The Duck of Minerva

Jon Western

Jon Western has spent the last fifteen years teaching IR in liberal arts colleges at Mount Holyoke College and the Five Colleges in western Massachusetts. He has an eclectic range of intellectual interests but often writes on international security, U.S. foreign policy, military intervention, and human rights. He occasionally shares his thoughts about professional life in liberal arts colleges. In his spare time he coaches middle school soccer, mentors the local high school robotics team, skis, and sails.

Recent Posts

So, You Want to be a Liberal Arts College Professor: Life inside the Liberal Arts edition, Part II

by Jon Western | 2 May, 2016 |

[Note: This is the second of two guest posts on life in the Liberal Arts Colleges from Sarah Stroup and Amy Yuen, both Associate Professors of Political Science, Middlebury College] According to the 2014 TRIP survey, at least one in six IR faculty in the United States teach at a liberal arts college.[1] If you want one of those jobs, how do you get it? In this second post (part I here), we identify a few steps, gathered based on our own experiences and those of colleagues at other colleges, that are likely to help you in the liberal arts pool. There are at least three things to know about...

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So, You Want to Be a Liberal Arts College Professor: Life in the Liberal Arts edition (Part I)

by Jon Western | 28 April, 2016 |

[Note: This is the first of two guest posts on life in the Liberal Arts Colleges from Sarah Stroup and Amy Yuen, both Associate Professors of Political Science, Middlebury College] Job market season is fast approaching, but information about those jobs can be scarce. For those on the market, just starting a liberal arts job, or just curious, we offer a little insight from two women recently tenured at a liberal arts institution. Elaborating on prior Duck posts here and here, we first offer a snapshot of research in the liberal arts and later offer a few tips for job applicants. These...

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Stanley Hoffmann’s approach to studying politics: in memoriam 1928-2015 .

by Jon Western | 18 September, 2015 |

[Note: This is a guest post by Peter Gourevitch, Founding Dean and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California San Diego. He is currently Visiting Professor at the Watson Institute, Brown University.] Stanley Hoffmann influenced the study of international relations greatly. From the 1960s on, generations of professors in training read his work. All were affected by doing so. Some reacted negatively, some positively, some indirectly, but all were affected because of its clarity and utility. He laid out argumentation in the...

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Submit your proposals!!! 2015 ISSS-ISAC Conference: Global Trends on War, Conflict and Political Violence

by Jon Western | 26 June, 2015 |

Charli and I, along with a few other colleagues here in the Five Colleges are hosting this year's joint annual conference of the International Security Studies Section and International Security and Arms Control Section of ISA and APSA. The conference will be held Oct. 8 - 10 -- fall break weekend and peak fall foliage in New England! The conference theme is Global Trends in War and Political Violence. Over the past century, we have witnessed episodes of extreme interstate and intrastate violence as well as periods of relative stability and decline in war and armed conflict. We're looking...

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Gender in IR, Now at the Cutting Edge

by Jon Western | 9 April, 2015 |

[Note: The following is a guest post by Prof. Dan Reiter of Emory University] Joshua Goldstein wrote in the preface to his award-winning, 2001 book War and Gender that while finishing his book he “discovered a list of unfinished research projects, which I had made fifteen years ago at the end of graduate school. About ten lines down is ‘gender and war,’ with the notation ‘most interesting of all; will ruin career—wait until tenure.’” This was probably not a completely inaccurate assessment, at the time. Through the 1980s and 1990s, the study of gender and international relations was viewed...

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OAIS Blogging Awards: And the Finalists Are….

by Jon Western | 5 February, 2015 |

Thanks to all of you who voted for this year’s OAIS Blogging Awards finalists. We had an amazing pool of nominees again this year in all four categories. We had a record voter turnout -- it's exciting to see the growth in interest in the Duckies in the past three years. It is even more exciting to see and read all of the incredible intellectual contributions made by all of the bloggers in the IR field. We are pleased to announce this year’s finalists. Finalists will now be reviewed by a panel of judges that includes last year’s winners and Duck of Minerva permanent contributors. We will...

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Only Two Days Left to Vote

by Jon Western | 28 January, 2015 |

Get your ballots in soon. We are in the home stretch for the voting for the 2015 OAIS Blogging Awards (The Duckies). Voting closes on Friday, Jan. 30 at 5:00pm EST. All ballots must be submitted by then. We've had a record number of votes and all four categories are very tight. Once all the votes are in, we will tally them and announce the finalists for each category. At that point, a panel of judges will select the winners from among the finalists. For more information on the list of nominees and all the details and rules on voting, check out our earlier post.

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Vote Now for the 2015 (The Duckies) IR Blogging Awards

by Jon Western | 19 January, 2015 |

It's time to vote! We are asking readers to vote for the finalists in each category. ONce we have finalists for each category, a panel of judges that includes previous years' winners and permanent contributors at Duck of Minerva will select this year's award winners in each category. The winners will be announced at the OAIS Blogging Awards and Reception at the ISA annual convention in New Orleans on Thursday, February 20, 2015. Here's what you need to do. Send us an email at duckofminerva2015 at gmail.com and we will send you a ballot. Simply fill out the ballot and submit it. Voting ends...

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Last Call for Blogging Awards Nominations!

by Jon Western | 15 January, 2015 |

This is the last call for nominations for the best IR-related blogging of 2014. The "Duckies" will be awarded at ISA-New Orleans on Thursday, Feb. 20 at the third annual Duck of Minerva and Sage Blogging Awards and Reception. We need your help and nominations for the best blogging of 2014 in these categories: 1. Best Blog (Group) in IR 2. Best Blog (Individual) in IR 3. Best Blog Post in IR 4. Best New Blogger (Individual) in IR -- this can be anyone new blogging in an individual or group blog. We've got a great list so far, but we're looking for more. Please send us your nominations via...

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Is There a Santa Claus?

by Jon Western | 23 December, 2014 |

[NOTE: To spice up the discussion started by Tenacity's guest post, we bring you this throw-back post. One of Patrick Thadeus Jackson's greatest hits (of which there were many) originally posted on December 25, 2007.] Ever since the invention of the InterNet, not a December goes by without some version of this making the rounds of listservs and e-mail chains and the like. I must have received it a dozen times from various sources. It's cute and funny and all, but I must say that I've never been entirely happy with its conclusions. So in the spirit of the season, I present the first known...

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