The Duck of Minerva

Rodger Payne

Rodger A. Payne is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Louisville. He serves on the University’s Sustainability Council and was a co-founder of the Peace, Conflict, and Social Justice program. He is the author of dozens of journal articles and book chapters and coauthor, with Nayef Samhat, of Democratizing Global Politics: Discourse Norms, International Regimes, and Political Community (SUNY, 2004). He is currently working on two major projects, one exploring the role of narratives in international politics and the other examining the implications of America First foreign policy.

Recent Posts

New “crimes against humanity”?

by Rodger Payne | 12 May, 2008 |

A few weeks ago, ABC News (Australia) reported the following from AFP: "Producing biofuels today is a crime against humanity," UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food Jean Ziegler told Bayerischer Runfunk radio. Here's the logic: Using biological materials (like corn) for energy production increases global food prices because it increases market demand. Biofuel production also increases competition for arable land and potentially encourages developing states to grow crops for profitable energy production instead of necessary foodstuffs. Some American farmers are apparently switching...

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The taboo

by Rodger Payne | 6 May, 2008 |

Political Scientists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt received a lot of heat for their recent work about the power of the Israeli lobby inside the United States.Mearsheimer and Walt raised issues that are rarely discussed in the United States. Indeed. some describe this topic as "the third rail" of US foreign policy debate.Now that the power of "the Lobby" has been made part of the US public debate, Israel's nuclear weapons program should also be scrutinized more publicly. Ordinarily, that subject is taboo. Lew Butler (who used to chair the Ploughshares Fund) explained in an op-ed in the SF...

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Power outage

by Rodger Payne | 2 May, 2008 |

I've been following the steroids controversy in baseball for some time. In 2005, major league baseball implemented a restrictive policy that was meant to be taken seriously. Since then, Congress has held hearings, many players have been outed as users, and even more draconian policies have now been adopted.Has the policy been working? Yesterday, a (relatively obscure) major league player was suspended for 50 days. That's interesting, but not very revealing in light of the amnesty recently granted to players named last winter in the Mitchell Report.Take a look at the numbers in this...

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History lesson: PA 1980

by Rodger Payne | 23 April, 2008 |

Pundits have frequently compared the 2008 election to 1980. In both elections, the opposition party fielded strong candidates in the face of an unpopular president brought down by economic insecurity and foreign policy disaster. For his part, Senator Barack Obama has openly compared himself to Ronald Reagan -- not in substance, of course, but in transformational style.Reagan won the 1980 Republican nomination for President, but his main opponent became his Vice President and was later elected for the top job. I was a freshman in college during spring 1980 and was taking a course on campaigns...

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Nuclear umbrella

by Rodger Payne | 21 April, 2008 |

Last week, in the much-maligned Democratic debate in Pennsylvania, Senator Hillary Clinton said that she would greatly expand the US nuclear umbrella in the Middle East: Well, in fact, George [Stephanopoulos], I think that we should be looking to create an umbrella of deterrence that goes much further than just Israel. Of course I would make it clear to the Iranians that an attack on Israel would incur massive retaliation from the United States, but I would do the same with other countries in the region.You know, we are at a very dangerous point with Iran. The Bush policy has failed. Iran...

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Teaching from the blogosphere

by Rodger Payne | 11 April, 2008 |

Recently, my graduate IR seminar addressed critical theory -- and we naturally contrasted critical theory to "problem-solving theory," as Robert Cox would have it.In a volume about Cox's contributions to IR, Timothy Sinclair draws the distinction (pp. 5-6): It is the action, not the limits of the system, that is the analytic focus of of problem solving. Critical theory steps outside the confines of the existing set of relationships to identify the origins and developmental potential of these phenomenon. While problem solving theory assumes the functional coherence of existing phenomenon,...

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The role of al Qaeda of Iraq

by Rodger Payne | 1 March, 2008 |

Some of the remaining presidential candidates are this week debating the role of al Qaeda in Iraq. Senator John McCain points to AQI to justify his pro-war position, Senator Barack Obama points out that al Qaeda would not be in Iraq if the US hadn't invaded. It was not in Iraq before the US invaded.If the US abandoned Iraq, McCain says, then AQI would not just be "establishing a base." No, he says, "they'd be taking a country." President Bush has been making this same point for years -- though the point is even more misleading now than it was then, when Bush was using this a justification...

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Sage advice from the Prez

by Rodger Payne | 29 February, 2008 |

George W. Bush had this exchange at his press conference, February 28, 2008: Q Mr. President, Turkey's ground offensive in northern Iraq is now a week old with no end in sight. How quickly would you like to see Turkey end its offenses, its incursion? And do you have any concerns about the possibility of protracted presence in northern Iraq causing further destabilization in the region?THE PRESIDENT: ...I strongly agree with the sentiments of Secretary Gates, who said that the incursion must be limited, and must be temporary in nature. In other words, it shouldn't be long-lasting. But the...

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Cuba: El Tiante’s pitch

by Rodger Payne | 20 February, 2008 |

Let me followup Peter's post on Cuba. Legendary and colorful retired pitcher Luis Tiant had this to say about the Cuban embargo: "I think it's crazy," Tiant said. "Everybody does business with Cuba - Latin America, China, everybody - and what is the difference? We are 90 miles from Cuba. We don't have a relationship with them. That's crazy. It makes no sense to me."The people have suffered enough. They've gone through a hard life. Forty-six years I've been out. I hope it changes."As for Peter's question about the choice between domestic politics and the national interest? While neither of...

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PTL returns

by Rodger Payne | 14 February, 2008 |

In my world -- currently Acting Department Chair -- PTL stands for "part-time lecturer," not "praise the lord."I'm looking forward to May 22, when the ultimate part-time lecturer returns -- to the big screen: "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." Apparently, the plot concerns...According to MTV's Shawn Adler: 1:26: The biggest spoiler of the trailer: a shot of a box with the words "Roswell, New Mexico 1947" etched on the side in white paint. Assuming that Lucas has decided to follow the tradition, here, finally, is indisputable evidence as to what the powers of the crystal...

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