The big cats in political scientists like to hunt big game, the book contract at a “major university press.” Landing such a catch can feed oneself and his or her cubs for a long time, even for a lifetime. The “book at a major university press” can get you tenure. You will never have to eat again. Book editors are wily prey, however, and have adapted to their dangerous environment through a number of clever strategies, the most important of...
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Kim Jong Un’s Ascent (1): A Unique Negotiating Opportunity
Or maybe not…The following short piece for the Korean National Defense University was written after the Leap Day Deal, but before the rocket launch announcement. In the interim, the US has decided to cancel the leap day deal, which is entirely understandable, but a mistake nonetheless I think. NK’s elite has to do something for Kim Il Sung’s 100th birthday this month (the cause of the launch); the regime depends on these sorts of shows. But...
Has US political communication risen from the dead?
The 2012 International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Convention in San Diego this week was a good opportunity to test the state of US political communication. Studies of political communication in previous ISAs have been marked by an obsession with analyzing media content then extrapolating about how politics or IR works. The latest content analysis of the New York Times and Washington Post is presented as if this is a bellweather for public...
Pop Culture Narratives in World Politics: A Bleg
I will be on a panel at 1.45pm in Indigo A with the following description:There has been a growing body of work in world politics that relies on or analyzes fictional narratives. To what extent can cultutal phenomena like Battlestar Galactica or Harry Potter be used as for pedagogical purposes in the classroom? How useful are such narratives as data points to either explicate or substantiate theoretical claims in world politics? This roundtable...
China’s Counter to the Asian ‘Pivot’ (2): ‘Swarms’ in the Pacific
Part one is here, where I noted China’s growing fear of encirclement (I get Chinese students a lot who talk about this). So, in the role of China, I argued for an Indian charm offensive to prevent encirclement, and how China might buy off Korea from the US camp by abandoning North Korea. Here are some more ‘B-Team’ style ideas for pushing back on US local dominance, including swarming the US navy in the western Pacific with cheap drones and...
Transnational Politics, i(I)r(R) and the Information Age
Today I presented some thoughts on Henry Farrell's International Studies Association panel on "Transnational Politics and the Information Age." The panel, which included Joe Nye, Dan Drezner, Marty Finnemore and Abe Newman, looked at the subject fairly broadly:Public debates over the politics of the information age have been dominated by a battle between cyberoptimists, who believe that the Internet will lead to a fundamental transformation of...
China’s Counter to the Asian ‘Pivot’ (1): Korea, India
So the US is supposedly going to pivot to Asia and start worrying more about China. This makes sense (which is probably why we won’t do it). The Middle East has become a pretty terrible sinkhole of American power. Increasingly the verdict on the war on terrorism is negative, and we should probably retrench from the Middle East (but we won’t because of the religious right’s interest in the region). Mearsheimer argued that if it weren’t for 9/11...
Friday Nerd Blogging
Just in time for Game of Thrones' Season 2 (which happens inconveniently right in the middle of ISA), Foreign Affairs has posted this constructivist riposte to the foreign policy commentariat's realism-worship-fest from last Season (warning: contains Season 1 spoilers):Commentary by foreign policy analysts on the first season of HBO's Game of Thrones stressed its supposed underlying theme of political realism. Thus one writer claimed that the...
Just a Physician? Jim Kim’s Candidacy for the World Bank
My colleague Kate Weaver has written a nuanced take on this blog on the race for the World Bank presidency, that whoever succeeds Robert Zoellick will have an especially tricky go of it ensuring the organization's relevance at a time of fiscal austerity and changes in the global balance of power.Since Kate's post, opponents of the U.S. nominee Dr. Jim Kim, currently head of Dartmouth College and formerly head of the World Health Organization's...
Ultimate IR
Forget about whether we are too narrow, too closed, too whatever. Instead, figure out this: can I make time for Ultimate at the ISA in San Diego? Yes, yes, you can. Due to popular demand, I have organized a time and a place for an informal game of Ultimate. As the picture below shows, there is a field next to the hotel that we can use for a quick game. All you need to bring are white and dark shirts and your enthusiasm. I will provide the...
Professionalization and the Poverty of IR Theory
[I wrote the bulk of this post very late at night while suffering a bout of insomnia. In the end, I ran out of energy and called it quits. Thus, I've edited the post for the purpose of clarity and style. Major content updates are in blue text (bad idea, now abandoned].[2nd Update: I called this post the poverty of IR Theory not the poverty of IR. There's a difference.]PM's post on getting into political-science PhD programs continues to provoke...
2012 ISA-NE Call for Papers
The call for papers is below the fold. International Studies Association-Northeast Annual Conference 2-3 November 2012 Tremont Plaza Hotel, Baltimore, MD, USA Submission deadline: 29 June 2012The annual conference of the International Studies Association-Northeast (ISA-NE) will be held 2-3 November 2012 at the Tremont Plaza Hotel & Grand Historic Venue in Baltimore, Maryland. ISA-NE invites paper and panel proposals on any subject related to...