by Dan Nexon | 22 Aug 2012 |
Most of the attention paid to Ferguson's anti-Obama Newsweek cover story has focused on his mendacious and unprofessional discussion of the administration's domestic policies -- notably its stimulus and health-care legislation.Less attention has been paid to his foreign-policy criticisms. These are not so much mendacious as the kind of thing you'd expect from a third-rate op-ed hack. Obama didn't use the Oval Office's magical chalice to add +10...
by PM | 22 Aug 2012 | Featured
The caption for this photo is, no joke, "All the experts posing for a group photo after the event."So, here's all the experts.Conventional wisdom from a foreign-policy expert: It is one of the truisms of our time that because of the sensational development of communications and transportation, the globe has shrunk with distances between formerly far-away countries having been reduced to mere hours of flight time. We all pay continuous lip...
by Cliff Bob | 21 Aug 2012 |
UN members last month failed to reach agreement on the Arms Trade Treaty after a month-long conference. This is the latest setback in a decades old attempt to control the trade in small arms. A broad network of states, NGOs, and the UN bureaucracy had pushed for the treaty and earlier measures. In their view, proliferation of guns contributes to hundreds of thousands of casualties per year in conflict zones and to large numbers of shooting...
by Dan Nexon | 21 Aug 2012 |
APThis is a guest post by Peter S. Henne. Peter is a doctoral candidate at Georgetown University. He formerly worked as a national security consultant. His research focuses on terrorism and religious conflict; he has also written on the role of faith in US foreign policy. During 2012-2013 he will be a fellow at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia. With Remi Brulin's piece on Foreign Policy today, the debate over the "terrorism...
by Dan Nexon | 21 Aug 2012 |
On Facebook, someone familiar to readers of this blog wrote: "As readers of Weber know, there are three forms of legitimate rape: forcible, fraternity, and rational-legal." But enough of that neo-Weberian claptrap. As a good paleo-Weberian knows, the ideal types here remain traditional, charismatic, and legal-rational. And these help us to understand the political backlash over Rep. Aiken's Aken's "unfortunate" choice of words.Aken subscribes...
by Dan Nexon | 21 Aug 2012 |
One of the questions heard around the mid-tier blogsphere "why doesn't anybody comment anymore?" Answers usually invoke 'big think' claims about the changing ecology and norms of blogging, the topics addressed at particular blogs, and so on. Here at the Duck, I tend not to worry about this kind of thing. After all, I know we have a decent number of regulars. Certain posts generate good discussions. Disqus is kind of a pain. Some months, such as...
by Dan Nexon | 21 Aug 2012 |
It is Difficult to Produce "Morning Linkage" While Occupied by a Large Cat Mona El-Ghobashy on the emerging relationship between President Mursi and SCAF in Egypt (via Laleh Khlelili) Covering the Syrian civil war (via Marc Lynch).Joshua Foust and Ashley S. Boyle have a report (PDF) on the "strategic context" of drone warfare (via Chris Fair).Phil Arena weighs in on the great "terrorism experts" debate.Ken MacLeod takes Neal Stephanson to...
by PM | 21 Aug 2012 | Featured
Just say no to theory.Parents: Are you worried that your college students aren't interested in the real world anymore? Are they growing distant from conversations about foreign policy at the dinner table? Are your college students getting involved with international relations theory? Could it lead to a destructive path toward an M.A.--or even a Ph.D.?If you're worried that your child could become a graduate student, you need to know the warning...
by Dan Nexon | 20 Aug 2012 |
Flyer below. Posting does not indicate endorsement. But it does look cool.
by Dan Nexon | 20 Aug 2012 |
There's a fascinating post making the rounds. In it, Stephen Curry discusses the history and abuse of journal impact-factor data. Curry links alternatives to the rise of open-access publications and new-media discussion of research findings. Twenty years on from Seglen’s analysis a new paper by Jerome Vanclay from Southern Cross University in Australia has reiterated the statistical ineptitude of using arithmetic means to rank journals and...
by Dan Nexon | 20 Aug 2012 |
Jonathan Rue discusses the continuing wave of "green-on-blue" attacks in Afghanistan.Sertaç Sehlikoglu-Karakas on the Olympics, "sporting bodies," and Islam. Dan Trombly argues that the Colombian counter-insurgency effort contradicts COIN conventional wisdom. Jamestown China Brief: "Taiwan Rebalances in the Near Seas."Jay doesn't think much of the role of "legitimacy" in causal explanations: "In statistical terms, legitimacy is the label we...
by Dan Nexon | 18 Aug 2012 |
Note: I'm on the road, so no Morning Linkage (at least from me) today -- and likely tomorrow.