The Duck of Minerva

Seth Weinberger

Seth Weinberger is Associate Professor of Politics and Government at the University of Puget Sound. He received his B.A. (1993) in political philosophy from the University of Chicago, an M.A. (1995) in Security Studies from Georgetown University, and an M.A. (2000) and Ph.D. (2005) in political science from Duke University. He teaches courses on international relations, U.S. foreign policy, international security, terrorism, constitutional law, and political philosophy. His book, Restoring the Balance: War Powers in an Age of Terror was published by Praeger Press in 2009. His recently published articles include “Enemies Among Us: The Targeted Killing of American Members of al Qaeda and the Need for Congressional Leadership” in the Georgetown Global Security Studies Review (Spring 2013) and “Institutional Signals: The Political Dimension of International Competition Law Harmonization” (with Geoffrey A. Manne) in The Anti-Trust Bulletin (57, no. 3). His current research focuses on congressional-executive war powers in the on-going armed conflict against al Qaeda. In 2011, Professor Weinberger received the Thomas A. Davis Teaching Excellence Award.

Recent Posts

Foreign Policy and the First GOP Debate

by Seth Weinberger | 7 August, 2015 | ,

So, with the conclusion of last  night's first GOP debate, it's worth a look back at the foreign policy claims made by the candidates for the Republican nomination for president. The focus was, as much of the election race will be, focused on domestic policy, but there's still some stuff worth analyzing. I'll be working off of the debate transcript posted by Time. The first foreign policy question was directed at Senator Rand Paul: BAIER: Senator Paul, you recently blamed the rise of ISIS on Republican hawks. You later said that that statement, you could have said it better. But, the...

read more

Institutional Aspects of the Iran Deal

by Seth Weinberger | 14 July, 2015 | ,

I woke up this morning to read (a few hours behind most of you...one of the few downsides to living in the Pacific Northwest is living behind the news cycle!) about the finalizing of a nuclear deal between the E3/EU+3 and Iran. I'll leave it to others to analyze whether the deal is a good one and whether it will indeed limit the ability of Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. Charles Krauthammer hates it. Joe Cirincione loves it. Jeffery Goldberg isn't quite sure what he thinks of it.  My own thinking tends towards agreeing that the agreement isn't spectacular, but that it might be the least...

read more

Why It Matters Whether the Charleston Attack Was Terrorism

by Seth Weinberger | 22 June, 2015 |

As a professor of international relations, I often have to radically adjust my syllabi from semester to semester. International politics changes so frequently that last year's hot button issue is often no longer relevant the next time I teach a class. I offer my course on Terrorism every other year and it's on the agenda for this coming fall. The last time I taught this class was Spring 2014. ISIS had just emerged on to the scene (the closest thing to a formal announcement of ISIS's existence was April 2013, and only announced the establishment of the caliphate in July 2014, after the class...

read more

The Threat of the BDS Movement

by Seth Weinberger | 17 June, 2015 | , ,

Hello there! I'm very excited to be blogging here at Duck of Minerva for the next several months, and I'd like to thank all the full-time Ducks for the opportunity! For my first post, I thought I'd address something I've been thinking about ever since a student asked about it in my US Foreign Policy class this past semester. She asked about the BDS movement and whether I thought it had any chance of influencing Israel's behavior towards the Occupied Territories and the Palestinians. Not having thought much about the issue before, I gave a typically hemming-and-hawing answer, but the more I...

read more