Intra-elite, state-centric society is a strategic front, and ought to be defended and put to use in the continued development of a global and decolonial turn in IR.
A reckoning with the traditional diplomatic community
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Academia
Bridging the Policy-Academic Gap: Lessons from Australia
The benefits of bridging the gap between academics and policymakers are well-known, but much of the research and practice is based on experiences in the United States. How well does it translate to...
Strategic Service on the Tenure Track
Alongside research and teaching, most tenure-track jobs come with some expectation of service.
Selection Processes in Academia: Time for a Revamp
Current trends in the academic job market paint a bleak picture. Data from U.S. universities reveal a drop in job postings in the Politics field over the past three years and a decline in...
More Academia Posts
What is in a Name? Additional Sources of Bias in Citation Counts
Articles by authors with foreign-sounding names are cited far less than those written by people with “typically-American” names.
The Invasion of Ukraine is Russia’s Fault
For Mearsheimer “freedom” and “prosperity” are simply weapons of great power politics rather than aspirations sought by the Ukrainian people.
A tale of two realisms
It's been a rough week for John Mearsheimer. He has come under a barrage of criticism for his claim that Russia's aggression towards Ukraine is the West's fault. His theoretical tradition, realism, has also come under fire, for producing not only (arguably) bad policy takes but policy takes that don't seem to flow from the theory itself. Does this mean that all of realism is flawed? I would argue no, by pointing to another target of such claims, Stephen Walt. This says something about how to make/keep realism relevant. The trouble with realism? Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine,...
How do we get IR to notice something?
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 dataset on violent non-state actors and analyzed the conditions under which they cooperated, finding a major role for both group ideology and religious identity. That is huge! Well-crafted data published in one of the top journals in the sub-field that found that religion drives a crucially important security issue. This should...
On Academic Grudges: A Quack-and-Forth
The academy is traditionally a place students and scholars go to hone their critical faculties. But perhaps, in some cases, we take this critical approach too far. In this Quack-and-Forth, Adam B. Lerner and Jarrod Hayes discuss academic grudges and whether the academy would be a kinder or gentler place if we all acted a bit more like Larry Bird (and a bit less like Larry David).
Nominations are open for the 2022 Online Achievement in International Studies (OAIS) Awards!
After a two-year COVID-induced hiatus, the International Studies Association Online Media Caucus (OMC) is pleased to announce the return of the Duckies! Please send you nominations to onlinemediacaucus@gmail.com by February 25, 2022. We encourage self-nominations. Note that the OMC has updated the awards to reflect the current topography of the online media environment. We now award Duckies in the following categories: Best Blog Post by a Senior Scholar (post-tenure, or a non-tenured scholar active for five years or more)Best Blog Post by a Junior Scholar (pre-tenure, or a...
Joseph Nye 85: From Integration Theory to Complex Interdependence to Soft Power
Peter Cutler is living the quiet life of a Princeton professor when the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate asks him to become his foreign policy adviser. Cutler takes the job and his gambit pays off: the presidential candidate wins and Cutler is appointed to be Under Secretary of State in the new administration. As he becomes more and more absorbed in the new environment, he is shocked to learn how ruthless political life in Washington really is. When it seems that things cannot get more complicated professionally and personally, Cutler’s ex-girlfriend appears and he falls again for...
In Memoriam: Jon Western
Back in the Duck of Minerva's heyday, Jon Western was one of its anchors. Indeed, it wasn't that long ago that we were talking about his returning. Jon said that he'd gained important perspective on the state of higher education from his time as dean of faculty and vice president for academic affairs at Mount Holyoke. He wanted to share that with a broader audience. That won't happen. Jon died on Saturday. I don't have the details. Just a forwarded email from Mount Holyoke. It reads: Dear members of the Mount Holyoke community,It is with the utmost sorrow that I write to say that, yesterday,...