I know I have). It's because, to date, no one has found one. This is the file drawer problem in action. Now, we want to be careful not to...
by Steve Saideman | 20 Oct 2012 | Featured
No, not conscription (see what I did there), but sports drafts where teams take turns picking the next generation of superstars/busts. I am inspired to think about this as October is when anxiety of academic job aspirants begins to spiral. The thread du jour is whether the job market is "fair." As some get heaps of love and attention, others do not, leading them to ponder their fate. But if we think about the job market as a draft* (despite...
by Dan Nexon | 20 Oct 2012 | Featured
PG-13 lyrics. Via Kieran Healy.
by Dan Nexon | 20 Oct 2012 | Featured
As readers have likely noticed, we're in the process of shifting from our temporary template to what will likely be our permanent one. Laura S. is still working out some of the glitches created by the shift, such as the fact that our sidebar is displaying below the main blog! It will probably be a bit before everything works properly and we've introduced all of the changes associated with the new template. Thanks for your patience. A few links:...
by Charli Carpenter | 19 Oct 2012 | Featured
Guest Post by Andrew Mack, Human Security Report Project. We obviously agree with Megan Mackenzie’s affirmation that the mainstream narrative on wartime sexual violence ignores sexual violence against males and domestic sexual violence––even though the latter is far more prevalent than rape by combatants. With respect to other claims in her review of our just-released Human Security Report we disagree: We did not “revive” the “war is declining”...
by Charli Carpenter | 19 Oct 2012 | Featured
My 10-year-old nugget, who by the way is now also a political commentator you can follow on Twitter, was asking about the official trailer for the new Ender's Game movie - partly because he's inspired by the idea of kids using online media to effect political discourse. Unfortunately there is no trailer since the release date is still a year away. Instead here is (allegedly) Orson Scott Card's favorite of the many, many fan trailers. See how...
by Dan Nexon | 19 Oct 2012 | Featured
My interview with Madeline Ashby about her debut novel, Vn, is now up at New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Argentina, Australia, Luxembourg, Rwanda, and South Korea elected to UN security council. At Democracy Arsenal Bill French has a two-part (1,2) series on US maritime strategy in the Pacific. Juan Cole on recent developments in the Syrian civil war. Patrick Chovanec discusses, on NPR, the "meltdown" of the Chinese solar-power...
by Betcy Jose | 18 Oct 2012 | Featured
The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) recently determined that the situation in the entire country of Syria can be classified as a non-international armed conflict. While this may not have been news to many watching events unfold there, what makes this statement interesting is that this position differed from the position advanced in May 2012 by then ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger. At that time, Kellenberger claimed that...
by Dan Nexon | 18 Oct 2012 | Featured
Germany calls for the EU to transition to economic empire. John R. Deni makes the case for a US forward presence in Europe (via Paul MacDonald). Nick Bisley examines the meaning of "Indo-Pacific" for geopolitical order. Mark Leon Goldberg tells us what to watch for in the UN security council elections. Brendon Nyhan unfavorably contrasts local with national debate coverage. Noah Smith on the place of math in economics. No relevance for...
by Dan Nexon | 17 Oct 2012 | Featured
This may not be the worst (professional, major record label) video of all time, but it certainly makes a strong bid for the title. Do you have any suggestions for worse videos?