Dan Drezner's at Princeton discussing liberal internationalism, so he posts this rather interesting placeholder on his blog:One question that came up at today's sessions was pretty basic but rather important: how, exactly, would one define liberal internationalism? It's one of those terms that foreign policy wonks like to throw around, but often means very different things to different people.[So what's your definition, smart guy?--ed. A...

I arrived back in Columbus yesterday after spending about five days in Bielefeld, Germany. I chose not to purchase the insanely expensive WLAN access offered by the conference hotel and instead relied on a nearby internet cafe--which was fine for checking my mail, but not so much for blogging. I have a couple of posts stored up, so expect to hear from me a great deal over the next week.A few impressions from my first trip to Germany.• Delta...

In the war on terror, the United States now officially considers Venezuela part of the problem. The BBC today: The US is to impose a ban on arms sales to Venezuela, US state department officials have said.A spokeswoman, Darla Jordan, said the decision was taken because of lack of support by Venezuela for counter-terrorism efforts. Condi Rice expressed disappointment in October 2003 at Venezuela's failure to live up to its "responsibilities in...

From https://www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/west/awfact.htm.From a Columbus Dispatch article (6/7/2006) on the role of religion in Ohio's upcoming gubernatorial race:"I want to know how they feel about it -- if they have a strong belief in God," said Republican poll participant..... "This country was set up to lead the rest of the world. God picked this country."I hope he isn't disappointed if God throws his support behind China. After all,...

So here it is, the beginning of May, the end of the Spring semester, when grading piles up and other closing-out-the-academic-year chores loom and threaten. So I, like a fair number of other academics, have been spending a fair amount of time thinking about baseball. Seriously. It's not that I'm avoiding doing my other work (okay, not really . . . maybe just a bit . . .) , or that I find baseball infinitely more enjoyable than grading (grading...

Dan Kervick, whose fine blog seems to be dormant, often leaves comments on many of the same blogs I read. This comment about US carrots to offer Iran, posted at Democracy Arsenal, is worth preserving: We've heard a lot about the sticks recently, but the carrots available to the US are impressive indeed. One of Iran's top concerns is the $10 B - $12 B in assets that were frozen in 1979 following the hostage crisis. The US also maintains...

Peter Howard writes an interesting composite post on the nexus of energy politics, China's rise, and US policy objectives.The core of the issue: when we move out, China moves in. Scratch the negative diplomatic externalities for regimes intent on brutalizing their populations.Solutions? Liberal hegemony types would argue China needs to be better socialized into the international system. Realists say "Good luck" and "I told you so." Such...

All but one of my published journal articles have question marks in their titles. How'd that happen? And what do I do with my current "revise and resubmit"?Should I change the title to something without a question mark to stop the trend? Or would that be just begging for some sort of cosmic retribution in the form of a rejection? Or would elimating the question mark in the title increase its chances of eventual publication by balancing out my...

In a strange bit of synergy, Tim Harford writes a column on George Akerlof's famous paper on used cars:In 1966 an assistant economics professor, George Akerlof, tried to explain why this is so in a working paper called "The Market for 'Lemons.' " His basic insight was simple: If somebody who has plenty of experience driving a particular car is keen to sell it to you, why should you be so keen to buy it?Akerlof showed that insight could have...

Bolivia's government just seized the country's natual gas industry.The measure is expected to affect about 20 foreign oil companies, including Spain's Repsol, Petrobras of Brazil, Britain's BP and British Gas, US-based ExxonMobil and French group Total.Although the move was expected to have little impact on global energy supplies, financial markets reacted by pushing prices higher."It's part of a trend of governments taking strident action to...

Happy May Day! Or should that be "mayday"? You know it's the end of term (grading, grading, grading) when friendly academic bloggers mostly just point readers to other good links on the web.Let me add one that I found particularly entertaining. Check out "I'm the Decider (Koo-Koo-Ka-Choo)." It's worth a listen. I've not been reading many other blogs, so I don't know if this has already been widely linked. Filed as: The Decider

All hail fake news--the last bastion of true journalism.Bill Kristol, a prominent member of the Project for a New American Century, stopped by the Colbert Report last night and, well, let's just say he wasn't coddled.A little taste:Colbert: Speaking of thinking alike, you were a member, or are a member of the New Project for the American Century, correct?Kristol: I am.Colbert: Were or am, am?Kristol: Were and am.Colbert: How's that project...