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...
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Tuesday Morning Linkage
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...
A warning to parents
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...
Call for Papers: Popular Culture and World Politics
Flyer below. Posting does not indicate endorsement. But it does look cool.
Against Journal Impact Factors
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...
Monday Morning Linkage
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...
Saturday Afternoon Video
Note: I'm on the road, so no Morning Linkage (at least from me) today -- and likely tomorrow.
Friday Nerd(ish) Blegging: Is Soledad Obrien Taking Cues From HBO?
The Internets have exploded around Soledad O'Brien's witty yet friendly push-back against numerous interviewees who refuse to be fazed by facts.I don't know about your interpretation of this. But watching her politely yet firmly refuse to look her viewers in the eye and lie about the facts reminds me of nothing less than the fictional newsroom of Aaron Sworkin's new HBO series "Newsroom."Indeed, one might interpret this scene from early in the...
Wight’s “Incommensurability” – An “End of IR Theory” Related Link
SAGE has temporarily un-gated Colin Wight's "Incommensurability and Cross-Paradigm Communication in International Relations Theory: 'What's the Frequency Kenneth?'" Millennium - Journal of International Studies 1996, 25: 291 (PDF). Get it while its hot! Thanks to, and via, David Mainwaring.
Podcast No. 5 – Interview with Ted Hopf
2012 interview with Ted Hopf.
Friday Morning Linkage
The Chinese debate over the collapse of the Soviet Union (via Rob Farley)The new labour movement in Jordan (via Laleh Khalili)Syrian rebels parade captured "Iranian drones" on YouTube. Ian Hall argues that the US enjoys preponderance, but not primacy, in Asia, and that this matters a great deal for US-Sino relations. Taylor Favrel links to his working paper on "The United States in the South China Sea Dispute" (PDF).David Schorr...
Thursday Morning Linkage
Militant Islamists attack a major airbase in Pakistan.Jeffrey Lewis on recent leaks concerning US intelligence reassessing Iran's nuclear program: "One thing I learned living in Washington is that intelligence leaks are usually the losing side of an argument."Michael Cohen searches for the "Incredible Shrinking GOP Foreign-Policy Expert."Ezra Klein points out that the Presidential candidates talk issues... while the media focuses on...