The Duck of Minerva

Stephanie Carvin

Stephanie Carvin is an Associate Professor of International Relations at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. Her research interests are in the area of international law, security, terrorism and technology. Currently, she is teaching in the areas of critical infrastructure protection, technology and warfare and foreign policy. Stephanie holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and published her thesis as Prisoners of America’s Wars: From the Early Republic to Guantanamo (Columbia/Hurst, 2010). Her most recent book is Science, Law, Liberalism and the American Way of Warfare: The Quest for Humanity in Conflict” (Cambridge, 2015) co-authored with Michael J. Williams. In 2009 Carvin was a Visiting Scholar at George Washington University Law School and worked as a consultant to the US Department of Defense Law of War Working Group. From 2012-2015, she was an analyst with the Government of Canada focusing on national security issues. Stacie Goddard

Recent Posts

The Johnny Foreigner’s Guide to the UK Election (in where I demonstrate a very poor knowledge of UK politics.)

The Johnny Foreigner’s Guide to the UK Election (in where I demonstrate a very poor knowledge of UK politics.)

by Stephanie Carvin | 10 April, 2010 |

So, in Duck ex-pat news it was announced that a general election (a big national election) will be held on 6 May 2010 this week in the UK. At stake are 13 years of Labour rule, debate as to how the economic “recovery” should be protected.Yet, despite the relative importance of the election, coming as it is during a time of insecurity, I have to say that it feels like basically no one is inspired by it. Politicians here have been hit by a year of expenses scandals (when it turned out that MPs were claiming everything from the installation of duck houses, to bath plugs and the occasional...

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The Johnny Foreigner’s Guide to the UK Election (in where I demonstrate a very poor knowledge of UK politics.)

Debates in Canadian Foreign Pol… Wait! Don’t leave!

by Stephanie Carvin | 31 March, 2010 |

I’m in Edinburgh, Scotland this week for the Political Studies Association Conference so my attention to all things blogging and internet is a bit short. However, as the Duck’s official Canadian ex-pat guest-poster, I did want to post this video (transcript here) of Robert Fowler, a former senior Canadian diplomat who gave a rather scathing critique of Canadian foreign policy at a conference this past weekend in Montreal.No wait – don’t leave! Trust me on this one.In it, he basically blasts both major political parties for their failure to enact any worthwhile international policies beyond...

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The Johnny Foreigner’s Guide to the UK Election (in where I demonstrate a very poor knowledge of UK politics.)

What is the status of CIA drone operatives in international law? (Short answer: I don’t know, but that shouldn’t matter.)

by Stephanie Carvin | 23 March, 2010 |

Despite our modern ideas about a separation between civilians and soldiers in international law (and then complain about the breakdown of the legal distinction in counterinsurgency conflict or situations like Pakistan), civilians have almost always accompanied military forces into the field. These include journalists, clergy (not within the armed forces of an army) and “camp followers” which may have included cooks, tailors, menders, prostitutes, etc.That these individuals were there and an essential part of the operations of the armed forces, was accepted. Yet, because they were not...

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The Johnny Foreigner’s Guide to the UK Election (in where I demonstrate a very poor knowledge of UK politics.)

My £0.02 on the “Keep America Safe” Crowd/”al-Qaida Seven”

by Stephanie Carvin | 11 March, 2010 |

I’m finding it difficult to usefully add to the debate over the “Guantanamo Lawyers”/"al-Qaida Seven" that has emerged over the last week or so. Basically, the fundamental issue is that people “we” dislike or who have (allegedly) done horrible things are actually entitled to certain fundamental rights under both American and international law – including international law signed and ratified by the US Senate. That this law applies to terrorists has been the subject of several now high profile Supreme Court decisions (notably Hamdan).So the legal issues here, the right to a fair trial (or, in...

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The Johnny Foreigner’s Guide to the UK Election (in where I demonstrate a very poor knowledge of UK politics.)

Is there a legal obligation to report war casualties?

by Stephanie Carvin | 2 March, 2010 |

This year at ISA a theme which seemed to crop up again and again (at least among the laws of war crowd – we’re small but mighty) was the idea that “we” (international society, academia, NGOs, I guess) need more information on civilian casualties, particularly those caused by air strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan. There was a real sense of frustration that the US was not more forthcoming on casualties, who was being targeted and who died.Certainly, arguments were provided that there was a moral duty to provide such information. Although democracies may fight very deadly wars, constituencies...

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The Johnny Foreigner’s Guide to the UK Election (in where I demonstrate a very poor knowledge of UK politics.)

More late post-ISA thoughts

by Stephanie Carvin | 26 February, 2010 |

I, like Laura, am a bit slow off the take regarding post-ISA blogging. In my defence I have a 6-hour jet-lag that was aggravated by United Airlines being successful in severely messing up every single segment of my flight to New Orleans and back. (The friendly skies? More like the unfriendly kick in the... oh forget it.)Certainly one of the highlights for me was the panel (already discussed here, here , here and here) on international relations, academia and blogging. I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but I did want to add my $0.02 (~£0.013) It was great to see Dan Drezner, Stephen Walt,...

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The Johnny Foreigner’s Guide to the UK Election (in where I demonstrate a very poor knowledge of UK politics.)

Who Dat? Old Chap!

by Stephanie Carvin | 16 February, 2010 |

The International Studies Association meeting is getting underway shortly in New Orleans. I’m not sure who’s very strange idea it was to combine academics and “Mardi Gras” – (I can’t wait to see the “Professors Gone Wild! Video…. Actually, I can… ) but we’re here and letting the bon temps rouler – as it were.Of course this year’s Mardi Gras has a very important unofficial theme – the New Orleans Saints – who won the Superbowl this year. There are gold fleur de lis everywhere and on everything. I ran into a publisher last night who swore that he ran into a group of people who hadn’t stopped...

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The Johnny Foreigner’s Guide to the UK Election (in where I demonstrate a very poor knowledge of UK politics.)

The Oatmeal Olympics

by Stephanie Carvin | 13 February, 2010 |

Following on Charli’s excellent post about the Olympics, I thought I’d add my two cents.If you live outside of North America, (okay, and Scandinavia) you probably didn’t know. The fact is the international coverage seems to be lacking, at least if my experience in London is to be judged by. Here, the Six Nations Rugby Tournament is getting far more coverage. Not to mention the Football/Soccer. I have been trying to figure out why this might be the case. It may be, as has been suggested before, that the Winter Olympics are quite simply the “rich people’s games”. Virtually all of the sports,...

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The Johnny Foreigner’s Guide to the UK Election (in where I demonstrate a very poor knowledge of UK politics.)

The UK Iraq Inquiry: The Agony and the Ecstasy or International Law and Deja Vu

by Stephanie Carvin | 7 February, 2010 |

The legality of the 2003 Iraq War has been back in a big way in the UK over the last few weeks. This, no doubt, is the result of several high-profile figures who were involved in the decision as to use force testifying in front of the Iraq Inquiry.For the uninitiated, the Iraq Inquiry is an independent panel of figures set up “identify lessons that can be learned from the Iraq conflict.” It is often referred to as the Chilcot Inquiry, so named for the chairperson, Sir John Chilcot, and the panel of experts also includes such notable IR/War Studies-type figures as Sir Lawrence Freedman.Last...

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The Johnny Foreigner’s Guide to the UK Election (in where I demonstrate a very poor knowledge of UK politics.)

The Afghan Detainee Abuse Scandal in Canada

by Stephanie Carvin | 25 January, 2010 |

For those of you who may be following the issue of detainee abuse of prisoners of war in Canada (or any other country than America), I have an editorial piece with Dr. Grant Dawson (Deuputy Director of the David Davies Memorial Institute at Aberystwyth) in the Ottawa Citizen today.A quick summary is that two different detainee scandles (one in the aftermath of the Somalia Intervention in the 1990s and the current Afghan one) are being confused. Where as the "Somalia Inquiry" was used to shield the government from responsibility and criticism, an Afghan inquiry might actually hold the...

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