by PM | 26 Jul 2012 | Featured
The running through of the bullsSomeone asked me the other day whether I had read any books for fun recently. Caught up as I was in compiling the lit review for one project and writing lectures for an introductory class, I couldn't think of anything--the words "fun" and "reading" at the moment were almost precise antitheses. (Having read large numbers of scholarly treatises is enjoyable. Plowing through large numbers of monographs is...
by Jon Western | 25 Jul 2012 |
Yesterday's IMF report on China "praised China's leaders" for responding quickly to its recent economic slowdown and concluded that "China's economy seems to be undergoing a soft landing, though global headwinds are increasing." It also repeated increasingly frequent warnings about the fragility of the banking sector and suggested that there are "significant downsize risks" ahead in China. China may have a soft landing amid the current...
by Dan Nexon | 25 Jul 2012 |
by Dan Nexon | 25 Jul 2012 |
As might (or might not) be clear from recent activity, we're getting an increasing number of requests for guest postings, guest blogging, and links.I'll put up a permanent "policies" pages soonish, but for now:Yes, we love love love guest posts. However, we are biased toward academics, academics in training, and cognate types. Just send one of us a nice email and we'll see if we can make something happen.We are extremely flattered when we get...
by Dan Nexon | 25 Jul 2012 |
I'm out of town, so this is the best I can do. And since one post with Dunecat isn't enough....Climate:'Tis the summer of depressing climate news. Today is Greenland edition (via). Syria:Dan Byman urges full US support for the rebels. Rob Farley discusses CJ Chivers analysis of the impact of rebel-deployed IEDs on the Syrian army.Russia:A long essay by Greg Afinogenov on Putin's Russia and current protests there. Afinogenov argues that Putinism...
by Josh Busby | 24 Jul 2012 |
The International AIDS Society conference began Sunday in DC, the first time the conference has been held in the United States since 1990 because of the now-lifted travel ban on HIV+ people coming to the U.S. That means that 25,000 activists, researchers and clinicians have converged on DC and what seems like a fanciful goal - an AIDS-free generation. Given that donor foreign assistance budgets are increasingly constrained around the world,...
by Dan Nexon | 24 Jul 2012 |
Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer (writing at the Fair Observer) argues that there's no double-standard problem because the Libyan intervention did not establish or reflect a generalized responsibility to protect.The R2P is a slogan that has some media efficacy but a rather dubious legal existence. That does not prevent the majority of observers asserting that it was the basis of Resolution 1973, authorizing intervention in Libya. That is not true...
by PM | 24 Jul 2012 | Featured
The logic of inappropriatenessBelow, Scott Weiner argues that Carly Rae Jepsen's song "Call Me Maybe" is an illustration of the dynamics of standard game-theory models, specifically the prisoner's dilemma and stag hunt. Weiner assumes that Jepsen is a rational actor, that both Jepsen and her beau are better off being together than being apart or with different partners, and that Jepsen is rationally choosing to communicate her availability to...
by Dan Nexon | 24 Jul 2012 |
This is a guest post by Scott Weiner, a PhD student in Political Science at George Washington University.One of this summer's most popular hit singles is "Call Me Maybe" by pop artist Carly Rae Jepsen. In the song, Carly attempts to score a date with an attractive male by giving him her number and asking him to call her in order to set up the outing. This strategy is eventually successful, and while the male "took his time with the call," Carly...
by Dan Nexon | 24 Jul 2012 |
Globalization of Law:Honduras looking into limited outsourcing of criminal justice to Britain (via).David Weigel draws from Cliff's Global Right Wing in an article on the NRA's quest to globalize gun rights (via Dan Drezner).Economic Armageddon, Round II:If you haven't been paying attention to what's happening in Europe, you should be. Education:Chris Lehmann at Practical Theory: "there are a lot of powerful folks right now who are advocating...
by Dan Nexon | 23 Jul 2012 |
The Punjab Assembly displays a sophisticated view of ontology. Or it just makes your head hurt.Ostrich, a heavy flightless bird of African origin, was officially declared ‘an animal’ on Wednesday when Punjab Assembly passed a bill overruling the objections raised by the Punjab governor who had refused to sign it, saying, it was a ‘bird’ covered under the definition of exotic species not native to Pakistan.This move isn't quite as weird in the...
by Dan Nexon | 23 Jul 2012 |
MANOS: The Hands of Fate is supposedly getting an iOS game. But fans of MST3K are probably much more excited about the Rifftrax live MANOS event on August 16.Dan Drezner takes on the ridiculous Jennifer Rubin piece on how Romney should attack Obama foreign policy. Drezner has regular commentators who are better conservative foreign-policy critics than the people dominating MSM op-ed space.Andrew Yeo responds to Jennifer Lind's analysis of the...