Taking Brian Rathbun’s advice, I was reading chapter 4 of Perception and Misperception, when it struck me that Jervis’ argument about values incongruity could be applied to the two most popular normative positions in IR today – that western power and international law can help reduce violence and nastiness in the world (R2P), and that a semi-imperial US is killing far too many people against a fairly minor threat and should retrench somewhat....
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Egghead
How are pieces of research like eggs? Well, I was having a fun conversation with a grad student of mine while we were dining in the aftermath of a workshop on failed states, and I was suggesting a potential research strategy. The point I was trying to make is that you don't want to waste your research. At first, I was using bullets--but given our topics, violence, and given that bullets do not degrade over time, eggs made more sense.The...
Friday Anti-Nerd Blogging: Headbanger Edition
I am not a nerd. I have tried to make this abundantly clear. So what if I just watched 12 episodes of Battlestar Galactica in the last week? That doesn’t PROVE anything. But I haven’t always been a fan of period pieces and pro football. My anti-nerdishness in high school expressed itself much differently – I was a metalhead. Not one of those poofy-haired spandex-pants-wearing metalheads. If you wore a Poison shirt to school, I’d have shunned...
Friday Nerd Blogging
Last week I posted the trailer. Yesterday, Volkswagen released its much awaited sequel to its "Vader Kid" Super Bowl Commercial from last year. The original: Which do readers think is funnier? Personally I think the "The Bark Side" wins. NPR considers what this ad strategy tells us about the future of marketing.
On Security Dilemmas and The Absurdity of Newt Gingrich
When he isn't comparing himself to Ronald Reagan (whose withdrawal of troops from Lebanon, arms control negotiations with Gorbachev, nuclear abolitionist visions and moderation on immigration, and general sunny persona suggest they aren't politically identical), Newt Gingrich says things like this:I would say that the most dangerous thing — which, by the way, Barack Obama just did — the Iranians are practicing closing the Strait of Hormuz,...
What I Learned Teaching IR in Asia (2): Show me the Policy Relevance!
<img alt="" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('1759f7b8-ce85-4d85-9908-1a05a3241644'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "";" src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/-IrEqvmmoxzk/TyDGRf8xCMI/AAAAAAAAADY/cyi1nmr4GXw/video3d19848df746%25255B9%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" />The robot special effects are pretty funnyPart one is here, where I noted how teaching IR in Asia taught me how to stop...
Superpowers Are What We Make of Them
The Economist lead story this week on China's Paradox of Prosperity offers some fascinating fodder for a lecture on constructivism: "In this issue we launch a weekly section devoted to China. It is the first time since we began our detailed coverage of the United States in 1942 that we have singled out a country in this way. The principal reason is that China is now an economic superpower and is fast becoming a military force capable of...
Toward Pracademia
Among the assigned readings for my new doctoral seminar in Human Security this week are a number of pieces from last year's International Studies Review Theory v. Practice Symposium. There are numerous fascinating pieces here, including Dan Drezner's case study on the evolution of "smart sanctions," Roland Paris' discussion of "fragile states" as a case study in epistemic agenda-setting, and Kittikhoun and Weiss' debunking "The Myth of...
GOP SotU Response Better than SotU (2) – Didn’t Expect that
Part one of my response to Obama’s 2012 State of the Union is here.3. The foreign policy section was weaker and more militaristic than usual. The opening bit about the Iraq war making us ‘safer and more respected around the world’ was jaw-dropping. I guess this really is a campaign speech outreach to the right, because I can’t believe any of the president’s 2008 voters actually buy that line. Does anyone believe that anymore, except for the...
Friday “I Really Am Just a Nerd” Blogging
I was shocked, shocked to read Brian Rathbun's characterization of me in a recent Canard as a "robot" who has only been posing as a Battlestar Galactica addict as part of my cover (!):The academic and foreign policy worlds were rocked today by the news that Charli Carpenter -- prolific academic, policy wonk, and mom -- is in fact a robot. An anonymous source told this paper: "There were the academic writings, then all the policy work, the grant...
GOP Response Better than SotU (1) – Wow, How’d that Happen?
Each year I try to write on the SotU (2010, 2011). I know they are preposterously scripted, usually forgettable, and almost meaningless as a guide for the upcoming policy season/budget debate. But the political scientist in me thinks that showing the whole panorama of democratic government in one room is hugely instructive for the both US citizenry and for foreigners interested in the US, as well as a great example of how democracies differ...
Friday Nerd Blogging
Even Brian Fratbun will have to admit this is pretty brilliant!More on the most anticipated Super Bowl Commercials of 2012.