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

The Paris Agreement: When is a treaty not a treaty?

by Josh Busby | 21 April, 2016 |

Tomorrow is Earth Day, and there is a push in the climate community to encourage states to sign and ultimately ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change. With each of the last 11 months having been the hottest months on record and 93% of Australia's Great Barrier reef experiencing "coral bleaching" from record-breaking hot ocean temperatures, the stakes for the world are high. The #ParisAgreement was an historic event. Time now to sign and implement it! https://t.co/ydZ2Xj1DR3 #Means4Me pic.twitter.com/iQDlUYexBJ — The Climate Group (@ClimateGroup) April 20, 2016 April 22 is the first day...

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Building social science knowledge on public attitudes and autonomous weapons

Building social science knowledge on public attitudes and autonomous weapons

by Josh Busby | 16 March, 2016 |

This is a guest post from Michael C. Horowitz (@mchorowitz), Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Director of Perry World House, University of Pennsylvania Last week, Charli Carpenter published an important piece advancing the conversation about public attitudes, public conscience, and autonomous weapons. Her post critiqued my recent article in Research & Politics on public opinion and autonomous weapons. As a former Duck contributor, I am excited to return and further the dialogue (for a longer version of this post that contains more detailed responses to some other...

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The Anthropocene and the End of Large Fauna? Will Political Scientists Show Up?

The Anthropocene and the End of Large Fauna? Will Political Scientists Show Up?

by Josh Busby | 4 March, 2016 |

Geologists now say that humans have had such an impact on the earth that we have entered in to a new age, what has been termed the Anthropocene. On some level, this is a political statement, but on another level, it could be an observable layer in the physical surface of the earth that future generations will excavate to find plastics and garbage. This era, and soon, may also spell the end of large fauna. Elephants. Rhinos. Giraffes. Vultures. Lions. Tigers. Leopards. Polar bears. These could be all be extinct before I die. And that would be an unimaginable travesty against nature. I've...

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Transforming Markets and Social Movements

Transforming Markets and Social Movements

by Josh Busby | 18 February, 2016 | ,

Why do some transnational advocacy movements have more success transforming global markets than others? Can we look to look to differences in market structure for a preliminary account? Why were AIDS advocates able to achieve extended access to antiretroviral medications for millions of people while climate campaigners have struggled to achieve comparable gains? This week, International Studies Quarterly published an early access and ungated version of my article with Ethan Kapstein where we examine how the structure of markets shaped the differential scope for climate and AIDS advocacy....

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Speaking Truth to Power: A Response to Walt’s Lamentations

Speaking Truth to Power: A Response to Walt’s Lamentations

by Josh Busby | 30 January, 2016 | ,

This is a guest post from Eric Van Rythoven and Ty Solomon. Eric Van Rythoven is a PhD candidate at Carleton University studying emotion, world politics, and securitization. His work is published in Security Dialogue and European Journal of International Relations. Ty Solomon is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow. He is the author of The Politics of Subjectivity in American Foreign Policy Discourses (2015, University of Michigan Press), and articles in International Studies Quarterly, European Journal of International...

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India, Air Pollution, and Climate Change

India, Air Pollution, and Climate Change

by Josh Busby | 30 January, 2016 |

Over the winter break, I spent ten days in India, in the capital New Delhi and Mumbai. I was immediately struck by the awful air quality as I walked out of the airport in New Delhi. Delhi's air quality is as bad or worse than Beijing's, though perhaps that fact isn't as widely known. The air was visible and thick. I thought my glasses were dirty but then I realized that it was the haze which crept in to the interior halls of the hotel. I couldn't capture the air quality in a photo but I found a perfect encapsulation reading Tom Hale's fine book on global governance policy gridlock. I was...

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What Role for Non-State Actors in the New Climate Governance?

What Role for Non-State Actors in the New Climate Governance?

by Josh Busby | 15 January, 2016 | ,

This is a guest post from Jennifer Hadden, an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland's Department of Government and Politics. I had the pleasure of editing a reviews exchange on her new book,  Networks in Contention. The exchange just came out in the latest issue of International Politics Reviews  and features reviews from me (Josh), Thomas Hale, and Johannes Urpelainen, as well as a response from Hadden herself. Ungated access here.   World leaders adopted a global agreement on climate change in Paris last month, as was widely reported. Less well know is that in parallel to the...

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The Agency of Multilateral Organizations

The Agency of Multilateral Organizations

by Josh Busby | 13 January, 2016 | ,

This is a guest post from Tana Johnson, an Assistant Professor at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy. I had the pleasure of editing a reviews exchange on her important new book, Organizational Progeny. The exchange just came out in the latest issue of International Politics Reviews and features reviews from me (Josh), Tanisha Fazal, and Alexandru Grigorescu, as well as a response from Johnson herself. Ungated access here.   I’ve recently returned from Geneva, home to scores of international intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). It’s an intriguing place: unlike New York,...

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Donald Trump Is a Racist (Part 100)

Donald Trump Is a Racist (Part 100)

by Josh Busby | 7 December, 2015 |

In the wake of the San Bernardino shooting and President Obama's address to the nation, Donald Trump has called for banning Muslims from entering the United States. This is counterproductive racist and awful. We need a credible candidate from the Republicans in 2016, not a reality television star who is a disgrace to the nation and its founding principles. Let's leave aside the morality here, which on its face is terrible, but recall what ISIS wants us to do which is turn this a religious war between the West and Muslims. ISIS wants us in our response to their provocations to eliminate the...

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Get a Grip America: Stop the Anti-Refugee Hysteria

Get a Grip America: Stop the Anti-Refugee Hysteria

by Josh Busby | 17 November, 2015 | , ,

So, I started yesterday with news that Republican governors, including my own here in Texas, were seeking to deny Syrian refugees in to the state. By the end of the day, more than 25 governors, including one Democrat, had joined in the hysteria. I think a lot of us see this as a betrayal of American values and completely idiotic from the perspective of grand strategy. We are basically telling millions of refugees, most of them Muslim, that we don't care about them. ISIS thanks us for that recruitment message. If only we were Scotland and showed the Syrian refugees that we could be...

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