I procrastinate by reading productivity blogs, in the hopes that the Universe will somehow find the irony funny enough to let me avoid the consequences of procrastination. (In year ten of this experiment, I can only say so far that the results are not what I initially desired.) One happy consequence of this habit is that I have picked up a few tools which do actually make me more productive. So, in the spirit of Charli's nerd-bloggin' Fridays,...
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The US Department of Defense Law of War Manual: An Update
They're updating this. I have a report in the 2009 (they're a bit behind...just go with it) Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law on efforts to produce a new service-wide US Department of Defence Law of War Manual. This would replace FM 27-10 and (should it ever see the light of day...just go with it) will be an incredibly important statement of US practice on the laws of war.I consulted on and observed this project from August-December...
Do words matter?
The Obama administration's rhetorical escalation on Syria this week seems to have generated quite a bit of skepticism that it will have any effect. Drezner sees it as mostly harmless and won't really do any good. Daniel Serwer thinks for it to be effective, others are going to have to push harder. Andrew Sullivan finds Assad unfazed. True to form, the Neocons see it as too little. On one level these are fair points -- if the sole measure of...
Clashing Networks and Foreign Policy
Anne Marie Slaughter and Dan Drezner had an interesting debate last week on the role of nonstate actors in foreign policy. AMS stakes out a “modern/liberal-social” position highlighting the role of nonstate actors, whereas DD takes a “subtle realist” view, maintaining the priority of states and national interests. DD sums up their differences this way:I'm skeptical about the viability of transnational interests to effectively pressure multiple...
Zombie Objections
Rodger's post about the commercial success of Dan Drezner's Theories of International Politics and Zombies joins a long line of fellow Ducks' quacking about this book. I've been a part of the conversation, too, but I can write about the book from a perspective that I think is unique: I've just finished teaching an introductory course where I assigned the book. (Hence my complete lack of posting over the past several weeks.) In other words, not...
Understanding Zombie Comedy
Earlier this week, Tufts professor Dan Drezner tweeted that his Theory of International Politics and Zombies book has now sold more than 10,000 copies. That's a huge total by academic standards and I sincerely congratulate Drezner on his success.Fellow Duck of Minerva bloggers have previously written a good deal about zombies and Drezner's book. For Foreign Policy, Dan Nexon wrote a brief comment about Drezner's original article suggesting that...
Friday Nerd Blogging
I was not inclined to see this film because the trailers made it look like a dumb comedy about an annoying Jar-Jar-Binks-esque alien with a potty-mouth and some equally dumb human sidekicks. But having been force-fed Paul by my kids, I can now attest that it's not actually about aliens at all. Instead, it's about nerd culture and its antinomies in Western society. (Any film that incorporates spoken Klingon is ok in my book.)
Best exam question EVER!
I know it is hard to believe, but while most of the academic world is enjoying the last few weeks of university break, down under in Kiwi-land we're in the thick of the academic year. This year I tried out some new essay questions for my Gender and Post-Conflict Development and Feminist International Relations courses and I have to say- I created the best essay question ever. The suspense is killing you right? Here it is: You've been asked to...
Syllabus Bleg: Science Fiction (Updated)
I could use some help. As I did in the spring, I'm teaching a seminar on "Science Fiction and Politics." I'm working on some significant changes to the syllabus. The class will now meet twice a week, which has implications for its flow, and I want to teach some different works. But I'm flailing a bit about some aspects of the syllabus, particularly with respect to (1) short readings to pair with books and (2) some specific assignments. A rough...
Crunching Drone Death Numbers
The Monkey Cage has published a detailed guest post by Christine Fair on the drone casualty debate. Fair takes leading drone-casualty-counters (Bergen and Tiedeman's New America Foundation database and new numbers out from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism) to task for their methodology, in particular focusing on their sourcing: While these methodologies at first blush appear robust, they don’t account for a simple fact that non-Pakistani...
$h•! PTJ Says #1: justifying your theory and methodology
I am going to try writing down pieces of advice that I give to students all the time, in the hopes that they might be useful for people who can't make it to my office hours."The fact that no one else has approached topic X with your particular perspective is not a sufficient warrant for approaching topic X with your particular combination of theory and methodology. In order to get the reader on board, you have to basically issue a promissory...
Taking David Cameron to School……(Literally. This guy is stupid.)
I get most of my European news from the Financial Times, which I admit does make for a somewhat skewed perspective on British politics. You all do still wear top hats and monocles, right? But apparently Britain's Prime Minister is promoting, earlier than expected in the wake of the London riots, a tax credit for married or co-habiting couples with the belief that a two-parent family makes for a more stable home and fewer young thugs (or...