Wednesday Short Takes

23 January 2013, 0940 EST

We’re a bit over a week away from selecting the finalists for the awards. As of today we are no longer likely to honor new ballot requests. Those of you have already received a ballot should cast it.
I have an interview up with Ramez Naam about his well-received technothriller, Nexus. If that’s your kind of thing, the Kindle edition is on steep discount.
Dan Drezner’s morning evisceration of Tom Friedman is a wonder to behold.
Cheryl Rofer explains the grounds for skepticism concerning reports of chemical weapons use in Syria.
Tim Burke provides long-term perspective on the conflict in Mali.
I’m going to get into trouble no matter whom I link to concerning the surprising outcome of the Israeli elections, so here’s the Google News search result. And here’s Jeremy Pressman on Yair Lapid and Brent Sasley on “coalition considerations after the vote.”

And also:

Andrew Yeo notes that the US is downsizing its presence in the Azores.
BLTN: Will Starbucks become the world’s largest bank?
David Silby argues that “Americans have [always] been an imperial people.”
Michael Poznansky on “(democratic) peace in the Middle East.”
SocProf looks (and I do mean “looks”) at the WEF World Risk Report.

Dan Nexon

Daniel H. Nexon is a Professor at Georgetown University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service. His academic work focuses on international-relations theory, power politics, empires and hegemony, and international order. He has also written on the relationship between popular culture and world politics.

He has held fellowships at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation and at the Ohio State University's Mershon Center for International Studies. During 2009-2010 he worked in the U.S. Department of Defense as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. He was the lead editor of International Studies Quarterly from 2014-2018.

He is the author of The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change (Princeton University Press, 2009), which won the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) Best Book Award for 2010, and co-author of Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order (Oxford University Press, 2020). His articles have appeared in a lot of places. He is the founder of the The Duck of Minerva, and also blogs at Lawyers, Guns and Money.