@ The Duck of Minerva

Episode 18: Name Your Discord Server “and Collaboration”

Whiskey & IR Theory

by Patrick Thaddeus Jackson & Dan Nexon

17 07 2021


Arnold Wolfers is one of the most important figures of “mainstream” mid-20th century international-relations theory, but is now mostly cited for his definition of “revisionism” and for perhaps his most famous essay, “‘National Security’ as an Ambiguous Symbol.” Discord and Collaboration (1962) collects previously published essays and intersperses them with new ones that are aimed at making the collection more cohesive. It covers a variety of issues that remain subjects of debate in the field, such as state-centrism. Patrick and Dan discuss its arguments, the events that drive some of its analysis, and how it slots into later debates in IR theory, such as the “False Promise” dispute covered in the prior two episodes.

This is our first episode to come out since affiliating with the academic international-relations website, the Duck of Minerva. If you have questions or reactions to this episode, you might consider leaving a comment on this episode’s associated blogpost.

Patrick Thaddeus Jackson is Professor of International Studies in the School of International Service, and also Director of the AU Honors program. He was formerly Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Relations and Development, and is currently Series Editor of the University of Michigan Press' book series Configurations: Critical Studies of World Politics.

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. Will
    Will on 20 July 2021 at 07.01 EDT

    For the Q&A proposal – would love to hear you discuss the “hothouse” nature of Columbia’s PhD program in political science in the 1990s, why it was the way it was, and how it shaped how you emerged out of it, and perhaps contrast it to the programs at Chicago and Stanford at the time.

    • Dan Nexon
      Dan Nexon on 20 July 2021 at 21.50 EDT

      I guess we could revisit that insanity!