The Duck of Minerva

Josh Busby

Joshua Busby is a Professor in the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas-Austin. From 2021-2023, he served as a Senior Advisor for Climate at the U.S. Department of Defense. His most recent book is States and Nature: The Effects of Climate Change on Security (Cambridge, 2023). He is also the author of Moral Movements and Foreign Policy (Cambridge, 2010) and the co-author, with Ethan Kapstein, of AIDS Drugs for All: Social Movements and Market Transformations (Cambridge, 2013). His main research interests include transnational advocacy and social movements, international security and climate change, global public health and HIV/ AIDS, energy and environmental policy, and U.S. foreign policy.

Recent Posts

Duck Forum on Paris Withdrawal

Duck Forum on Paris Withdrawal

by Josh Busby | 1 June, 2017 |

With the news that the Trump Administration has signaled its intent to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, I reached out to a number of leading experts on global climate governance and U.S. climate policy for advanced comment. Contributors include Jessica Green, Jennifer Hadden, Thomas Hale, Matthew Hoffmann, Angel Hsu, Joanna Lewis, Johannes Urpelainen, and Stacy VanDeveer.  I asked all of them to reflect on the following three questions. 1) What do you think the the consequences of U.S. withdrawal will be for the agreement? (2) How do you think other actors will respond to...

read more

Writing Women Back In

by Josh Busby | 31 May, 2017 | ,

This is a guest post from Anjali K. Dayal (Assistant Professor, Fordham University), Madison V. Schramm (PhD Candidate, Georgetown University), Alexandra M. Stark (PhD Candidate, Georgetown University) The gender citation gap in international relations is an important part of today’s disciplinary conversations about diversity: research indicates that scholarship by women is less cited in academic articles; less likely to be cited by men; less likely to appear on graduate course syllabi, especially in courses with male instructors; and less likely to appear in media reports about politics....

read more
Emancipation through Song: What Can We Learn from Rock Music?

Emancipation through Song: What Can We Learn from Rock Music?

by Josh Busby | 30 May, 2017 | , ,

This is a guest post from Sean Kay, Robson Professor of Politics and Government, and Director of International Studies, at Ohio Wesleyan University. The interview quotes appear in his new book Rockin’ the Free World! How the Rock & Roll Revolution Changed America and the World (2017). There is power in rock and roll – an art form that has modernized American values and helped them to ripple around the world – advancing freedom, equality, human rights, and peace. Over the last several years I was fortunate to interview about sixty major rock and roll artists, songwriters, producers,...

read more
This is not fine.

This is not fine.

by Josh Busby | 15 May, 2017 |

The perhaps apocryphal story is that in the wake of the 2016 election, submissions to top journals in political science declined by 15% or more. While this sabbatical year has been productive in many respects, I have not made as much progress on a book project as I would have liked. I wonder why? Last week's events -- the dramatic firing of FBI Director James Comey and the series of justifications and admissions by the president and his team -- have underscored the challenge for all of us in terms of allocating our time and attention. This is an academic blog informed by our sensibilities...

read more
Should we try to convince Trump to stay in the Paris Agreement?

Should we try to convince Trump to stay in the Paris Agreement?

by Josh Busby | 7 May, 2017 |

This is a guest post from Matthew Hoffmann, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto Should I stay or should I go now? If I go, there will be trouble And if I stay it will be double (The Clash) The Trump administration is nearing a decision about whether to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change. A number of commentaries are urging Trump to stay in and my underlying predilection is to join this chorus. Cards on the table, I am a fan of the Paris Agreement—it certainly has flaws, but it is the best thing to happen to the multilateral response to climate...

read more

Further Thoughts on Autism in Academia

by Josh Busby | 4 May, 2017 |

This is a guest post from Brendan Szendro, a PhD Student in Political Science, Binghamton University and follows a previous post on the topic of autism  On April 19, William H. Moore, a Political Science professor with what he termed “borderline Autism,” committed suicide after writing a lengthy note on his blog. In it, he detailed his frustrations with his perennial outsider status, his inability to communicate his talents professionally, accusations of arrogance by those around him and the fact that he had a strong desire to produce more than he consumed, but no longer found joy in...

read more
Bret Stephens and Climate Change

Bret Stephens and Climate Change

by Josh Busby | 28 April, 2017 |

The former Wall Street Journal writer Bret Stephens has a column today to kick off his new digs at the New York Times that meanders into climate change territory and has raised some hackles. In the piece, he talks about how public opinion on climate change is soft, which some folks have complained doesn't capture public opinion accurately. Both are true in my view and miss the point. As the Storify thread of tweets below talks about, Republican elites and the fossil fuel industry have poisoned the well so that many Republicans think climate change is a hoax. So, public opinion is soft....

read more
The Real Problem with Diversity in Political Science

The Real Problem with Diversity in Political Science

by Josh Busby | 27 April, 2017 |

This is a guest post by Lee Ann Fujii, Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, and currently a Member Scholar of the Institute for Advanced Study. This post is based on the keynote address she gave at ISA-NE in November 2016 in Baltimore, Maryland. These days most political science department are discussing the need for greater diversity in their ranks. These conversations tend to follow a well-worn path. They never start at Step 1—as in “what do I need to learn to understand this problem?”—but with Step Minus 5, that is, the rash of myths that people assert as fact or common...

read more

Let’s talk about mental health

by Josh Busby | 19 April, 2017 |

.@APSAtweets @MPSAnet @isanet We are losing colleagues to depressive disorders, & many others suffer silently. The pressure in our profession is insane & often unhealthy. — Laura Seay (@texasinafrica) April 19, 2017 Take care of yourselves political scientists. Hug a loved one. Phone a friend. Get outside. Get help if needed. — Josh Busby (@busbyj2) April 19, 2017 RIP Brother Will (Moore)! It's said that we stand on the shoulders of giants. Sometimes we are lucky enough to stand next to them. Peace — christian davenport (@engagedscholar) April 19, 2017 There have been some high...

read more
Why IR needs the environment and the environment needs IR

Why IR needs the environment and the environment needs IR

by Josh Busby | 7 April, 2017 |

This is a guest post from Jessica F. Green and Thomas N. Hale. Green is Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at New York University. She can be reached at Jessica.green@nyu.edu. Hale is Associate Professor of Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University. He can be reached at thomas.hale@bsg.ox.ac.uk. The state of the global environment is terrible—and deteriorating. The globalization of industrial production and the consumptive habits of 7 billion people have created the Anthropocene—a geologic age in which the actions of humans are the primary determinant...

read more