by Jon Western | 20 Aug 2011 |
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...
by Cliff Bob | 20 Aug 2011 |
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...
by PM | 19 Aug 2011 | Featured
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...
by Rodger Payne | 19 Aug 2011 |
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...
by Charli Carpenter | 19 Aug 2011 |
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.)
by Megan MacKenzie | 18 Aug 2011 |
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...
by Dan Nexon | 18 Aug 2011 |
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...
by Charli Carpenter | 18 Aug 2011 |
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...
by Patrick Thaddeus Jackson | 17 Aug 2011 |
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...
by Brian Rathbun | 17 Aug 2011 |
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...
by Josh Busby | 16 Aug 2011 |
So, I mentioned in a previous post on the debt ceiling that my wife and I were expecting the birth of our first child. Our son, Guy William, was born this past week, and I couldn't resist sharing our news. His namesake is my friend Guy Hughes, who died tragically five years ago in a climbing accident.Guy was a tireless advocate for global justice, and I have no doubt that he would have fiercely been defending the needs of those suffering from...
by Alana Tiemessen | 16 Aug 2011 |
If you find the argument that famine is man-made to be credible, then famine is not just an inevitable outcome of the structural conditions of "failed states" but rather it is purposeful, systematic, and systemic human rights abuse and therefore criminal. Those who make the argument that the current famine in East Africa is man-made place more blame on political problems of restricted access, entitlements and aid management than the...