James Ron has a guest post at Steve Walt's blog about the problems of NGO dependence on Western funding. His argument is a logical extension of his earlier work with Alex Cooley on the negative externalities associated with the political economy of the NGO sector, and it also builds on newer scholarship critically assessing the relationship between domestic NGOs, targets of influence, third-party governments and private donors. Ron offers an...
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The Hurt Locker, again
Duck of Minerva bloggers have already written quite a bit about "The Hurt Locker," which won the Best Picture prize at this week's Academy Awards ceremony. I saw the movie on DVD a few weeks ago and have been digesting some of the reactions to the film. Like many critics of this film, Michael Kamber of the NY Times offers a list of serious errors in "The Hurt Locker." Viewers see the bomb disposal team leave on missions without much other...
For Only $3,000 You Too Can Read My Latest Piece
It sounds like a lot, but for 4,000,000 words and 12 volumes, the International Relations Encyclopedia is really quite an amazing deal for any independently wealthy intellectually astute student of world affairs. Dan Drezner has more about this exciting development in the discipline.If you or your library buy access rights (or if you are happily already a member of the International Studies Association), you can check out my contribution with...
Foreign Policy Charade
A few weeks ago, Steve Walt relied upon his own recent experiences writing about the Israeli Lobby to generate "a list of the lessons" he learned from "grabbing the third rail" of foreign policy discourse.Interestingly, Walt's somewhat older list of foreign policy taboo positions did not include challenging U.S. foreign policy towards Israel (or Israeli security policy). Had Walt declined to grab the rail this time?I was reminded of the...
Agathe Habyarimana, France, and the Rwandan “Genocidaires” fifteen years on
Early this year, an improvement in French-Rwandan relations led to the French government finally beginning to take note that many of the most serious war criminals in the 1994 Rwandan genocide were living in France without having been tried or punished for their crimes. The French government's previous apathy towards these suspects was part of a long list o problems with accountability for the genocide in other states, internationally (in the...
Think like a methodologist
[Cross-posted at Signal/Noise]In keeping with Patrick's theme on methodological discussions, I thought I would cross-post this recent piece from my personal blog.Nathan at Flowing Data puts words to an idea I've had for a while, but could never figure out how to communicate. He writes, "[T]he most important things I've learned [in statistics courses] are less formal, but have proven extremely useful when working/playing with data." Some of the...
Methodology411: defining “methodology”
Vikash's comment on my announcement post suggests to me that it might be useful to have a less elliptical and, so to speak, inside-baseball-y declaration of intent for the Methodology411. Even though I've written about and railed against it on numerous occasions, I often forget how firmly ingrained the equation of the terms "methodology" and "statistical methods" is in anglophone Political Science and IR -- and that equation (combined with my...
Announcing “Methodology411”
Spring is around the corner, which means that baseball season is finally getting underway. Amidst the spring training games and the speculations about the upcoming season, one can find the clear signs of the truly obsessed -- the fantasy baseball players -- ramping up their debates about how to select players in their fantasy league drafts, weighing the relative importance of slugging percentage versus base-stealing ability, and generally...
When promises are credible signals
[Cross-posted at Signal/Noise]While there are all sorts of actions people can take to signal that they are trustworthy, sometimes simply making a promise can get the job done. When two parties will be dealing with each other for an indeterminate amount of time it is advantageous to both if they are viewed as trustworthy. Lying would mean being punished in the future by the other party. In this way, talk isn't simply cheap--it's a credible...
Paintings, Pictures, and Power
At the "Theory Talks" Blog, there is an excellent interview with Michael J. Shapiro on "Pictures, Paintings, Power and the Political Philosophy of International Relations." Shapiro argues for the need to awaken the discipline from its pre-Kantian slumber and to move beyond the "anemic, empiricist philosophy of social science which treats mere appearances" as well as the "security-minded and war strategy focused" versions of international...
Is there a legal obligation to report war casualties?
This year at ISA a theme which seemed to crop up again and again (at least among the laws of war crowd – we’re small but mighty) was the idea that “we” (international society, academia, NGOs, I guess) need more information on civilian casualties, particularly those caused by air strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan. There was a real sense of frustration that the US was not more forthcoming on casualties, who was being targeted and who...
Got the post-Olympic blues?
Not to worry, the World Cup in South Africa is only 100 days away. It's been six years since FIFA awarded the World Cup to South Africa and there is a lot of excitement about an African nation finally hosting the World Cup and how the event has the potential to be a transcendent event. (I still wonder how things might have been different in the Balkans if the unified Yugoslavia team had defeated Argentina in the 1990 Quarterfinals shoot out and...