The Duck of Minerva

Amanda Murdie

Amanda Murdie is Professor & Dean Rusk Scholar of International Relations in the Department of International Affairs in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia. She is the author of Help or Harm: The Human Security Effects of International NGOs (Stanford, 2014). Her main research interests include non-state actors, and human rights and human security. When not blogging, Amanda enjoys hanging out with her two pre-teen daughters (as long as she can keep them away from their cell phones) and her fabulous significant other.

Recent Posts

The Holiday Boost: Why You Should Submit a Manuscript before Winter Break

by Amanda Murdie | 26 November, 2013 |

What does any faculty member REALLY want for the holidays?  It’s not a Lexus, it’s not jewelry, it’s a brand new revise-and-resubmit (R&R) manuscript.  It’s really all that is on my list every year.  That and, of course, world peace. How can one get an R&R manuscript?  So far, I think R&R decisions are the result of the following four conditions: (a)    Good work without any serious theoretical or empirical flaws (b)   An introduction that doesn’t make the reviewers/editor think the piece is crap from the get-go (c)    All reviewers are pretty positive about the manuscript (d)  ...

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Tactical Concessions or a Kiss Off? Understanding Recent Changes in Chinese Human Rights Policies

by Amanda Murdie | 20 November, 2013 |

As has been widely reported in the Western media, on Friday, China’s state media finally officially announced two changes in human rights policies: (a) an end of the “Laojiao” policy of “re-education through labor” and (b) a change in the one-child policy in China, allowing two children per family if at least one of the parents was a single child (before both parents had to be only children).   Other, somewhat underreported, changes coming from the same official media report about the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China included a reduction of...

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The Cash Prize: A Decision Experiment

by Amanda Murdie | 7 November, 2013 |

Tomorrow, my great friend and coauthor Dursun Peksen and I will collect our $200 for winning the best paper award at the annual meeting of ISA-Midwest in St. Louis.  The paper, which I’ve talked about a little bit before at the Duck, is actually forthcoming now at the Journal of Politics.[1]  Dursun has won quite a few prizes before but this is my first time winning any sort of best paper award.[2] The award information says the prize is supposed to be in cash.  I’m hoping it is because this will probably be the first time I’ve had access to cash with my name on it since I was a kid.[3] I’m...

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Another Great Video – Why You Should NEVER Lecture from the Book’s Slides

by Amanda Murdie | 22 October, 2013 |

My first semester teaching as a PhD'd professor was tough - I was constantly struggling to stay on top of my research responsibilities and my family responsibilities.  Add in teaching 2 new preps - something had to give!  Well, I thought I found a solution - the textbook I was using for Intro to IR had already-made Powerpoint presentations!  All I needed to do was change the name and date on the slides and - Voilà! - teaching duties done! Unfortunately, every time I tried that, I ended up looking exactly like this guy:   Powered by MediaTram

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Creative Rebranding? Human Rights vs. Human Security

by Amanda Murdie | 16 October, 2013 |

I had a boy break up with me once by saying “we’re not breaking up, we’re taking a break.”  I guess the boy assumed that “taking a break” would be easier for me to accept than “breaking up.”  He was right: it took me a while[1] to actually figure out that “taking a break” was really synonymous with “breaking up.”  For my teenage-girl angst, “taking a break” just sounded better.  For the boy, “taking a break” was probably the safer option. In both advocacy and research concerning of how people are treated by governmental and non-governmental actors, I think the same type of linguistic...

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Game of Chicken and the US Government Shutdown: What Game Theory Can Tell Us About Likely Outcomes

by Amanda Murdie | 30 September, 2013 |

As I’m sure all astute Duck readers are aware, today marks a critical day in the US House and Senate – if no deal is struck today on a spending bill, the US government will shut down at one minute after midnight on Tuesday morning.  The issue at the heart of the controversy: a series of amendments to the spending bill that concern the Affordable Care Act (so-called “Obamacare”).  In general, House Republicans are in favor of the amendments; Senate Democrats are against the amendments.   So, both sides are holding firm to their stance on the amendments in hopes that the other side caves in...

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Schrödinger’s Cat and the Tenure Vote

by Amanda Murdie | 13 September, 2013 |

As I post this today, senior faculty in my department are voting on my tenure case. I don’t really know how to describe what I’m feeling at the moment.  It’s a combination of zen-like calm that I’m finally at this juncture in my career and a feeling of total and utter panic at the small-but-ever-present chance that things could go wrong. The odd thing: it’s not that I’m oscillating between these two states -I feel both at the same time. In a very real way, I’m Schrödinger’s cat: although I can’t be both tenured and denied at this university - at this very moment - I’m both. How did it come...

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So, you want a job in policy?

by Amanda Murdie | 11 September, 2013 |

I haven't worked a "real job" since being an undergrad. However, I often get asked by undergrads for advice about preparations for real world policy jobs.  I recently asked my former PhD student, Kate Kidder, a research associate at the Center for a New American Security, to provide some advice for an undergrad wanting to get into the policy world.   Kate's response was awesome.  So awesome, in fact, that I asked her to share it with the Duck community: My question to Kate: I'm advising a really wonderful undergrad who would like a career like you have.  Could you give her some advice as to...

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The Strategic Signaling Dynamics of Assistant Professor Office Decorating Decisions

by Amanda Murdie | 3 September, 2013 |

Having all read the canonical signaling literature within International Relations, new faculty members in IR are faced with a crucial and excruciating dilemma: how best to decorate their academic office.  The following blog post examines this dilemma in detail and is intended to create an inter-university dialogue and research agenda on the issue.   While some may say that an office is just a place to put your desk/computer and hold office hours, the very strategically astute assistant professor realizes that her office motif could possibly reveal information to senior colleagues as to...

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Studying Non-Governmental Organizations: What International Relations and Public Management Bring to the Table

by Amanda Murdie | 26 August, 2013 |

In my grad class every semester, I always ask the students if IR is really the best field for studying human security.  Undoubtedly, I get some students who respond that political science is the best discipline and IR is the best field – or even the only field – to really study human security. However, I usually also get a large minority of the students who acknowledge off the bat that most of the phenomena we study could be similarly examined in other social sciences or  -gasp!- could even be looked at by people in the humanities. This is definitely the case for the study of human security...

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