For all you fans of 'Dictator Survivor: Africa,' the forthcoming episode is sure to be the most dramatic one yet. Before this year, fans had gotten tired of some of the story lines and characters (I mean it seems obvious that Mugabe will win, so why bother watching right?), but this last season the international community producers have really intervened to make things more interesting. Forget about Charles Tayor. Sure he was considered at one...
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Anwar al-Awlaki and Targeted Killing: A quick, first, and uneasy reaction
*post written with comments from fellow duck Ben O'LoughlinThe world media is reporting that Anwar al-Awlaki has been killed in Yemen – although details are very sketchy at this point. It is very clear to me that Awlaki was not a particularly nice person – he advocated some rather terrible things (even before 9/11 supposedly radicalised him). His followers have been certainly linked to terrorism, including the Fort Hood shooting. However, I...
Our new Fall line-up
We're welcoming a couple of new guest bloggers to Duck. Jay Ulfelder, who blogs at Dart Throwing Chimps, is a political scientist who does excellent work forecasting regime survival and change, democratization, and violent conflict. And Erica Chenoweth from Wesleyan University will be posting as Rational Insurgent -- also the name of her blog. She's done some amazing work on terrorism and most recently on civil resistance and non-violent...
Friday Nerd Blogging
How the author coded the characters either for "good" or "lawful" certainly beggars the imagination. That said, as an out and proud political scientist I cannot help but appreciate a handy 3x3 grid wherever I can get one... H/T selfishmeme
“Magic Democracy Words” Don’t Tie Their Speaker’s Hands
In an August 30 piece for BBC News, Shashank Joshi, a graduate student at Harvard University and associate fellow at a major U.K. think tank, argued that strong statements from American officials about Syrian president Assad's loss of legitimacy would help advance the Syrian revolution by committing the U.S. to stronger courses of action. Joshi writes (emphasis added):The Syrian revolution of 2011 could also have been one more of those many...
Terrorism in Democracies
Yesterday the FBI arrested a Massachusetts man, who has been subsequently charged with a number of crimes related to terrorism. [1] This is the latest in a string of plots that the U.S. has successfully thwarted, yet it raises alarms for many Americans who have felt immune from Al-Qaeda-inspired terrorism on U.S. soil. Erik Dahl, of the Naval Postgraduate School, has identified dozens of credible plots (as many as 45 by jihadist-inspired groups...
Stuff Political Scientists Like #10 — a Degree from an Elite School
Political scientists like other political scientists with a Ph.D. degree from a good school. Those who go to Harvard or Yale or Berkeley are ‘well-trained.’ This means that they have successfully completed coursework in rigorous quantitative methods, not that they don’t pee on the floor. Schools with a good pedigree degree offer no guarantees on the latter. In fact, continence is unlikely. Different kennels elite departments are known for their...
The Aussie Military Accepts GI Janes into the Ranks
While the US and UK continue to debate the ways that women impact cohesion and combat effectiveness, effective immediately, the Australian military will allow women to participate in combat roles. Australia joins a small group of countries that have removed combat restrictions for women, which includes Canada, New Zealand, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Norway, Denmark, France, Serbia, Israel and Switzerland.Several individuals...
The World Is Waiting: U.S. Public Opinion and Climate Change
So, we're almost in October, and it's still 100 hundred degrees here in Texas. We have just endured the hottest summer on record for any state in the United States. Just last month, thousands of acres burned in a series of wildfires just outside Austin.September 2011 Texas FiresOur governor Rick Perry is running for the Republican nomination for president, and though climate change is not high on the agenda, he took time out of his busy...
Lest we forget about Somalia
The musician K'naan's haunting elegy for his country Somalia, wracked by famine:So, 20 summers after I left as a child, I found myself on my way back to Somalia with some concerned friends and colleagues. I hoped that my presence would let me shine a light into this darkness. Maybe spare even one life, a life equal to mine, from indifferently wasting away. But I am no statesman, nor a soldier. Just a man made fortunate by the power of the...
Obama Reveals his Superhero Powers at the UN
The world has been watching this week as the Palestinian Government prepares to make a bid to the Security Council for recognition as an independent state. Many thought Obama had backed himself into a corner with a statement last year declaring his support for Palestinian statehood. But never fear, the President's propensity to dilute astute political goals to the point of meaninglessness appears to be limitless. In fact, if Obama was a...
End of DADT
Today is a good day to mark the passing of a true injustice.