I excitedly read this recent tweet by Evan Perkoski of UConn, about a new article he co-authored that has been accepted in International Organization. Beyond being glad for a colleague's success, I was excited by the substance of the publication. They produced a new...
I had a piece in the Washington Post's "Monkeycage" over the weekend, which you can read here. I noted that many worry Saudi Arabia and the UAE will pull America into war with Iran. But it actually...
This is a guest post by Kara Hooser and Austin Knuppe, Conflict to Peace Lab, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, The Ohio State University Rebuilding social cohesion—restoring bonds...
Earlier this year, our team at the Sié Center at the University of Denver announced our program on the three R’s of Academic-Policy Engagement (or R3, if you prefer): Rigor, Relevance, and...
We hope to see you all at the Duckies this evening, the annual blogging awards with the reception this evening sponsored by Sage. It will be held at 7:30 in Quarterdeck A&B Ballroom at the Hilton. The nominees are here. We hope to see you there!
Yesterday, the Governing Council met for 17 days and nights .... or about six hours to discuss the various issues on the agenda. I will not get into the details of the meeting (I live-tweeted the highlights).   The key bits of news are this: I learned how to do emoji on my Ipad. The blogging issue from last year produced a report by the Professional Responsibilities committee, and the recommendations which became policy essentially said that we ought to expect everyone to be professional and treat each other with respect and dignity. This applies to not just ISA journal editors who were...
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...
Greetings, Ducks! Thanks to Josh for such a wonderful facelift of the Duck website! I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in New Orleans next week. This is been a very service-intensive year for me – first year post tenure – and I’m still trying to figure out how to manage my time. Unlike common "wisdom," my colleagues and I in academia work an incredible amount of hours. And, yet, we never actually feel caught up. In an effort to work smarter, I’ve been looking into different time management techniques and tips. Most of the tips you can find in the literature or from self-help gurus...
In advance of this year's ISA convention and the OAIS awards, we're happy to launch a new and improved Duck of Minerva with a revamped look and feel. You will notice automatically a direct link to duckofminerva.com which should make access more straightforward. The new site is also responsive so will resize automatically on your phone or tablet. We've also added a new set of topics to classify posts by subject so you can find them easily. The Twitter feed and blogroll have been updated. We wanted to thank permanent contributors Robert Kelly and Vikash Yadav who have decided to step down. In...
Spring (where it exists) is the time of year when applicants to PhD programs find out the outcome and decide where, if any place, to go. While there are many factors that one must take into account, including what might happen if your preferred adviser leaves (Will Moore's take and mine), there is something far more fundamental: are you going to get funding?* If the answer is no, then the decision is painful but easy: don't go. * This post is inspired by a question asked at Political Science Job Rumors. Even if the poster was really trolling, it is an important...
I get a lot of emails asking for advice about putting together their graduate-school applications. I also get a lot of emails asking how to "improve" an application to make it "more competitive." I suspect that these emails come to me because I am Director of Admissions in the Government Department, and people assume that part of my job description is "helping them get into graduate school." Nonetheless, because I like to think of myself as a "nice person," I try to answer these queries with the sage advice that comes from many years on admissions committees. But it grows tiring to...