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...
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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...
Stuff political scientists like #4, political psychology edition — calling you stupid, but not to your face
Lest I be accused of shielding myself from satire.....Political psychologists are a kind of political scientist. Or maybe they are a kind of psychologist. In truth, no one really gets to know them very well. That is because political psychologists think everyone is stupid.Political psychologists think you have never made a good decision in your life. For instance, if 600 people are going to die of a terrible disease and you are given a choice...
The Conduct of Inquiry: part the second of my contribution to a symposium
After a long hiatus, I am ready to take up a number of the other points raised in the four Disorder of Things posts on my book The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations.II. ethics and politics, which are good things but not scienceAt the end of the first part of my reply I suggested that the "gang of four" interlocutors (Paul, Joe, Nick, and Meera) who commented on the book are quite correct to point out the importance of my professed...
New Research on Global Agenda-Setting
A couple of years ago I wrote a post entitled the "Top Twelve Emerging Human Security Issues of the Next Decade." Those of you who have followed my writing know I'm especially interested in candidate issues that for one reason or another get neglected relative to others that end up being more prominent in global policy networks. As many of you know, this is part of a longer book project on the politics of issue selection in advocacy networks....
Feminist IR 101, Post #8, Human Rights
Controversial feminist lawyer Catherine MacKinnon titled her latest book Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues. MacKinnon was, of course, referring to a feminist campaign to have women's rights recognized as human rights (see, e.g., the work of Charlotte Bunch) ...but what struck me about this title is the normalcy it implies - like, questioning women's humanity (and thus their eligibility for human rights) is as commonplace as any...
Notorious BIG Fish: Mladic and Munyagishari
The capture of Ratko Mladic and his pending transfer to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has become another boon for international justice in a year where war criminals seem to be dropping like flies. But there's an interesting debate to be had over whether this arrest signals a stronger commitment to end impunity on principle or its combined success with political and pragmatic imperatives. Of course, it's...
IMF: plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose?
I find myself impressed with the obvious talents of Christine Lagarde, the current French Finance Minister and lead candidate for Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s replacement at the IMF (just endorsed by the G8 today ). I am admittedly drawn to the idea of appointing the first women to ever head the Fund, a testosterone-driven organization if there ever was one. Yet the fawning news coverage of the stylish Lagarde (see Maureen Dowd’s op-ed in the New...
Five Myths About International Criminal Trials
On the basis of what empirical studies I could find about the effectiveness of international tribunals versus execution of mass-murderers, I debunk the following in my latest Current Intelligence essay, responding to effects-based claims on both sides of the debate about whether Osama bin Laden should have been tried instead of summarily executed:MYTH #1: OBL Could Never Have Received a Fair Trial. MYTH #2: OBL Would Simply Have Used the Court...
Ew.
Politics is always somewhat gross, but there seems to be an abundance of stories lately that make me queasy. In the tradition of saying to your friends, "You have got to try this; it's so disgusting" or to your wife, "I think this milk is going bad; taste it," I share them with you, my online friends (or if you like, wives).Budweiser wrapping itself in the flag: This ad shows a split screen of an American soldier coming home and a family...
Reporting in the Middle East: Are Female Journalists a Liability?
Do the responses to the plight of Dorothy Parvaz, a journalist for Al Jazeera English who was detained in Syria and Iran for nearly 3 weeks, show continued resistance to female journalists pursuing particular types of stories?Parvaz flew to Syria to gather information that could add to what little is known about local protests and government violence. She was arrested at the airport in Damascus and taken to a detention center- Parvaz likened it...