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

How the Sausage is Made

by Rodger Payne | 22 May, 2012 |

Two years ago, Der Spiegel published an audio recording of secret negotiations involving many of the world's most important leaders meeting together on Friday, December 18, 2009, during the Copenhagen climate summit:The world's most powerful politicians were gathered in the "Arne Jacobsen" conference room in Copenhagen's Bella Center, negotiating ways to protect the world's climate. US President Barack Obama was perched on the edge of a wooden chair with blue upholstery, talking to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The blue turban of Indian Prime...

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Climate Change and Godwin’s Law

by Rodger Payne | 5 May, 2012 |

The Heartland Institute, a conservative think-tank well-known for its skepticism about climate change, placed the above digital billboard for 24 hours along the Eisenhower Expressway in Chicago this past week. For $200, they bought a lot of publicity.Apparently, though now cancelled, the planned ad campaign was going to place similar billboards with the same message bearing photos of Osama bin laden, Charles Manson, and Fidel Castro.Subtle, eh?Indeed, it reminded me immediately of the occasional efforts by like-minded political operatives to link Adolph Hitler and anti-smoking crusaders. A...

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Academic Rigor in the Classroom: Time to Get Serious?

by Rodger Payne | 28 April, 2012 |

Charli, Dan and Patrick at ISA 2013? The academics/educators who write this blog often locate their research and teaching interests in texts from popular culture. Dan has co-edited a book on Harry Potter and IR. Patrick teaches a course on science fiction and social science. Dan offers a course on science fiction and politics. Charli blogs frequently about science fiction and has a working paper on "Security or Human Security? Civil-Military Relations in Battlestar Galactica." I've frequently taught a class on "Global Politics Through Film" and am working on a project about "the comedy of...

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Can game participants change the payoff structure?

by Rodger Payne | 24 April, 2012 |

This past weekend, an entertaining video clip was making the rounds on twitter and in the blogosphere. It is from a British daytime television show called "Golden Balls" and the academic discussion about it has been framed around 2 by 2 game theory:At the end of the show the contestants have to make one last decision over the final jackpot. They are each presented with two golden balls. One has “split” printed inside it and the other has “steal” printed inside it: If both contestants choose the split ball, the jackpot is split equally between them.  If one contestant chooses the split ball...

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“Castro is Our Hitler”

by Rodger Payne | 10 April, 2012 |

Photo credit = Dirk Hansen. Last Friday, April 6, Time magazine published controversial excerpts from an interview with Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen: "I love Fidel Castro," Blurts Ozzie Guillen, the new manager of the Miami Marlins, in his Jupiter, Fla., spring-training office before an early-March team workout....After a second of reflection, the most unfiltered figure in baseball, if not sports, wants a do-over. "I respect Fidel Castro," says Guillen, a Venezuela native who also says he respects Hugo Chavez. "You know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the...

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Friday Nerd Blogging: Baseball Edition

by Rodger Payne | 16 March, 2012 |

Yesterday, long-time Duck of Minerva contributor Bill Petti taped an on-field segment for "Clubhouse Confidential" on the MLB Network! For the non-baseball nerds, MLB = major league baseball.Your browser does not support iframes.It's great to see Bill using his methodological and analytical skills in this way. This is not his first appearance on the program to provide sabermetrical analysis.Most of the time, Bill uses his talents in his "work with senior executives at various pharmaceutical, financial, and consumer packaged goods companies to help them align their human capital and processes...

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The Selling of the Iraq War: Case Study of Presidential Persuasion?

by Rodger Payne | 14 March, 2012 |

This week, a number of high-profile journalists and bloggers are engaged in a debate about presidential persuasion. Among other examples, they have been discussing the George W. Bush administration's selling of the Iraq war -- leading political scientists at the The Monkey Cage to weigh in with data and useful analysis.Much of the discussion about the Iraq war centers around this chart, which details the contours of support for the war based on party identification.I left the following in comments, but wanted to add key links:The Bush administration really starting selling war in late August...

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Abusers’ Peace?

by Rodger Payne | 22 February, 2012 |

In reaction to Charli's provocative February 20 post on the constructivist peace, I left a number of questions in comments. Since more people read the blog than read the comments, I thought it was worthwhile to put them on the front page as a separate post. Thus, if you are interested, click through. I've added a few pertinent links as well to create added value for people who already read the original comments.I'm not familiar with the specific studies noted in Charli's post, but do wonder about the scope and interpretation of the data -- especially in regard to the "abusers' peace." 1....

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Walmart still isn’t green

by Rodger Payne | 9 February, 2012 |

Photo credit: lhgszch on Flickr.Back in December 2009, I wrote a post for the Duck called "Wal-mart Isn't Green." Jared Diamond had written a provocative op-ed about various green business initiatives for the NY Times and Steve Walt had blogged about it too. I recently thought about that exchange because the December issue of The Atlantic included an interesting article by the Asia Society's Orville Schell called "How Walmart Is Changing China." Much of the article considers burgeoning environmental initiatives involving Walmart and China:The world’s biggest corporation and the world’s most...

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Comprehending Gingrich

by Rodger Payne | 30 November, 2011 |

Born Newton Leroy McPherson, the man now simply known as "Newt Gingrich" has been surging in the latest opinion polls asking Republican voters to identify their preferred presidential candidate. He also recently won the endorsement of the Manchester Union Leader, which 538's Nate Silver finds to be important in the early New Hampshire primary:This analysis finds that The Union Leader’s endorsement has been highly statistically significant in helping to explain the voting results. Consistent with the simpler averaging method that we used before, it pegs the endorsement as having roughly an...

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