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

Film class — week 8

by Rodger Payne | 16 October, 2006 |

Last Monday and Tuesday my university had a brief fall break, so I asked students to view on-line the video of Stephen Colbert's monologue from the 2006 annual White House Correspondents Association dinner. It is just over 20 minutes long and is widely available on the internet.I figured they could do that on their own time since we had only 1 hour for class discussion this week.Reading for Thursday: "Transcript of Stephen Colbert's monologue at the White House Correspondents Dinner," April 29, 2006. Additionally, I asked students to do a little research about the historical role of the...

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Weekend homework

by Rodger Payne | 13 October, 2006 |

How would readers feel about adding these sets of questions to graduate school comprehensive exams in international relations? Some powers proudly announce their production of second and third generation nuclear weapons. What do they need these weapons for? Is the development and stockpiling of these deadly weapons designed to promote peace and democracy? Or are these weapons, in fact, instruments of coercion and threat against other peoples and governments? How long should the people of the world live with the nightmare of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons? To what length can powers...

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The ho-hum catastrophe?

by Rodger Payne | 11 October, 2006 |

Yesterday, October 10, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow was asked a number of questions about the apparent North Korean nuclear test. Here's my favorite:Q ...when you have a President who draws a red line three years ago and says, we will not tolerate nuclear weapons, and now you have a country that just tested a nuclear weapon -- you don't think it's fair to ask for some accountability as to what happened, or that there were mistakes made?MR. SNOW: David, the accountability lies in North Korea, not in Washington.Snow made many remarkable comments at that press conference, including...

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Film class — week 7

by Rodger Payne | 5 October, 2006 |

Film #7 "Red Dawn" (1984). We viewed it Tuesday.Readings for Thursday: Hashim. Ahmed S., “Iraq: From Insurgency to Civil War?” 104 Current History, Jan 2005. pp. 10-18. Link requires subscription.Kaplan, Fred, “How Do We Win in Iraq?” Slate, September 9, 2005.Krepinevich, Andrew, “The War In Iraq: The Nature of Insurgency Warfare,” Backgrounder, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment, June 2, 2004. Those who have seen it know that "Red Dawn" is not an especially good movie. So why did I select it? Well, I wanted a film that highlights the great difficulty of counterinsurgency warfare...

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Revolt of the Generals

by Rodger Payne | 3 October, 2006 |

Here's the provocative lead paragraph from an interesting new article well worth a read:A revolt is brewing among our retired Army and Marine generals. This rebellion--quiet and nonconfrontational, but remarkable nonetheless--comes not because their beloved forces are bearing the brunt of ground combat in Iraq but because the retirees see the US adventure in Mesopotamia as another Vietnam-like, strategically failed war, and they blame the errant, arrogant civilian leadership at the Pentagon. The dissenters include two generals who led combat troops in Iraq: Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack Jr.,...

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Film class — week 6

by Rodger Payne | 29 September, 2006 |

Film #6 "Breaker Morant" (1980). We viewed it Tuesday.Readings for Thursday: Krauthammer, Charles, “The Unipolar Moment Revisited,” The National Interest, Winter 2002/2003, pp. 5-17.Fukuyama, Francis, “The Neoconservative Moment,” The National Interest, Summer 2004, pp. 57-68.If you haven't seen "Breaker Morant," I highly recommend it. It is a great film about the dirty underbelly of the so-called "Boer War" (1899-1902). Its themes resonate today as much as they did when the film was made, not long after the Vietnam war ended. I assigned the film and readings as part of the section on...

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“Outrages upon human dignity”

by Rodger Payne | 27 September, 2006 |

President Bush, September 15, 2006: THE PRESIDENT: This debate is occurring because of the Supreme Court's ruling that said that we must conduct ourselves under the Common Article III of the Geneva Convention. And that Common Article III says that there will be no outrages upon human dignity. It's very vague. What does that mean, "outrages upon human dignity"? That's a statement that is wide open to interpretation.U.S. National Security Strategy, March 2006, Section II A: The United States must defend liberty and justice because these principles are right and true for all people everywhere....

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Should progressives be happy about Iraq’s successes?

by Rodger Payne | 25 September, 2006 |

In comments to my last post on "Iraq and 9/11," someone named "a" was critical of my apparently flippant "Yadda Yadda Yadda" in response to the fact that Saddam is gone and millions of brave people voted in Iraqi elections:But "Yadda x 3" about the removal of Saddam and Iraqis' voting???Given the sort of regime Saddam's was, I just don't see what's progressive about an attitude like that. Progressives _aren't_ supposed to be concerned only (and perhaps not even primarily) with security or stability. Why not leave the Yaddaing to the Kissinger and Scowcroft types?Given that the administration...

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Iraq and 9/11

by Rodger Payne | 23 September, 2006 |

Yes, the war in Iraq is tied to the problem of transnational terrorism that America experienced on 9/11. The Iraq war has increased the threat of transnational terror -- and this is the "consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services" in the US. From the NY Times, to be published September 24:A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.The classified National Intelligence...

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Film class — week 5

by Rodger Payne | 22 September, 2006 |

Film #5 "Black Hawk Down" (2001). We viewed in Tuesday.Readings for Thursday: Stephen J.Solarz and Michael O'Hanlon, "Humanitarian Intervention: When is Force Justified?" 20 Washington Quarterly, 1997, pp. 3-14.Stephen John Stedman, "The New Interventionists," 72 Foreign Affairs, 1993, pp. 1-16.Almost everyone has seen this blockbuster film, which addresses UN/American humanitarian intervention in Somalia, 1993. It is set on October 3 of that year, after thousands of lives have been saved in the mission to deliver food to the hungry. On that day, a group of Army Rangers and Delta Force were...

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