Daniel Starr explains:I'm not happy with the CCP today: it turns out that they've made the Asian bird flu virus resistant to the best antiviral drug we would have relied on to tame the next outbreak of avian-based flu in humans. They ignored the advice of the World Health Organization and had farmers drug their chickens with antivirals instead of vaccinating them. In effect, they evolved the virus strains for drug resistance. Now the antiviral is useless against the bird flu -- useless not just to poultry, but to humans.From the Washington Post article Dan's reacting to:Although China did...

I've been tagged by Daniel Drezner. As I understand this process, I am now obligated to describe the "five books I liked enough as a teen/young adult to read again as an adult." If I do not comply, I will suffer the same fate of those who break chain letters and chain email.The problem is that I already suffer from an incurable "Peter Pan" complex (not to be confused with the "Peter Pan Syndrome"). Five books? There are at least a dozen I've reread and continue to reread. So I'll focus on ones that address John Cole's subsidiary question: "What pieces of fiction [and, I'll add, non-fiction]...

The situation in Zimbabwe deteriorates even further, with the government pressing ahead with its campaign of mass violence and political cleansing:EVERY morning Father Michael looks out of the window of his Harare parish house and sees an ever larger crowd of homeless families outside. “I feel helpless,” said the Jesuit priest, who was too terrified to give his real name. “I keep telling them my little homilies, that the violent will not win, they will have to answer for what they have done, but I see a city ringed by fire.“People who worked to look after their families — carpenters,...

Like Scott, I found my results in the "Which American Cities Best Fit You?" survey a little surpring: American Cities That Best Fit You:80% Chicago75% Philadelphia70% New York City65% Boston45% AtlantaMy real list is NYC; Boston; San Francisco; Washington, DC; Chicago; and Minneapolis.I suppose part of the problem with this survey is that it probably gives the questions equal weight. Thus, for example, it can't know that a particular issue, like really bad suburban sprawl, could be a deal-killer for a particular city.The survey also doesn't allow one to express strong biases against living...

It looks like I'll be the "senior scholar" on this blog. Less formally, that makes me "the old fart," trying to avoid becoming "deadwood." My academic career began in the '70s, as I started college at the University of Kansas in 1979. Back then, Dan and Patrick were probably trading baseball cards, watching "Star Wars" for the 23rd time (though very few people had VCRs then), and reading Robert Heinlein's books. I hate to think about Bill's age in 1979; he was almost surely a toddler. Though I fully intended to become an attorney when I was growing up, by 1983 I knew too many unhappy lawyers...

A big "hello!" (or should that be a "quack"?) to those of you dropping by via Crooked Timber. We've only been doing this for a few days, so any comments or suggestions are very much appreciated.Feel free to come back from time to time. The owl may fly at twilight, but the Duck's usually around.If anyone knows how to get blogger to make these tags conditional, please let me know!

Because you, the readers, want to know -- or at least because we, the writers, think that you, the readers, want to know. (I'm fascinated by the fact that a name and a personal biography improve the credibility of a piece of writing; there's something very interesting there about the way that we as a society assign responsibility and blame -- but I digress.)I'm an Assistant Professor of International Relations in the School of International Service at American University. Been there since 2000. Like Dan, I have my doctorate in Political Science from Columbia University; Dan and I met at...

Hello all. As promised, here is my intro post. I will keep it short.I am a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania in the Political Science department. As far as subfields go I am mostly interested in International Relations Theory and Security--however, I find it increasingly difficult (not to mention undesirable) to analyze such phenomena without incorporating concepts from Comparative Politics. Like Dan, I have a webpage but besides a CV and nice screen-cap from Dr. Strangelove there isn't much else. Right now I am interested in the practice of signaling as well as the concepts...