My student Lina Shaikhouni and I have a new Foreign Policy piece in which we make "The Case Against the Case Against Drones," to paraphrase Stephanie. Therein, we argue that although there are many good reasons why drones shouldn't be used as they are being used, or where they are being used, the arguments against drones per se are often based on misconceptions or assumptions for which we don't have good data. In particular, we point out: 1)...
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Crisis and Change in International Organizations
The ongoing saga over the leadership crisis at the IMF poses a bigger existential question about crisis and change in international organizations: do crises in fact provoke change? This was the question at the forefront of my mind as I was driving from Texas to DC last week to start teaching a summer graduate seminar for the LBJ School of Public Affairs on, of all things, Crisis and Change in International Organizations. I was struck by the...
Goldstein: The World Has Never Been More Peaceful
Joshua Goldstein has a must-read book in press entitled Winning the War on War. I've seen the advance version and like many things about it, not least of which is the easy-reading style pitched at an informed lay audience, the way he begins with a thought experiment rather than with a bunch of statistics, then draws the reader through available scholarly research in an entertaining way to develop his argument. The thought experiment: imagine...
Whither the Praetorian State?
As part of a forthcoming project to re-assess the analytical relevance of the concept of the "praetorian state" in contemporary South Asian and Middle Eastern politics, I've been fascinated by tracing the history of the phrase.Although the term "praetor" or "Praetorian Guard" entered the English language from accounts of Roman history in the 13th century, the taxonomic concept (specifically as a Weberian ideal type) of the "praetorian state"...
International Justice Scholars and Advocates: One Big Happy Principled Family?
David Bosco posted "The Case for Impunity" today on his Foreign Policy blog, The Multilateralist. The central issue in the post is whether the ICC's intervention in Libya has prolonged the conflict, by taking away Gaddafi's option to go into exile, and whether international justice can credibly deter war criminals. I nodded my way through the first few paragraphs, until I got to the end. Bosco makes a sweeping claim about "international justice...
China’s Challenges
There has been no shortage of focus on America's budget stress and the apparent relative decline of American political and economic influence around the world amid the rise of China. But, as several folks have recently noted, China itself faces a set of significant challenges. I just returned from a week in China where I attended a working conference for a project on China in the World at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. The...
Feminist IR 101, Post #9, Transforming IR
Twenty years ago, Robert Keohane proclaimed that “feminist standpoint theory provides a particularly promising starting-point for the development of feminist international relations theory.” From the feminist side, Sandra Whitworth declared that “the next stage of international relations theory will not be one that is merely critical, but one which is critical and feminist.” Ann Tickner set upon a project to “de-gender” International Relations...
Lawrence Eagleburger
I'm not sure if there is any irony that Lawrence Eagleburger died in the same week that Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic appeared in the Hague to face trial on genocide and crimes against humanity. Eagleburger was the only career foreign service officer to rise to the rank of Secretary of State and in his death, he is receiving plenty of accolades for his analytical mind, his straight-talk, and his diplomatic and bureaucratic skills.My own...
Friday Nerd Blogging
My partner had a different reaction than I did to Khal Drogo's war speech in "You Win or You Die." (Originally I was going to name this post "Over-Critical Acclaim for the Khal's Speech." Or, "Sex and Violence in Game of Thrones: Contributions of a Pro-Feminist, Anti-Chest-Thumping Standpoint."*)In the latest installment of our "Two Profs at Home Over-thinking" series, Stu and I discuss whether it is politically incorrect to appreciate Game of...
Which Sexual Scandals Matter?: sorting gossip from substance with the Sexual Scandal Scale
It seems the seasons, and our attentions, have shifted from the Arab spring to the summer of sex scandals. May 2011 has been a notable month for high profile affairs and sexual indiscretions (let’s use this term loosely for now). Dominique Strauss Kahn’s (DSK) attempted rape charges, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love child, Anthony Weiner’s alleged tweeted self portrait, and the developments in Silvio Berlusconi’s trial for sex with an underage...
The Khal’s Speech
Khal Drogo's earlier lines in Game of Thrones consisted mostly of occasional Dothraki grunts and a few mono-syllables of broken English. Then we arrive at the visceral war speech scene in the latest episode... either Geoffrey Rush has been secretly coaching the horse-lord,* or the directors intentionally downplayed Jason Momoa's talents as an actor to build up to this: *Actually, the coaching is probably done by David Peterson. For more on how...
Making me Mlad: Why you can’t compare the Mladic and Osama bin Laden raids
Charli has been writing about international justice, arguing against ‘myths’ – and comparing the efforts to bring Mladic to justice as opposed to the rush to shoot Osama bin Laden in the face. Others, such as John Feffner at Foriegn Policy in Focus have made similar arguments.I agree and disagree with some of the points being made. However I am concerned that that many of these arguments seem to completely ignore or fail to appreciate the...