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

Beating around the Bush

by Rodger Payne | 17 June, 2005 |

Cross-posted on my blog. The noted political scientist Aaron Wildavsky (now deceased) wrote in 1966 that the U.S. "has one President but two presidencies: one for domestic affairs and the other is concerned with defense and foreign policy." He continued, "Since World War II, presidents have had much greater success in controlling the nation's defense and foreign policies than in dominating its domestic policies."While some challenge Wildavsky's argument, there is a lot of truth in it. This is because Presidents have tremendous power to dominate the national agenda, relatively immune from...

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“Fixed around the policy”

by Rodger Payne | 9 June, 2005 |

Cross posted on my blog.Two days ago, Steve Holland of Reuters asked Tony Blair and George W. Bush about the so-called "Downing Street Memo." You know, the leaked transcript from a secret British government meeting held during summer 2002: "C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."Lots of bloggers have commented about the lack of...

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Solzhenitsyn and Orwell: Still Relevant

by Rodger Payne | 6 June, 2005 |

Cross-posted on my blog. Since 1991, I've been the faculty sponsor for the University of Louisville campus chapter of Amnesty International. Some years the students are very active, other years there really isn't much of a chapter.In any case, I have a long-time interest in AI and have a lot of confidence in their human rights work. Needless to say, Amnesty has been unhappy with some Bush administration policies and practices against suspects in the "war on terror." From a CNN report: "The U.S. is maintaining an archipelago of prisons around the world, many of them secret prisons, into which...

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Yet another introduction

by Rodger Payne | 4 June, 2005 |

It looks like I'll be the "senior scholar" on this blog. Less formally, that makes me "the old fart," trying to avoid becoming "deadwood." My academic career began in the '70s, as I started college at the University of Kansas in 1979. Back then, Dan and Patrick were probably trading baseball cards, watching "Star Wars" for the 23rd time (though very few people had VCRs then), and reading Robert Heinlein's books. I hate to think about Bill's age in 1979; he was almost surely a toddler. Though I fully intended to become an attorney when I was growing up, by 1983 I knew too many unhappy lawyers...

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