The Duck of Minerva

Robert Kelly

Associate Professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy, Pusan National University, Korea Home Website: https://AsianSecurityBlog.wordpress.com/ Twitter: @Robert_E_Kelly

Recent Posts

If Flip-Flopping is a GOP Cardinal Sin, How can you Vote for Romney after that first Debate?

by Robert Kelly | 16 October, 2012 |

George W Bush practically built his re-election effort against John Kerry on the idea that even if you disagreed with him, you consistently knew where he stood on stuff. That commercial above is famous. And the US right in general loves that sort of macho grandstanding on behalf of American will in the face of wimpy, carping detractors - usually Europeans, academics, and liberals, ideally combined. Remember ‘freedom fries’? Palin and McCain struck the same pose in 2008 (‘I would much rather lose a campaign than a war’), and so did lots of Tea Party candidates in 2010 and in the 2012 GOP...

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EU and the Peace Prize (Round 3): M Tsvangirai should have Won

by Robert Kelly | 16 October, 2012 |

(Here and here is the previous Duck debate on this.) The EU? Over a guy regularly facing down death-threats, bullying, and intimidation from one of the worst dictators on earth? Boo to the Nobel Committee for missing this obvious choice. If they can give the prize to the drone-warrior with a kill-list (Obama) and an institution run by wealthy, comfortable lawyers, bankers, and white collar professionals, then surely they can give it to someone who every day is making a far more direct, personal, bodily commitment to peace and social betterment. In fact, why Tsvangirai hasn’t won yet is...

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Pop Music Brings a Lot More Readers than Social Science: Follow-up on ‘Kangnam Style’

by Robert Kelly | 3 October, 2012 |

 Now THAT is Korean art – the Seokguram Buddha; I’ve been to see it 3 times The Internet has slapped down my arrogance. I told myself I wouldn’t write about k-pop, but that post on ‘Kangnam Style’ drove so much traffic to my site and twitter, that here is a response to all the comments. It’s kinda of depressing how my posts on Asian political economy or what-not get little traffic and a lot of yawns, but K-pop brings huge numbers. It’s like those Facebook posts on something you find interesting that no one bothers to look at, but put up a pic of yourself blotto on a beach, and everyone...

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A Pre-Post-Mortem on Romney’s Defeat

by Robert Kelly | 29 September, 2012 |

It increasingly looks like Romney is gonna lose. Intratrade now puts that likelihood at 75%. Now it’s my understanding from the American politics subfield, in which I took exactly zero courses in grad school, that the state of the economy is supposed to be the great determiner of American elections. But somehow Romney can’t seem to win despite 8+% unemployment. So I’ll take that as a methodological opening for wild speculation - namely my own - masquerading as rigorous theory. Given my masterful background in this field, which includes watching Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, still getting Fox...

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‘Kangnam Style’s Irony is Missed b/c of the Publicity Wave

by Robert Kelly | 24 September, 2012 |

<img alt="" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('ebf10251-da25-4848-80ce-73c0ef653ceb'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = " ";" src="https://lh5.ggpht.com/-bg7EMQVYiYs/UGAiHha-i9I/AAAAAAAAAWE/8vFAInmqY0A/videodbd98a065f32%25255B6%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" /> yeah, it’s pretty hysterical, especially when you get the underlying social critique I try to avoid K-pop on my website, because I find far too many foreigner websites in Korea focus on the silliest, shallowest elements of what is around us – probably because the language is so hard, Korean pop culture is the...

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RNC: Don’t Speak in a Publicly-Built Facility when you Attack Government – D’oh!

by Robert Kelly | 21 September, 2012 |

I got bogged down with NK for awhile, so I missed a chance to comment on the RNC and the US election more generally. I have some thoughts after the break, but a Democrat friend of mine wrote the following, which is a pretty good first draft of the GOP’s problems I think, in this election cycle:On the whole, I found the Republican convention disgusting and not simply because I disagree with their policies. They substantively are disconnected from the problems of the average person. They offered nothing which will help average people and, what they do offer, is bereft of details. They said...

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Pyongyang isn’t ‘Laid-Back & Leafy,’ or What Parag Khanna didn’t Learn in NK

by Robert Kelly | 14 September, 2012 |

I know what you’re thinking – how many more d--- pictures of this guy and Kim Il Sung (left, KJI right) do I have to look at? Well…too bad! They go on and on and on…In the last two weeks I rolled out a series of impressions from my trip to North Korea (one, two, three, four). Apparently Parag Khanna went to NK at the same time I did (last month) and simultaneously put up his impressions at CNN-GPS, making for an interesting comparison of views this week. (You don’t have to go to the Khanna link, as I have reprinted the piece after the break, with some response comments.)Dan Nexon and Dan...

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“Kim Il Sung will always be with Us,” or what I learned in NK (4)

by Robert Kelly | 9 September, 2012 |

This is my final post about NK; here is one, two, and three. The post title comes from a remark a local guide made to me, and that is the standard KIS image in the pic.7. The Korean People’s Army is pretty much everywhere.This is easily the most militarized state I’ve ever been in. Soldiers and other uniformed military are everywhere, and units of KPA were doing all sorts of even banal things, like going to the Pyongyang fun fair, together en bloc. Guards carried automatic weapons openly in public with disturbing frequency. And the KPA was pretty clearly a captive, exploited labor force....

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“Kim Jong Il was Born on Mt. Paekdu,” or what I learned in NK (3)

by Robert Kelly | 6 September, 2012 |

There is KJI in the middle – he was even born in uniform  Actually, he was probably born in the USSR during the war. Here are parts one and two of this series. 5. Pyongyang the Potemkin Village? The usual line is that Pyongyang is a potemkin village compared to the rest of the country. I can’t say, but I think so. Unfortunately, we only saw the capital, Nampo, and the Mt. Paektu area. And what we saw was quite controlled of course. We were told at certain points that we were not allowed to photograph out the bus windows. But honestly, I didn’t see any extreme poverty. I certainly didn’t see...

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“Of course the Americans Started the War,” or what I learned in NK (2)

by Robert Kelly | 3 September, 2012 |

I have 50+ similar pictures of me standing with KIS murals, statues, busts...I went to NK this summer. In my first post, I noted how NK should probably be re-named Kim-land. Here are some more impressions:1.a. Kim Jong Un was not so emphasized.In passing, it is worth noting that KJU was not stressed that much. At the Arirang games, portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il were put up, but not KJU. Nor did we see any images of him at all. No portraits or murals. There were a few slogans using his names, but no imagery anywhere. We were told that is because of his modesty. He does not want to...

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