by Charli Carpenter | 20 Dec 2009 |
A physicist named Sean Gourley has created a model that he claims explains the power law distribution of deaths in insurgencies across a range of country contexts. Just published in Nature. The abstract is here. Check out his presentation on his original correlational findings from last May: Q&A about his new model here. I'm not sure I understand it well enough to comment, but I figured Duck readers would find it interesting, and I'm asking...
by Charli Carpenter | 18 Dec 2009 |
Researchers associated with the Human Security Report Project have a new article in the Journal of Conflict Resolution contradicting a recent critique of corpse-counting techniques prevalent in the battle-deaths community. The original critique, authored by Obermayer, Murray and Gakidou (humorously referred to as OMG by the authors of this new rebuttal) compared war death reports from the World Health Organization's sibling survey data with...
by Charli Carpenter | 17 Dec 2009 |
WOW. As PTJ reports below, scientists have discovered the first Earth-like exoplanet... and, in accordance with International Astronomical Union convention, promptly named it GJ1214b. Clearly astronomers need some assistance from readers of the Duck in choosing a planetary moniker that befits this extraordinary discovery and enables breakfast-table conversations with budding young space scientists. Submit your suggestions and ask others to do...
by Patrick Thaddeus Jackson | 17 Dec 2009 |
I promised myself that I wouldn't start blogging again until my grades were turned in (by Friday of this week) and my book manuscript was sent off the the publisher (looks like that will happen in early January). But I couldn't resist calling attention to this. It doesn't have the most mellifluous name -- GJ 1214b -- but it is in important ways the most Earth-like extrasolar planet found to date. Lots of important and interesting things about...
by Charli Carpenter | 17 Dec 2009 |
Last time I taught "World Politics" as a GenEd class, I had my first-years write their midterm on their choice of Lord of the Rings, Independence Day or Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. I want to use the same concept this year but not the same films two years in a row. The assignment is to use the film as a hook to discuss four schools of thought in IR - realism, liberalism, constructivism, feminism; and make an argument about which one is...
by Charli Carpenter | 16 Dec 2009 |
Stacie Goddard has a guest post at the IR Blog promoting her new book, Indivisible Territory and the Politics of Legitimacy:In international relations, territory often appears indivisible: actors are unable to divide territory through negotiation, shared sovereignty, compensation, or other mechanisms of division... As the site of competing national and religious claims, it may seem little wonder that Jerusalem, Northern Ireland, Kashmir and...
by Jon Western | 15 Dec 2009 |
Obama has received a lot of credit and praise for his articulation of Just War doctrine in his Oslo speech. And, while I, like Charli, found a lot to like about the speech, I take exception to the way in which he set up the issue of Just War:We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth: We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations -- acting individually or in concert -- will find the use of force...
by Charli Carpenter | 15 Dec 2009 |
With growing attention to the legal implications of unmanned drone attacks (LA Times reported yesterday that the US is considering expanding its campaign to Quetta), the latest International Humanitarian Law Live Seminar at Harvard's Humanitarian Law and Policy Forum is particularly timely. The title is "Unmanned Weapons and Challenges to International Humanitarian Law" and it will be webcast live Thursday morning at 9:30 eastern time. Register...
by Charli Carpenter | 14 Dec 2009 |
Recently Switzerland got a lot of press over the results of its referendum on religious architecture. But almost no coverage globally of another ballot measure last month: an initiative to ban the export of military weapons abroad. The initiative was voted down by more than a 2/3 majority on the same day as the minaret ban, according to SwissInfo:Official results show 68.2 per cent of voters against the initiative and 31.5 per cent for. Turnout...
by Charli Carpenter | 11 Dec 2009 |
My previous remarks about the relative lack of attention to climate change in Obama's speech were written after having read the text of Obama's speech. I stand by those comments - he spent 160 words on nuclear proliferation, 663 on human rights, and 128 on poverty reduction; but only 79 on climate change, which was folded into "freedom from want" rather than separated out into its own section. However, having now listened to the whole thing, I...
by Charli Carpenter | 11 Dec 2009 |
Dan Drezner encourages us to analyze what he said for references to policy prescriptions from IR theories. Steve Walt tells us let's focus not on what he said but on what he does. I'm with those who would focus on what he didn't say as an indicator of what he might or might not do. (Not to be contrarian, but hey.) Namely, with the Copenhagen summit at hand, I'd have liked to see more than just a passing reference to the relationship between the...
by Bill Petti | 9 Dec 2009 |
Sort of safe-for-work (as long as no one is reading the subtitles)...