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

War with Iran?

by Rodger Payne | 31 August, 2007 |

Dan Plesch, Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies’ Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy, and international security consultant Martin Butcher have recently authored and released "Considering a war with Iran: A discussion paper on WMD in the Middle East." The pre-publication paper was embargoed until August 28 and is dated September 2007. Here is the central finding: The study concludes that the US has made military preparations to destroy Iran’s WMD, nuclear energy, regime, armed forces, state apparatus and economic infrastructure within days, if not hours, of...

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Jacksonian baseball

by Rodger Payne | 30 August, 2007 |

Do you remember Walter Russell Mead's Jacksonians? A few years ago, Mead wrote a very good book, Special Providence, which described four major visions of American foreign policy. Of the four, the Jacksonian tradition is perhaps the most interesting and important -- but also the most obscure to the chattering classes.Jacksonian tradition is populist, principled, and often quick-tempered. As Mead explained:Those who like to cast American foreign policy as an unhealthy mix of ignorance, isolationism and trigger-happy cowboy diplomacy are often thinking about the Jacksonian populist tradition....

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Diversion dangers

by Rodger Payne | 9 August, 2007 |

Anne-Marie Slaughter, the Dean of Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, blogged this yesterday: Here is my nightmare. The Cheneyites succeed in creating a situation in which Bush does decide to bomb Iran. Iran retaliates, as they openly threaten to do, with terrorist attacks against us on U.S. soil. That tilts the election. I can imagine a Karl Rove political calculation that would buttress a Cheney-Addington national security calculation, probably with Eliot Abrams' support.In political science terms, what Slaughter is describing is a "diversionary war," a...

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Acting Chair

by Rodger Payne | 7 August, 2007 |

Since July 1, I've been "Acting Chair" in my academic Department -- and I'm not in a Theater Department. If I worked in sports, I'd probably be called the interim, chair. A colleague who had served as department leader through nine years was tired of the job and announced last year that the faculty needed to find a successor.The guy who stepped forward was due for a sabbatical -- and leaves for a Fulbright in Hong Kong next week.Thus, my service will run through June 30, 2008.Gulp.What does this mean?Well, in practice it probably means that I'll be making even fewer blog posts than usual --...

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The Politics of the DH

by Rodger Payne | 15 July, 2007 |

Today, I read an interesting article linking baseball and political science -- "The Etiology of Public Support for the Designated Hitter Rule," (warning: pdf) by Christopher Zorn and Jeff Gill, published in the Quarterly Journal of Political Science. Despite the jargon, the piece is quite readable.Zorn and Gill report evidence that baseball fans are far more likely to embrace the designated hitter (DH) if they are Democrats:Most important, and consistent with our expectations, we find that self-identified Democratic Party members are more likely to support the DH rule than are either...

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Happy fourth: worried edition

by Rodger Payne | 4 July, 2007 |

Today is a day that the United States of America celebrates its independence. The Declaration of Independence, which was dated July 4, 1776, contains some of the most familiar political language in world history: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes...

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UN poll

by Rodger Payne | 25 June, 2007 |

Parade magazine's straw poll asks: "Does the UN still matter?"Right now, the vote is running just about 60/40.That's 59% no, 41% yes, as of this moment.While more scientific polling also reveals a lot of skepticism about the UN's ability to work well, public polling results also typically indicate significant public support for making the UN work better. Update 6/30/07: It's 72% no, 28% yes tonight.

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Plan 9 from outta nowhere?

by Rodger Payne | 14 June, 2007 |

The U.S. is now going to arm Sunni Iraqi groups -- some of the very same groups that were called "insurgents" just days ago -- if those groups pledge to fight al Qaeda of Iraq. Reportedly, this strategy has proven successful in al-Anbar province and will now be tested in other Sunni strongholds.This is an interesting development, to say the least.At first glance, the plan seems ridiculous. The U.S. could effectively be arming both sides in a civil war. "The Daily Show" spent a lot of time Wednesday making fun of the ploy, running all kinds of footage of media talking heads saying "The enemy...

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Iran negotiations

by Rodger Payne | 7 June, 2007 |

Over the past two and a half years, I have been contacted periodically by an Iranian journalist for Fars News Agency who identifies himself (herself?) as Kia Kojouri (or maybe Kojoury). Note that the "informational materials" exemption to the U.S. embargo on Iran makes these kinds of exchanges perfectly legal. A few years ago, scholars circulated warnings about government interpretations of the sanctions law that made some rather ordinary intellectual activites illegal when involving Iranians. Later, however, that narrow interpretation was reversed.In any event, kia most recently asked for...

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Federalism and Partition

by Rodger Payne | 4 June, 2007 |

George Washington University sociologist Amitai Etzioni regularly sends me his "Communitarian Network" newsletter as I am on his email distribution list. Most recently, Etzioni's newsletter passed along an invitation to this forthcoming event in Washington:Monday, June 18, 2007 @ 2:00PM-4:00PM"Plan Z: Community Based Security for Iraq"Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 419Dialogue moderated by Amitai EtzioniOpen to the public. Space is limited. RSVP to Kelly Makowiecki - kmak at gwu.eduEtzioni will discuss his "Plan Z", which is "Community Based Security for Iraq." Senator Joseph Biden is...

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