The Duck of Minerva

The Political Science Store

by Steve Saideman

29 November 2011, 0047 EST

The other day I briefly pondered what a Political Science Store would look like, after hearing about Anthropologie–a national chain of clothing stores.* 

I received a bunch of ideas via facebook, twitter, and my blog, so I had to come up with different sections of the store:

  • Used:  
    • Tables (mostly in 2×2 dimensions);
    • old Prisoner Dilemmas; 
    • Linear Regressions with several assumptions already violated; 
    • Political Culture arguments that come with “Racism Within” warning tags; 
    • Old Wine in New Bottles;
  • Canadian goods: 
    • Crowns;
    • a barren shelf labeled Oversight;
    • lots of oui’s and non’s at a steep discount;
  • Comparative Politics: 
    • a bin full of apples, oranges and frisbees; 
    • one bowling ball; 
    • checks and balances; 
  • Policy: except for some windows, this section is mostly empty.
  • International Relations: 
    • Heaps of Images and Levels, some games with multiple levels; 
    • some play-doh (it is what you make of it);
    • international organization kits–most require consensus to be added;
    • a random collection of alliances–but be warned they bind both more and less than expected;
    • War: there are less than there used to be, but still not entirely out of style.
  • Saideman’s Spew Sauces: Ignorance, Perspective, Denial, Secret, Distraction, Awesome.  I am thinking of adding sarcasm sauce to the collection, but seven is an odd number.  I will have to figure out another one to round it off at an eight-pack.

*  Yes, I usually let Brian take the funny Monday slot, but figured we could share the post-Thanksgiving silly slot just this one time.

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Steve Saideman is Professor and the Paterson Chair in International Affairs at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. He has written The Ties That Divide: Ethnic Politics, Foreign Policy and International Conflict; For Kin or Country: Xenophobia, Nationalism and War (with R. William Ayres); and NATO in Afghanistan: Fighting Together, Fighting Alone (with David Auerswald), and elsewhere on nationalism, ethnic conflict, civil war, and civil-military relations.

Website |  + posts

Steve Saideman is Professor and the Paterson Chair in International Affairs at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. He has written The Ties That Divide: Ethnic Politics, Foreign Policy and International Conflict; For Kin or Country: Xenophobia, Nationalism and War (with R. William Ayres); and NATO in Afghanistan: Fighting Together, Fighting Alone (with David Auerswald), and elsewhere on nationalism, ethnic conflict, civil war, and civil-military relations.

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