The Duck of Minerva

Talking Academic Journals: Online Fora

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by Dan Nexon

17 July 2013, 1508 EDT

At the end of May I posted the Georgetown-anchored bid for International Studies Quarterly that provides a roadmap for what we intend to do with the journal. I also briefly discussed the online model we’re developing for International Studies Quarterly Online, an effort under the capable supervision of PTJ. And yes, we might need a better name for it.

Among the online-only content that expect to include on the website are symposia and fora. We envision this content as less formal and shorter than what you would normally expect in International Studies Review (ISR) or International Studies Perspectives (ISP). In short:

  • It won’t be peer-reviewed;
  • It will allow for blog-style commenting and interchange; and
  • It will leverage the ISQ brand to bring in writers and readers.

These features create, we hope, opportunities to start, continue, and forward discussions relevant to international-studies theory and practice. Assuming this work–and having a dedicated web editor and team should help–many of the fora and symposia will be center around current and past ISQ content (cf. Governance). But some of them won’t.

We have a number of ideas percolating that range from being of field-wide concern to dealing with specific research programs. But I’m curious to hear from you all about what subjects we might tackle. What kinds of things do you think would fit well, would benefit the intellectual community, and so forth?

Feel free to comment here or email me directly.

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.

2 Comments

  1. W. K. Winecoff
    W. K. Winecoff on 17 July 2013 at 22.18 EDT

    Awhile ago I was going to try to host a forum on Oatley’s *Reductionist Gamble*. I know some folks loved it, some hated it, and some didn’t get it. I thought a forum might be a useful way to get a dialogue going. I never got around to it partially because I didn’t think IPE@UNC was prominent enough to get the folks I’d want to participate involved. But ISQ could probably swing it.

    While targeted directly at IPE the article has pretty far-reaching implications for IR, comparative, and perhaps some area studies folks as well. So it may fit the ostensible purpose.

  2. Andreas
    Andreas on 18 July 2013 at 10.49 EDT

    Will it be moderated? Given that even academics are sometimes prone to un-reflected comments, this might help to maintain a sufficiently high level of discourse.