The Duck has a new look and a new lineup of our core group, what we used to call “permanent contributors.” We haven’t yet settled on a new term. Blog Jedi Masters came to mind. In this post, I wanted to thank long-time contributors who are stepping away from the core group but who may blog intermittently and welcome some new folks to the core. I also want to invite a new cohort of folks to write for us regularly as Contributing Bloggers.

Dan’s Back!
First, let me thank Dan Nexon for his artful return to the blog. His industry to carry out the site redesign is much appreciated. He founded this blog many moons ago, and we missed his gusto and entrepreneurial spirit. In addition to the evolving look and feel, there will be pods and features and an effort to rekindle all the best bits of the blogosphere of old, opportunities for free-wheeling debate and a bit of fun and frivolity as well.

Lurking
Second, I will be here but something of a lurker. I’m currently serving in the Biden administration as Senior Climate Advisor at the Pentagon so my energies are a bit elsewhere. I’m also probably pretty constrained in talking about my day job explicitly, though I hope I can do so obliquely on occasion.

Thank You
Third, long-time members of our core group — Amanda Murdie, Rodger Payne, and Steve Saideman — are stepping down from those positions but are always welcome to blog here. Thank you for all of your wit and intellect on your posts over the years.

Welcome
Fourth, we are pleased as punch to have a number of new folks join the core group. Dan of course I mentioned. But, we also have several of what we used to call Guest Ducks who are joining the core group alongside me, Charli Carpenter, Lisa Gaufman, and Jarrod Hayes. Those new folks include:

• Naazneen Barma – who writes on peacebuilding and economic development, co-founded the Bridging the Gap channel on the Duck and leads the Scrivner Institute at the University of Denver
• Cullen Hendrix – who writes about the intersection of the environment and security, among other topics and is a Professor at the University of Denver
• Peter Henne – who focuses on religion in foreign policy and political violence and is an Associate Professor of Political Science in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Vermont.

We are also delighted that Dani Gilbert and Erik Lin-Greenberg are coordinating the Bridging the Gap channel. New substantive channels on political economy and other topics are in the works so be on the lookout!

Come Write for Us!
Did you ever wish you had a platform to say whatever you wanted to the IR community unmediated and without waiting for months/years of peer review? I mean you could tweet your thoughts but what about more extended essays that capture your reactions to the news, developments in the field, and whatever else that strikes your fancy. You can write for more formal outlets that will edit your copy and clean it up, but what if you just want to riff and get something off your chest?

If that’s you, come write for us. If you are willing to blog regularly for a year, come join as a Contributing Blogger and you will get your very own keys to drive this blog. You get log-in privileges that allow you to post whenever, whatever you want. In a world of countless editors, there is great freedom (and some risk of course) in having that luxury. Live a little and come blog for us! Just get in touch with any of us, and we’ll be selecting in the next month before APSA a slate of diverse voices to write regularly on the new and improved Duck.

If you just want to do a one-off here or there, send something to one of the core group or write to comms@duckofminerva.com, and we will post on your behalf, but the new blog will create a profile of your work rather than have it appear under our names. And, if you like the results, you can keep at it and potentially get those log-in keys to the Duck.