The last few days have seen a fury of debate about Wikileaks’ latest disclosures. To my mind, Wikileaks’ release of the Iraq and earlier Afghanistan documents is a public service—throwing critical light on the way in which America has pursued its wars at ground level. Some have dismissed the documents as nothing “new.” Of course, it is true that we have had information about the wars, human rights violations, and civilian casualties in...
Displaying Results for ""
IR makes it to TED
Joseph Nye gives a TED talk:To my knowledge, this is only the third political scientist and IR specialist to give a TED talk (Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Samantha Power being the other two). Hopefully we'll see more as I think the TED series is a great way for polisci and IR scholars to make their knowledge relevant and understandable outside of the discipline.
In Praise of Falsification
For those that have not read it yet, The Atlantic recently featured an article profiling Dr. John Ioannidis who has made a career out of falsifying many of the findings of medical research that guides clinical practice. Ioannidis' research should cause us all to appreciate the various bias we may bring to our own work:[C]an any medical-research studies be trusted?That question has been central to Ioannidis’s career. He’s what’s known as a...
What you should know about ‘Right to Know’
While WikiLinks is dumping information from the US military all over the internets, the South African government is taking some rather disturbing steps to ensure that citizens, citizens and pretty much everyone in between will not have the right to access any information deemed a threat to "national security". What kind of information threatens national security? Well, according to the “Protection of Information Bill”, pretty much whatever...
Is Academic Jargon Elitist?
Shortest Drezner: The specialization of knowledge leads actors to reduce the transacton costs of communication with each other. Naturally, this phenomenon creates a barrier to entry for outside consumers, while instilling a common identity among specialists.This is his short and concise but jargony argument in favor of the value of academic jargon. For the long-winded explanation in language non-academic can understand, see here.
“War Diaries 2.0”: Is Wikileaks Moving Down the Learning Curve?
In a number of respects the Iraq War Diaries constitute a repeat of the Afghan War Diaries – a massive data dump bringing to light few unknowns but admittedly casting those knowns in much sharper relief, an act for which Julian Assange is being hailed or harangued by those of different persuasions, for different reasons. At Lawyers, Guns and Money, I've pointed out a couple of things that are different this time ‘round: Assange was previously...
A Quick and No-Doubt Premature Look at WikiLeaks (Iraq Edition)
Just a few initial observations/questions1. Iraq Body Count is arguing that the documents help provide further information on civilian deaths. No doubt this will add further impetus for the call for militaries to release information on casualties killed in armed conflict. I wonder, however, if IBC has to walk a fine line here – if they say that the information released provides information on hundreds or thousands of previously unknown...
Friday Signaling Roundup
Here are a few quick signaling items for your perusal. I will try to do a similar roundup each Friday if I've stumbled on enough items throughout the week. Enjoy!How to Signal That You Are Marrying for Love? It's tougher than you might think. Some suggest using a pre-nuptial agreement to signal one's love and affection instead of their love of money. If one is truly marrying for love and not money they should have no problem signing a...
Remembering Professor Fred Halliday
In April of this year I noted the death of Professor Fred Halliday – a noted scholar of nationalism, the Middle East and International Relations generally. He was something of a giant in British IR and I know his work was well known throughout the Middle East as well. I was fortunate enough to be in one of his last MSc International Relations courses at the London School of Economics in 2001-2.There are a number of things being done to...
Operation Dragon Strike and Kandahar
The New York Times is reporting that ISAF troops are making progress in Kandahar. Credit for progress is given equally to the surge in troops and a new mobile rocket which has "pinpoint accuracy -- like a small cruise missile." While military commanders are cautious, Western and Afghan civilians are saying that Taliban losses have "sapped the momentum the insurgency had in the area."As I am skeptical of some of the spin and zombie reporting...
Too many bodies? Communicating the population question
The question of human over-population of our planet seems to resurface every few decades, driven by fears that there are too many people to feed, clothe and shelter, or that the sheer volume of human beings working, travelling and polluting is causing environmental damage. But the persuasiveness of such claims is weakened empirically and normatively. In terms of facts, it does not help the over-population claimants that every time the...
The Individual Utility of Incompetence
There are many reasons why organizations (government, businesses, etc) grow dysfunctional and stagnant. One major reason lies with the promotion and retention of less capable workers. There have been a number of studies that explored this dynamic (for example, The Peter Principle, which theorizes that people are promoted as long as they are competent, which means at some point they reach a position of incompetence). In general, though, the...