by Laura Sjoberg | 3 Aug 2009 | Featured
The International Studies Compendium is a field-defining project of somewhat epic proportions. According to its architects, it "will be the most comprehensive reference work of its kind for the field of international studies" - a group of literally hundreds of 10,000 word, article-length, peer-reviewed literature reviews - published in hard copy in its entirety, online with updates, and in subject-specific edited volumes. In the two years this...
by Bill Petti | 3 Aug 2009 |
Faithful Duck readers:So, I've launched a new blog. While I will still be writing on global politics here at The Duck of Minerva from time to time, I wanted another place to comment and brainstorm on business issues, technology, innovation, and other related topics. (Sometimes the 140 characters of Twitter just doesn't cut it).As I’ve moved outside of academia my interests have shifted--or more accurately, broadened--to include topics such as...
by Charli Carpenter | 31 Jul 2009 |
Teaser from DMW on Vimeo.
by Rodger Payne | 30 Jul 2009 |
The Iraqi people have suffered tremendously this decade -- and are apparently suffering even more this summer. The LA Times is reporting today that Iraq's latest calamity is an "environmental catastrophe." Decades of war and mismanagement, compounded by two years of drought, are wreaking havoc on Iraq's ecosystem, drying up riverbeds and marshes, turning arable land into desert, killing trees and plants, and generally transforming what was once...
by Drew Conway | 29 Jul 2009 |
I have mentioned the outstanding blog Cheap Talk several times in my Twitter feed, but have yet to promote it in a blog post. If you are not familiar with the blog, the authors present excellent daily commentary on current events from a formal and strategic perspective—I highly reccommend it.Today, author Sandeep Baliga, Associate Professor of Managerial Economics at the Kellogg School of Management, offers examples of strategies to incite...
by Randy Waterhouse | 29 Jul 2009 |
The question of state capacity might be one of, if not the, most important question that academics and policy makers can tackle. When we talk about local, regional, and international stability, failed states, etc, often times the major problem is a lack of capacity by a state to control what goes on within its borders. State capacity is the product of numerous variables, including legitimacy, material resources, government coherence, coercive...
by Rodger Payne | 28 Jul 2009 |
According to the latest data from the Pew Global Attitudes Project, "the image of the United States has improved markedly in most parts of the world reflecting global confidence in Barack Obama."Follow the Pew survey link to find data charting some dramatic American improvements throughout the world. The biggest upswings seem to have occurred in Western Europe, parts of Latin America, India, and in Indonesia and Nigeria. Note that in some of...
by Daniel McIntosh | 27 Jul 2009 |
A recent paper from Brookings, Georgetown and Hoover discusses the international legal aspects of targeted killing. As you would expect, American policy isn't in sync with the emerging global norm. An idealist might argue that the US is in the wrong (and they have a very strong case under the International Convention on Human Rights); a Realist might argue that the US needs the latitude to kill because it (or somebody--and nobody else is...
by Charli Carpenter | 25 Jul 2009 |
During my self-inflicted hiatus, I've been traveling a lot by road with two children, so I've had less reading time. But I've also been staying in a lot of people's houses along the way, and that has allowed me to accumulate vast (and vastly more diverse than usual) amount of reading material.We turned around and headed east yesterday, and I should be back to blogging regularly in a couple of weeks. Until then, I thought I'd post tell of a few...
by Daniel McIntosh | 24 Jul 2009 |
..or much of any other government-related position. Stephen Walt gives a list of the 10 Commandments--the 10 "thou shalt not hold or even consider" positions that are considered outside of "acceptable" foreign policy discourse. I've given serious consideration to ALL of them at one time or another. Probably about half of them are things I believe today. This reminds me of when I was a very young research analyst, and after handing in a report I...
by Dan Nexon | 22 Jul 2009 |
For reasons I noted when I introduced our new bloggers, I will be suspending blogging activities for about a year. I just signed the forms that indicate my agreement to take a one-year position with the powers-that-be, so it seems like the right time to cease blogging. Before I go, I'd like to thank our readers and my co-bloggers for making writing here so much fun. I don't have anything profound or insightful to impart, but I feel like I...
by Laura Sjoberg | 22 Jul 2009 |
In an article in The Age, Jimmy Carter recently renounced his membership in the Southern Baptist Church, arguing that "women and girls have been discriminated against for too long using a twisted interpretation of the word of God." Particularly, Carter objected to statements by the Southern Baptist Convention "claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their...