The Duck of Minerva

Tim Luecke

He is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies and the Managing Editor for International Theory: A Journal of International Politics, Law, and Philosophy, which is published by Cambridge University Press. His research centers on the concept of generations and the role of political generations in foreign policy and international politics. In addition his background is in International Relations Theory, International Security, American and Germany Foreign Policy, and qualitative methods. He is also interested in the debate between modern and post-modern political theory in context of the empirical and normative dimensions of global governance.

Recent Posts

Why John J. Mearsheimer is Wrong on Ukraine

Why John J. Mearsheimer is Wrong on Ukraine

by Tim Luecke | 1 September, 2014 |

When I arrived as an incoming graduate student at Ohio State University, I was labeled a realist since I studied extensively under John J. Mearsheimer at the University of Chicago. And despite the fact that I find such labeling exercises rather silly (plus, my advisor at both Chicago and OSU was actually Alex Wendt), there was, and still is, some truth to it. Power does matter in international politics and contrary to many others in our field I think that Mearsheimer’s theory of great power politics does make a lot of sense, and it explains large swaths of international politics throughout...

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In Exile at Home: Impressions from Europe

by Tim Luecke | 29 August, 2014 |

I have been able to avoid this fate for almost 12 years now, but they finally got me. Being a citizen of Germany, I have been studying in the U.S. on student visas for the last decade and even though it has always been a bureaucratic nightmare, associated with significant financial costs, I usually managed to obtain the necessary documents to enter the United States. Until this summer, when the application for my work visa got delayed for reasons that I don’t need to get into here. Long story short, I had to leave the U.S. for three months, organize someone to sublet my apartment on very...

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Anti-Semitism in Germany: A Comment

Anti-Semitism in Germany: A Comment

by Tim Luecke | 25 July, 2014 |

“Mutti,” aka Angela Merkel, is not amused. Neither is the rest of the German political establishment, the German media, or the vast majority of German people. Three days ago, some of the protesters against the Israeli campaign in Gaza yelled anti-Semitic hate paroles, a man wearing a kippah was chased through Berlin, and the police didn’t interfere. This is absolutely shameful for all of us Germans and it is very understandable that the Israeli ambassador to Germany, Yakov Hadas-Handelsman, condemned the acts in the strongest words. However, Mr. Hadas-Handelsman is wrong to insinuate...

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Generations of Presidential Voting

by Tim Luecke | 19 July, 2014 |

As we all know, the social sciences are a messy business. People change their minds, don’t always follow law-like rules, and often have the guts to defy our theories by reflecting on their past behavior. For these reasons, it is always nice to see when our work receives support from other scholars, especially when these scholars operate within another paradigm, sub-field, or use a different methodological approach. In the case of my own work, which focuses on the explanatory value of the concept of generations and its applications in Foreign Policy and International Relations, this just...

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