A quick note on events in Georgia: be very suspicious whenever the government accuses any opposition group or movement of being linked to Russia. Tbilisi has mounted a concerted effort to paint it opponents as Russian stooges, and to shore up Saakashvili's regime by raising fears of a Russian plot against the country itself.Of course, the Russians could be involved. But under no circumstances should readers take Tblisi's word for it.The...
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Walt, Walt, don’t tell me….
At one time, I kinda almost liked some of Stephen Walt's work. At another point, I found works such as Origins of Alliances useful pivots in making an argument to move from explanations based on realism to explanations based on constructivism. But to still call Walt a "good" or "eminent" IR theorist worthy of a job at Harvard... Walt thought it would be fun to list the top ten IR films. Outsourced to Fred Kaplan:The most jaw-dropping pick of...
Strike a blow for political freedom and get rich!
Who could resist such an entreaty?FROM: xxxxxxSUBJECT: Honest Partnership NeededDATE: May 1, 2009 7:34:41 PM EDTReply-to: xxxxxHELLO,We on behalf of the Committee to Free Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky & Platon Lebedev wish to proposea business transaction worth $46M from Yukos Oil Russia.We seek your partnership in the transferof this amount out of russian for the eventual investment under your supervisionin your country.You can read more details of...
Armageddon and discount rates
A longstanding plan in my circle at Columbia was to take a large number of existing game-theoretic models, apply an infinite discount rate (rendering the value of future gains and losses effectively zero), and submit our findings to Rationality and Society as an article entitled "The Impact of Belief in the End Times on Common Non-Cooperative Games." So I'm sad to report that anecdotal evidence suggests our findings, had we proceeded with the...
You never miss it until it’s gone
Nothing fails like success. Consider vaccines. It's rather easy to worry about pesudo-scientific links between vaccines an autism, or even the small percentage of real adverse consequences of childhood immunization, when you aren't concerned that your child is going to die of polio, the measles, or whooping cough. But when people stop taking the vaccines, these diseases come back. We see a similar process in the economic policy front. The prior...
Neorealists as Critical Theorists: Film Edition
On Monday, neorealist IR scholar and Foreign Policy blogger Stephen M. Walt posted his top ten list of "movies that tells (sic) us something about international relations." He was looking for broad insights, beyond what might be offered in genre war films or spy flicks. He also excluded documentaries and overt propaganda exercises. Long-time Duck readers may recall that I previously wrote a series of blog posts about an IR film class I taught...
The flu: context
Though I've previously blogged about the potential serious human security threat of bird flu, I'd like to counter the current media hoopla with a little context (from a CNN report): There had been no confirmed deaths in the United States related to swine flu as of Tuesday afternoon. But another virus had killed thousands of people since January and is expected to keep killing hundreds of people every week for the rest of the year.That one? The...
It’s gone global
Cases in Israel and New Zealand.Back to clearing the writing and reviewing assignments on my desk....
Guest Post: Peter Henne on Turkey-Armenia
Amongst the headlines on the economic crisis, torture memos and the Obamas’ new dog was an almost-missed article that may prove more interesting. As the Washington Post reported on Thursday, “Turkey and Armenia announced yesterday that they had agreed in principle to normalize relations.” This is significant in light of 20th century relations between Turkey and the Armenians, beginning with the expulsion of Armenians from Turkey during World...
Perpetual Hiring Difficulties II: Academageddon
To continue a thread I started some weeks ago: If you're thinking about getting a Ph.D., think again. Its a dysfunctional industry. From today's NY Times op-ed pages, Mark Taylor writes:GRADUATE education is the Detroit of higher learning. Most graduate programs in American universities produce a product for which there is no market (candidates for teaching positions that do not exist) and develop skills for which there is diminishing demand...
Edward James Olmos at the United Nations
Watch the entire proceedings of the Battlestar Galactica cast's visit to the United Nations here.
The Allah-father
Interesting post this morning over at The Argument on the similarities between the Taliban and organized crime. This idea echoes earlier (and interesting) work by Charles Tilly on the origins of the state. While I think Peters' analysis is interesting and thought provoking, I don't think it means we should ignore the religious aspect of the movement. Understanding the criminal aspects of their enterprise is useful for gaining perspective on...