The Duck of Minerva

Jeffrey Stacey

Dr. Jeffrey A. Stacey is currently Managing Partner of Geopolicity USA, an overseas development firm. Formerly he was Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at SAIS, before which he served in the Obama Administration as a State Department official specializing in NATO and EU relations at the Bureau for Conflict Stabilization Operations. At State he founded and managed the International Stabilization and Peacebuilding Initiative (ISPI), which has over 20 government and international organization partners. Dr. Stacey is the author of "Integrating Europe" by Oxford University Press and is currently working on a follow-up book entitled "End of the West, Rise of the East?" He has been a guest blogger at The Washington Note and Democracy Arsenal, a professor of U.S. foreign policy at Tulane University and Fordham University, a consultant at the Open Society Institute and the U.S. Institute of Peace, and a visiting scholar at George Washington, Georgetown, and the University of California. He received his PhD from Columbia University.

Recent Posts

Time to Redefine the Term “soft power”?

by Jeffrey Stacey | 25 February, 2013 |

The broad goal of this blog, to the credit of its founders, is to bridge the gap between foreign policy practitioners and foreign policy scholars.  Prior to joining it recently, I have known its reputation for doing just that.  While in government I kept a mental note every time I came across a policymaker who regularly followed the Duck, and frankly I lost count.  So in this vein I'd like to quibble with something I thoroughly digested as a student, regularly promulgated as a professor, and gradually began to question as a policymaker.  It seems high time to question the usefulness of how...

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The Era of Austerity or the Era of Intervention?

by Jeffrey Stacey | 2 February, 2013 |

A variety of commentators listened to President Obama’s Inauguration speech and, having heard few words devoted to foreign policy, declared that the second term of this Administration will be marked by less activism on the global stage.  The draw downs from Iraq and Afghanistan readily reinforce this view, as do a variety of academics peddling recommendations for a new grand strategy of restraint.  I am more circumspect, for inauguration speeches are by nature more domestic in focus.  More importantly, America’s national security interests have not changed fundamentally. The Obama Doctrine...

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Special Relationship at the Crossroads

by Jeffrey Stacey | 26 January, 2013 |

  That Europe is caught up in a major financial crisis isn't news to anyone.  Standing right at the crossroads, the Eurozone will either muddle through and risk another crisis onset in the near term or having scraped through its worst crisis in decades take strong steps on the necessary medium and long-term reforms. But what our British friends may not realize is how the vaunted special relationship is also coming to a crossroads.  Prime Minister David Cameron’s large-sized gamble on the UK’s future European destiny has sent ripples of worry across the West, not least in Washington. ...

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“Zero Dark Thirty”: Touchstone Par Exemplar

by Jeffrey Stacey | 23 January, 2013 |

The film "Zero Dark Thirty" has touched quite a cord in this country, such as with Peter Henne's post below that responds to my own post further below.  To his credit, he opens up another strand of the wider debate this film has touched off.  My own reflection delves into the torture controversy writ large, as well as the the purpose and role of art in film making form.  Peter uses the latter to widen our view into what this film has to say about civil-military relations in American society. Peter, I wonder if I could draw you out further on several facets of your observation.  First it...

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“Zero Dark Thirty” Debate Needs an Interrogation

by Jeffrey Stacey | 22 January, 2013 |

Anyone who did not see "Zero Dark Thirty" on its opening night was smart, as it was mayhem in theaters everywhere.  The film shot to #1 at the box office overnight and is there still, for the plain and simple reason that it's a must see (no spoiler alert here because we all know at least a little about eliminating Osama bin Laden).  Zero Dark features a razor sharp screenplay by Mark Boal, top form directing by Kathryn Bigelow, and higher than high stakes drama from start to finish. This film, however, is sufficiently controversial that there may soon be Congressional hearings about it--Sen....

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An Interventionist Weekend

by Jeffrey Stacey | 14 January, 2013 |

Quite a weekend, the opening of Zero Dark Thirty in the U.S. reminding everyone of the interventionist elements of the Obama Doctrine (see my next post) and a full-fledged French intervention in Mali, not to mention U.S. assistance with a French hostage liberation operation tucked away on the inside pages. Washington, D.C. is a funny place these days...all but two of the think tanks here are obsessed with the rise of China and just about the entire U.S. foreign policy establishment is choking on economic austerity and therefore fully inclined to doubt that our government or any other can...

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The Academic-Policy Nexus: a few more thoughts

by Jeffrey Stacey | 26 December, 2012 |

Regarding my previous post and the very useful comments, first the matter of what do we do once we realize that a policy problem in search of a policy solution is the equivalent of a social scientific puzzle in search of an explanation, for both the solution and the explanation are outcomes. In other words, Step One is to identify the policy problem in question.  Step Two is to search the academic literature for a published study (in book or article form) whose puzzle is essentially identical to the policy problem. For example, the problem of how to end a civil war in Country X is equivalent...

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The Academic-Policy Nexus (Or Lack Thereof)

by Jeffrey Stacey | 22 December, 2012 |

In my first post after signing on with "Team Duck" I thought, before jumping into a series of weighty topics--rise of the east, end of the west, cratering of the middle east--it might be worth reflecting a little on my sojourn as a policymaker after beginning my career as a Political Scientist. As an IR scholar I started out specializing in the politics of international economics before gradually shifting over to the security studies side of this Poli Sci subfield. After an initial brush with death by acronymia when I joined the State Department, I was surprised at how well my training as a...

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