Charli Carpenter

Libya and Feminist Peace Theory

by Charli Carpenter | 21 March, 2011 |

At the Daily Beast John Avlon gestures quizzically at the presence of women among those influencing the Libyan intervention:The Libyan airstrikes mark the first time in U.S. history that a female-dominated diplomatic team has urged military action. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined with U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and the influential Office of Multilateral and Human Rights Director Samantha Power to argue for airstrikes against Libya. Their advice triggered an abrupt shift in U.S. policy, overturning more cautious administrations' counselors. In the end, that a female-led diplomatic...

Things I Learned at ISA

by Charli Carpenter | 20 March, 2011 |

In descending order of seriousness but not necessarily importance:1) According to a study presented at this workshop by Helen Turton (a whip-smart student at Exeter) the most commonly used methodological approach in the field is not quantitative analysis but rather interpretivism. Also (this from preliminary findings by Daniel Maliniak and Ryan Powers - I look forward to the published version): the most widely cited papers in the discipline of international relations are not the big boys of the theoretical canon [oh, yes, they're all apparently boys, except Marty Finnemore] but rather a very...

“Also, It Turns Out Mubarak is a Cylon.” #BSG #Egypt @RT “So Say We All!”

by Charli Carpenter | 10 March, 2011 |

I was fascinated to learn while working on my Battlestar Galactica "research project" that Adama's quote from the scene above was floating around the Internet for some time during the Egyptian Revolution. The statement "This quote now applicable to Egypt" appeared in a Reddit thread, was reposted on at least one Facebook site, quickly attracting 6,000 likes and over 1800 comments, while like-minded tweets exploded across cyberspace. This one was featured at the Huffington post:Here are some other fun examples.The book editors for whom we're developing this working paper asked us to look at...

“As An Educator It is My Responsibility to Turn You In To Your Professor. Thank you For Your Cooperation. Good Luck With Your Studies.”

by Charli Carpenter | 6 March, 2011 |

To me, the high point of academic blogging is putting out a request for insight to readers on a specific problem and crowd-sourcing a wealth of useful feedback that helps me be better at what I do than I would have been had I gone with my gut. Sometimes these blegs are about research and sometimes about teaching, and sometimes about how to wade through the backwash of scholarly life without getting too dirty. I want to thank everyone who weighed in on my "famous, dumb student" how-to-deal-with-a-suspected-cheating-student-not-from-my-own-institution-who-happens-to-be-public-figure thread....

Open Thread on Responding to Academic Dishonesty by Celebrity College Students Not At One’s Own Institution

by Charli Carpenter | 4 March, 2011 |

So this email arrived my mailbox yesterday:Hi Mr. Carpenter, I am a fourth year college student and I have the honor of reading one of your books and I just had a few questions... I am very fascinated by your work and I am just trying to understand everything. Can you please address some of my questions? I would greatly appreciate it. It certainly help me understand your wonderful article better. Thank you very much! :) Sincerely, [NAME REDACTED]The "questions":1. What is the fundamental purpose of your article? 2. What is your fundamental thesis? 3. What evidence do you use to support your...

UN Routinely Overlooks Male Rape Victims… And Female Perpetrators

by Charli Carpenter | 2 March, 2011 |

Adam Jones and Augusta del Zotto made this case years ago, and so have I. Glad to note the New York Times has finally taken notice by publishing Lara Stemple's excellent op-ed: AS disturbing new reports of male rape in Congo made clear, wartime sexual violence isn’t limited to women and girls. But in its ongoing effort to eradicate rape during conflict, the United Nations continues to overlook a significant imperative: ending wartime sexual assault of men and boys as well.Sexual violence against men does occasionally make the news: the photographs of the sexual abuse and humiliation of Iraqi...

Norms Are What Analysts Make of Them…? And Other Thoughts About Targeting Killings, Sieges, and War Law Development

by Charli Carpenter | 25 February, 2011 |

Professor Michael Gross left a lengthy response at Current Intelligence to my remarks about his characterization of asymmetric war. I'm afraid he seems displeased with me:Far superior to faint praise, it is still annoying when reviewers pick out controversial arguments but leave the impression that the author did not address them.Oh dear. It's true that, in my effort at brevity, I did give short shrift to many of the overarching strengths of the book: its breadth, up-to-date-ness, and unique and timely case studies on non-lethal weapons, assassination, the right to self-defense of national...

Strengthening Civilian Protection

by Charli Carpenter | 23 February, 2011 |

My review essay on the protection of civilians is out in Foreign Affairs. I discuss two books - Michael Gross' Moral Dilemmas of Modern War, and Stephen Rockel and Rick Halpern's edited volume Collateral Damage. All these authors clearly care deeply about protecting civilians in armed conflicts, and worry in different ways that the existing laws of war are flawed. I have somewhat more faith, particularly in the ability of global civil society organizations to build upon these foundations in order to fill the existing gaps; in fact, as I argue, this process is already underway: In Moral...

Zombie Hunt!

by Charli Carpenter | 17 February, 2011 |

In an public-service-minded attempt to hone our skills for the zombie outbreak due any day, Bloggingheads has embedded a zombie-detection tutorial within this diavlog:Win a copy of “Theories of International Politics and Zombies"! Hidden in this diavlog are five different images from well-known zombie features (four movies, one TV show). The first reader of this blog to correctly identify when those zombie scenes appear in the diavlog and from what movie or TV show they were taken, gets a copy of Dan Drezner's new book. For a chance to win: send an email to bloggingheadszombiehunt@gmail.com....

Norms and War

by Charli Carpenter | 16 February, 2011 |

I have an essay online at Current Intelligence on Michael Gross's recent book. Moral Dilemmas of Modern Warfare explores the ways in which "new wars" are challenging the existing law of armed conflict. I'll have more to say about his proposals in a forthcoming Foreign Affairs essay, but in this piece I focus on his characterizations of "asymmetric war" and on his notions of "norm change." I think the asymmetries to which he refers may be more apparent than real, and the norm "shifts" he describes - like the breakdown of respect for the civilian/combatant divide - are actually patterns of...

The Duck of Minerva