by Bill Petti | 14 Oct 2009 |
For those that have not yet heard, the Nobel Prize for Economics (actually named the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel) was awarded this year to two recipients, one of whom--Elinor Ostrom--is a Political Scientist. As Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution notes:It's a nod in the direction of social science, rather than economics per se. It's another homage to the New Institutional Economics and also to Law and...
by Drew Conway | 13 Oct 2009 |
I have alluded to the work of Jason Lyall on the use of indiscriminate violence in counterinsurgency in the past. Briefly, Lyall's paper (recently published in JCR) examines how the Russian army used targeted and non-targeted shelling in Chechnya through a pseudo-natural experiment. The paper is fascinating, however, I always had two major issues with it; first, Lyall claims randomization and thus indiscriminate violence through the "harass and...
by Charli Carpenter | 12 Oct 2009 |
I have a commentary at the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website today on the EU's Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia. It expands on my earlier remarks about the gap between the report's findings and the political spin: "Those who read the entire report will find it is a masterpiece of legal and evidentiary analysis. The authors have painstakingly synthesized multiple branches of international law with...
by Charli Carpenter | 11 Oct 2009 |
See many other zombie roadsigns at Interbent.
by Charli Carpenter | 10 Oct 2009 |
Yes, the other big news story of the day. (OK, of yesterday.)
by Rodger Payne | 9 Oct 2009 |
According to the Nobel website, the Peace Prize is supposed to be awarded annually to "the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".In 2009, the Norwegian selection committee decided that the most deserving person is Barack Obama. Frankly, I'm a little surprised.Yes, I was pleased in April when the...
by Charli Carpenter | 9 Oct 2009 |
President Obama couldn't convince the Inernational Olympic Committee to let Chicago hold the next summer Olympics, but Nobel Committee decided he's a skilled enough diplomat to receive a Nobel Peace Prize - only months into his Presidency. This is not lost on commentators and twitterers, some of who are referring to this as a "consolation prize" for losing the Olympics bid. ChicagoBlog writes: "Barack Obama couldn't convince the IOC to award...
by Charli Carpenter | 8 Oct 2009 |
Senator Tom Coburn knows how to rankle political scientists. Float a bill claiming all their work is bunk and should receive no government funding. For those who want to read it, here's Coburn's explanation. This is stirring up some ire and concern among political scientists in the blogosphere. Some of my colleagues even feel "picked on." Well look. 1) To be fair, he's not really saying our work is bunk. Just that it's not "science." He doesn't...
by Laura Sjoberg | 8 Oct 2009 |
Though my post about serious issues in IR through gendered lenses got less attention than tongue-and-cheek discussion with Dan Drezner, it has been almost impossible to ignore gender in the news the last couple of days, so I think I'll re-try blogging about gender and IR. The New York Times led a story yesterday, front page, above the fold, called "In a Guinea Seized by Violence, Women as Prey" and followed it up with an article called "US...
by Drew Conway | 7 Oct 2009 |
Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has proposed an amendment to the Senate Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations bill, which will end the National Science Foundation's program for political science.I have set up an online petition to rally opposition to this amendment, and I ask any and all readers to sign it, and pass it on to anyone and everyone. I also encourage everyone to call their senators and ask them to stop amendment 2631 to H.R....
by Jon Western | 7 Oct 2009 |
The Wall Street Journal reports today that the Washington policy community has been busy reading books on the Vietnam War to gain insights about what to do next in Afghanistan. According to the WSJ:The struggle to set the future course of the Afghan war is becoming a battle of two books -- both suddenly popular among White House and Pentagon brain trusts.The two draw decidedly different lessons from the Vietnam War. The first book describes a...
by Charli Carpenter | 7 Oct 2009 |
Blogging was light over the weekend while I was in DC on field research. But at least I finally got to see Inglorious Basterds while visiting my brother. Whew. Various bloggers have complained about the questionable values imparted in the film and a human security specialist can't really argue with that.But then again it wouldn't be a Quentin Tarantino movie otherwise... see? See?Actually, I thought that compared to his earlier stuff this was...