We saw HPatDHpt2 (as the young'ns are calling it) this evening. It was quite good: action-packed, emotionally satisfying, and all that. We sat next to a group of hipster teenagers who were extremely psyched throughout the whole thing--they clapped, they cheered, and were very upset when my daughter interjected commentary ("That's a lot of Death Eaters!"). This provided an important reminder of how a whole generation of kids grew up with -- or,...
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Impunity Gap: Sri Lanka
(see first post in this series: Mind the Impunity Gaps)There is increasing pressure for justice in Sri Lanka for crimes committed in the long civil war between the Government and secessionist Tamil Tigers (LTTE) and that ended in May 2009. While the Sri Lankan government has publicly pledged to ensure justice, there are legitimate concerns its current approach will not be genuine and sufficiently punitive, and will place the burden of guilt for...
Friday Nerd Blogging: Continuing the Tradition (Part the First)
When I was in graduate school I tried my hand at writing speculative fiction (SF) and fantasy. I even hung out on usenet groups and joined an online writing circle. I flatter myself that, with enough work, I might have improved the quality of my scribblings from "crappy" to "passable." It turns out that I chose the wrong career. It isn't just in the social sciences that atrocious writing, wooden characters, and unimaginative plot lines present...
Pan-Social-Media Bleg
I'm looking for good histories of Taiwan; I'm particularly interested in political histories.Cross-posted, in various forms, at Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.
Mind the Impunity Gaps
This is the first of a series of posts on "impunity gaps" in justice for atrocities that constitute genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes. There has been a resurgence of optimism for international and transitional justice because the ICC's judicial intervention in Libya and recent high-profile arrests and trial completions at the ICTR and ICTY. But I would like to shed some light on impunity gaps that persist for and within...
Demanufacturing
E-waste in ChinaPhoto Source: GreenpeaceDemanufacturing is the process of disassembling, recycling, remanufacturing, or refurbishing outdated industrial and consumer products, particularly electronics (i.e. e-waste management, asset recovery, or urban mining) but also including activities such as shipbreaking, automobile shredding, devulcanization of rubber tires, etc. The tail end of the capitalist industrial production process was...
Narrative Horror and the Downfall of Leaders #1: Rupert Murdoch
You have devoted your life to creating a great empire, one that stretches around the world and wields influence over politics and culture in a number of countries. Decades of criticism and conspiracy about the pernicious effects of your empire only testify to your importance. You have groomed your successors and shaped the climate they will work within. Biographers will not be able to knock the magnitude of your achievements. Your story is...
Stuff Political Scientists Like #6 — Soaking and Poking
This one was inspired by Kate Weaver, and her dirty, dirty mind. Sometimes numbers just won't do. Political scientists occasionally require real-world knowledge and must come to terms with face-to-face human interaction. They have to do field research. Political scientists like to soak and poke.Stop that. Don't make this sexual. Get your mind out of the gutter. This is serious business. There is no room for juvenile humor in a discussion of...
Wine, War and Alexander
As the Ashmolean Museum shows in its latest exhibition, Alexander of Macedon was the spectacular bearer of Hellenism into Asia who inspired dreams of a unified humanity. His royal dynasty boasted a rich court life in vast palaces with ample room for dinner parties. The tombs of the Temenids contained beautiful artifacts.On slow afternoons they would graduate into manhood by hunting big lions.Less prominent in the exhibition is the flip-side:...
Will Transparency Save the World Bank?
I confess that I am a World Bank junkie. There is nothing (well, very little) that perks my intellectual interest more than an in-depth discussion on the internal and external politics of the Bank. Over the past two weeks in DC, I have mercilessly subjected my graduate students to numerous conversations about the challenges facing the organization with experts within the Bank, US Senate, and the world of NGOs and think tanks. To my fabulous...
Laws of the Jungle
While rereading Kipling's 1894 classic The Jungle Book, I began to think about the curious ways in which the author constructed the relations between communities of animals in the jungle. Here are a few observations:1. The jungle is neither anarchic nor Darwinian in Kipling's narrative. It is in fact best understood as an interspecies society governed by a set of laws. To this extent, it seems to mirror the international society tradition. In...
Is there a time and place for (humanitarian) shock and awe?
Don't feel bad though. It's disempowering.Look. I get the whole ‘stop the portrayal of Africans as victims’ debate. I really do. Empowerment and portrays of empowerment are important. But I can’t help but be slightly frustrated with this entry at UN Dispatch which discusses the “shock and awe” approach to fundraising for disasters.Penelope Chester (apparently a professional Canadian humanitarian) quotes Peter Gill (who has written on the...