The Duck of Minerva

Brian Rathbun

Rathbun is a professor of International Relations at USC. Brian Rathbun received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2002 and has taught at USC since 2008. He has written four solo-authored books, on humanitarian intervention, multilateral institution building, diplomacy and rationality. His articles have appeared or are forthcoming in International Organization, International Security, World Politics, International Studies Quartlery, the Journal of Politics, Security Studies, the European Journal of International Relations, International Theory, and the Journal of Conflict Resolution among others. He is the recipient of the 2009 USC Parents Association Teaching and Mentoring Award. In 2019 he will be recognized as a Distinguished Scholar by the Diplomatic Studies Section of the International Studies Association.

Recent Posts

Obama as Hitler: He Wishes!

by Brian Rathbun | 14 October, 2011 |

I used to watch all of the presidential debates when I was in my late twenties and early thirties. Even though my party allegiance was never in doubt, I wanted to know the contours of the debate even for the other side, what there substantive differences were, where the daylight between the candidates was, etc.I don't do this any more. Obviously one reason is that they are just not informative. None of the candidates truly embrace policy ideas, and even if they did, that isn't what is rewarded. So during their primaries, in particular, they draw largely semantic contrasts between other...

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I don’t get it (Steve Jobs, cont’d)

by Brian Rathbun | 7 October, 2011 |

This is a really, really pretty chair. It was designed by Adolf Loos, a turn-of-the-century architect and interior designer. There is a famous building in Vienna once known as the "house with no eyebrows" that is also his. Did you know that? Probably not. Only aficionados of fin-de-siecle modernism really pay much attention. Very few designers are remembered. The same will be true of Steve Jobs in fifty years, maybe twenty. What?! Too soon?Patrick and PM's posts are hardly unique today. There has been an incredible outpouring of adulation about Steve Jobs as a visionary. I don't get it. It...

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Breakout Star Patrick T. Jackson Takes APSA by Storm

by Brian Rathbun | 4 October, 2011 |

The Canard"All the fake news that's fit to print"--Seattle The American Political Science Association is abuzz with talk about a breakout book by an up and coming star in international relations theory, Patrick T. Jackson. While Jackson had previously had strong indie credentials established through gritty work on the strategic construction of the notion of Western civilization by the United States after WWII, The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations looks to give Jackson the broader notoriety in the field that many have long thought he deserved. The book blurb proposes that it...

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Stuff Political Scientists Like #10 — a Degree from an Elite School

by Brian Rathbun | 28 September, 2011 |

Political scientists like other political scientists with a Ph.D. degree from a good school. Those who go to Harvard or Yale or Berkeley are ‘well-trained.’ This means that they have successfully completed coursework in rigorous quantitative methods, not that they don’t pee on the floor. Schools with a good pedigree degree offer no guarantees on the latter. In fact, continence is unlikely. Different kennels elite departments are known for their skill in preparing graduates of particular breeds kinds. Midwestern schools tend to produce terriers students excellent at getting close to the...

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Stuff Political Scientists Like #9 — Being Liked, or Citations

by Brian Rathbun | 19 September, 2011 |

Political scientists love citations, or, more accurately, to be cited. Actually compiling citations is a tremendously tedious chore that political scientists leave to the very end of any paper, one marked by a bitter struggle with Endnote. Citations are the best marker political scientists have of success. As political scientists come in both male and female varieties, they cannot simply measure penises. And even if all political scientists were male, there would not be, to use political science parlance, enough “variation” in such a measure to properly differentiate between them. What is...

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Zombie Theory of Foreign Policy

by Brian Rathbun | 8 September, 2011 |

We have gone almost a month without talking about zombies, and you all must be in need of a fix. Instead of thinking how various theories of international relations might expect us to cope with a zombie epidemic, I thought it might be fun to think about how leading public figures – elected officials, pundits, etc. – might respond to a zombie attack. This is in keeping with my general belief that we would see many different responses by individuals in the same structural circumstances, that foreign policy is more important than international relations.Incidentally, I just want you to know...

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Stuff Political Scientists Like #8 — feeling terrible about themselves, or APSA

by Brian Rathbun | 29 August, 2011 |

Every year political scientists make a remarkable pilgrimage towards a large American city -- Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia. Against all odds they push upstream trying to make a name for themselves. There is only room enough for a dozen or so great names in political science, those whose names will one day adorn a plaque in a graduate student lounge. We speak their name in hushed tones -- Dahl, Skocpol, Waltz. But this does not deter thousands from arriving each year -- yearning, striving, networking. For graduate students political scientists call this 'socialization,' or learning...

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What Exactly is the Point of Foreign Policy Analysts?: Lessons from Libya (and any other crisis in history)

by Brian Rathbun | 24 August, 2011 |

I don't follow the news as closely as I should. I am not up on everyone's blogs. I don't check the Brookings Institution for every new report it issues. I am a lazy blogger. But I do seem to recall when this whole Libya thing started and didn't end successfully immediately that all kinds of "foreign policy analysts" came out of the woodwork to say it wouldn't work, that we were merely facilitating and prolonging a protracted civil war stalemate. We couldn't will the means that would be necessary. Dumbasses. I say that not because they got the prediction wrong, but rather that they tried to...

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Entire Earth Asphyxiating, Zombie Book Blamed

by Brian Rathbun | 22 August, 2011 |

The Canard "All the fake news that's fit to print" ---Earth The globe is suffering from a sudden decline in the volume of oxygen, sending world leaders scurrying to sustain life on earth. Although scientists recognize that there could be any number of reasons, such as increases in pollution and CO2, they believe that the drop is too steep to be explained by these gradual processes. Instead they are focusing their suspicions on the recent publication of Theories of International Politics and Zombies by Daniel Drezner, which is sucking all of the oxygen out of the earth. Since its publication,...

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