Editor's Note: This is a guest post by Tobias T. Gibson, an associate professor of political science and security studies at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo. In the buildup to President Obama’s speech at National Defense University on May 23, the administration...
Today is Memorial Day in this U.S., which leads to all kinds of silly debates about whether this holiday celebrates just the dead killed in America's wars or the Veterans as well since there is...
Good mornin' ducks. Happy Memorial Day. The US public today, despite strong support for the military, is the least connected to the institution. Only about 0.5% of the population has served on...
What's worth reading this weekend? Lots of stuff. Here's a list of a few things, from analytic to oddities. No drones, machetes, or tornados. But it would be silly if none of our resident experts...
One of the traditional responsibilities of sane conservative parties is to write-out of respectability and legitimacy the scary, nut-job right-wing fringe. There can’t be a ‘no-enemies-on-the-right’ strategy, or you wind up with anti-Semites, racists, and black-helicopter guys grabbing all the media attention and delegitimizing wider conservative goals. In the US, Bill Buckley explicitly intended the National Review to screen out the John Birch Society and the American Mercury. In Germany, the CDU/CSU keeps the nationalist/neo-Nazi fringe at bay. (I worked for both GOP and CSU legislators in...
I've been deficient in serving your delicious, piping-hot links. I apologize. And to make matters worse, I have a very small selection of links today. But you can take solace in knowing that these are hand-crafted, artisanal links--the type of linkage that would make Henry Kissinger envious. The worst restaurant in America. Yes, this is a link to an episode of Kitchen Nightmares, but you'll find it gripping. Much like the owners of Amy's Baking Company in the Kitchen Nightmares episode above, is upset with its rankings. The PRC is trying to get the World Bank to cease ranking countries by...
Ari Kohen on the value of "edutainment": Finally, and most importantly, is the central claim that the test of education is whether or not it’s entertaining. Wales asks, “why wouldn’t you have the most entertaining professor, the one with the proven track record of getting knowledge into people’s heads?” Is there evidence that the most entertaining lecture is the one that gets “knowledge into people’s heads”? Again, I’m not suggesting that a boring lecture is going to do the trick, but I’m arguing that entertaining students doesn’t necessarily equate with teaching them something. When I...
The Theory Section seeks nominations for its new conference paper awards. All papers with a strong theoretical focus which were presented at the 2013 ISA conference in San Francisco are eligible. The Theory Section seeks to honor excellent work in theorizing international politics across the plurality of theoretical approaches. Two awards will be granted: one for a paper presented by a graduate student or other non-PhD holder, and another for a paper by a post-PhD scholar. The award committee is composed of Daniel J. Levine (University of Alabama), Jennifer Mitzen (Ohio State University),...
Kenneth Waltz died last night. From an email sent by Robert Jervis: It is with great sadness that I have to report that Ken Waltz died last night. As many of you know, his health had been uncertain ever since he lost much of his sight a year ago, and about a month ago he was hospitalized with pneumonia. While he recovered enough to be discharged to rehab, a combination of a return of pneumonia and congestive heart failure sent him back to the hospital a few days ago. He was a few weeks short of 89 but until the very end remained fully lucid and engaged. Indeed he was looking forward to a...
Here's you linkage (...in case you're still trying to avoid grading...) Manan Ahmed of Chapati Mystery fame has an op-ed in the New York Times on Pakistan's Tyrannical Majority. Praveen Swami asks whether it really matters to India who is the Prime Minister of Pakistan? Fahad Deshmukh did a wonderful little piece on Pakistan's election symbols. (Vote Bucket!) Shaik Ubaid argues that Bangladesh is heading for a religious civil war ever since a war crimes trial was politicized. Olga Khazan examines the collective action problem and charging a quarter per garment to improve worker safety in...
Newsweek Japan asked me to write an introductory essay for a special issue on tension in Northeast Asia. Basically I plea not to throw out all the remarkable growth of the last 35 years in an orgy of nationalism. It’s almost certain that the post-79 Asian peace was a necessary condition for simultaneous economic growth. So fighting over some empty rocks (Liancourt Rocks, Pinnacle Islands) is a terrible idea. And for IR, I think the current Sino-Japanese tension is a good test of the old liberal hypothesis that economic interdependence encourages peace. It’s fascinating to watch China...
It is that time of year when people are getting the official letter informing them that their tenure/promotion has cleared the final hurdles--the President, the Board of Regents/Governors/Trustees/Assorted Rich People. So, congratulations to those that have made it past all of the various hurdles along the way.