The Duck of Minerva

Steve Saideman

Steve Saideman is Professor and the Paterson Chair in International Affairs at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. He has written The Ties That Divide: Ethnic Politics, Foreign Policy and International Conflict; For Kin or Country: Xenophobia, Nationalism and War (with R. William Ayres); and NATO in Afghanistan: Fighting Together, Fighting Alone (with David Auerswald), and elsewhere on nationalism, ethnic conflict, civil war, and civil-military relations.

Recent Posts

ISA Non-Panels: Fun and Games In IR

by Steve Saideman | 13 February, 2015 |

The annual meeting of the International Studies Association kicks off on Tuesday and runs through Saturday, Feb 17th-21st.  The program is chock full of all kinds of IR.  Of course, there is much to do and see during and after Mardi Gras in New Orleans beyond the panels.  Using my power here as Duck-ster, let me point out a few ones that you might want to consider attending/joining: The Duckies!  We hand out the IR Blogging Awards at 7:30pm on Thursday, February 19th at the Hilton. Go from the Duckies to the annual ISA Caberet, Thursday, February 19 at 8:00pm, Grand Salon 3 at the Riverside...

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Global shift – the US, China, and the Hong Kong Protests

by Steve Saideman | 7 February, 2015 |

This is a guest post by Grant Dawson, assistant professor of social science and international politics at The University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China and Cyrus Janssen is an American expat based in Asia. The global order established by the West and led by the US since 1945 is gradually changing. China and the ‘rising Rest’ are catching-up to the US and the West in terms of economic and political power. Unfortunately, as was clear during the Hong Kong protests, the West’s ideas and attitudes about China are not keeping pace, and may lead to misunderstandings that undermine political relations...

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ISA Preparations: Ultimate Edition

by Steve Saideman | 30 January, 2015 |

Save room on your schedules for some Ultimate: I am hoping that there will be enough space and too few drunken folks on the playing field at Woldenberg Park at 10am on Saturday of ISA week.  It is just up the river (if you look at a map, it looks is up and to the right of the Hilton along the waterfront).  Bring a dark shirt and a light shirt.  Cleats are optional. I will bring the cones and the disks.   Hope to see you there.   Proof that ISA and Ultimate go together!  

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Ethnic Security Dilemma Regrets

by Steve Saideman | 27 January, 2015 |

One of the regrets of my career is that I was developing the ethnic security dilemma concept the same time as Barry Posen, who published his in Survival in 1993.  As I prepared for my comprehensive exams in 1991 in IR and Comparative Politics, I focused on ethnic politics for the latter exam.  I wrote papers that developed the IR concept for ethnic politics, got nice comments from my profs, but moved on to the dissertation. I should have tried to publish the piece--I would have scooped Posen. Why talk about it now?  Well, one lessons is that publishing good ideas in grad school might just...

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Online Media Caucus Update for ISA 2015

by Steve Saideman | 16 January, 2015 |

The effort to develop a caucus at the ISA dedicating to Online Media continues.  The proposed caucus will be considered at the Governing Council meeting on Tuesday of the ISA this year.  I have not received any signs that this will not go through.  Consequently, we are having our first business meeting on Saturday, February 21st, 12:30pm in the Hilton's Elmwood room.  The meeting will sketch out the plans for the next year and seek advice/feedback on future activities. For your reference, the key documents for applying to be a new caucus are here: the justification and proposed charter. ...

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Common Xenophobic Dynamic: Overestimating the Other

by Steve Saideman | 9 January, 2015 |

I saw this on twitter this evening This is the best visualization I've yet seen of Europe's "Muslim tide" hysteria pic.twitter.com/a681LGp4yR — Doug Saunders (@DougSaunders) January 9, 2015 And it reminded me of this slide I used to use for American Public Policy, a course I taught way back in the day at Texas Tech (this figure is from a survey around 1998): The figure, using data from some article lost to the ages, demonstrates that pretty much every ethnic group over-estimates the "Other" except for the largest group.  In the slide, everyone underestimated the population of whites in...

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ISA Blogging Update: Committee Reports Recommendations

by Steve Saideman | 5 January, 2015 |

Last winter, the ISA executive committee proposed new rules for editors of ISA journals that would restrict their blogging.  This led to a pretty hostile reaction.  At the ISA meeting, the proposal was sent to committee.  The committee has circulated its report and recommendations. What do they recommend?  Basically, the recommendations: suggest some language that would clarify that all ISA officers, including editors, would expected to be professional in their various endeavors. indicate that expectations for blogging would be the same as the expectations for everything else ISA officers...

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