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
read more
Recent Posts
How do we get people to care about migrants?
Earlier this week, a boat carrying migrants fleeing Afghanistan sank in the English Channel, killing six. Earlier this month, 41 died after a ship sailing from Tunisia sank near Italy. There are...
Israel’s Democratic Deficit as a One-State “Solution” Emerges
I recently had the good fortune to participate in a week-long academic exchange to Israel, along with 20 or so other political scientists and historians. Because Israel isn’t one of the countries I...
“Here Be Dragons”: Navigating the uncharted waters of AI, with lessons from the ocean
You feel the gentle touch of the sea breeze on your face. Seagulls squawk overhead whilst waves crash against the shore. You glance at the book by your side, but its pages have lost their battle...
More Recent Posts
How Quals can avoid becoming our own worst enemies
Simple steps to promote qualitative research in journals It happened again. After months of waiting, you finally got that "Decision" email: Rejection. That's not so bad, it happens to everyone. But it's the nature of the rejection that gets to you. The reviewers (you assume fellow quals) didn't...
6+1 Questions About MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR Dictatorship
Why and how do authoritarian regimes manage their image abroad?
Welcome New Ducks and an Invitation
The Duck has a new look and a new lineup of our core group, what we used to call "permanent contributors." We haven't yet settled on a new term. Blog Jedi Masters came to mind. In this post, I wanted to thank long-time contributors who are stepping away from the core group but who may blog...
6+1 Questions about AMERICAN DOVE
American Dove makes pragmatic case for a dovish foreign policy. The use of force is a terrible foreign-policy instrument: it’s expensive and hardly ever works.
Light Summer Reading
Ah, those days when you did not feel guilty for reading something that does not contain the term “poststructuralism” and/or footnotes. Back in my teenage years, I used to devour all the books I could get during the summer. I had some favorites: Alexandre Duma’s The Count of Monte-Christo...
Is it time to abandon in-person academic conferences? or “Who’s kind of meh on going to APSA?”
I get the sense that lots of scholars are viewing the return (sooner or later) of in-person conference with a good deal of ambivalence. Is it time to take all conference online?
Episode 18: Name Your Discord Server “and Collaboration”
Arnold Wolfers is one of the most important figures of “mainstream” mid-20th century internationa…
Getting Counterinsurgency Wrong
I just published a piece in Foreign Affairs, which draws on my new book, Bullets Not Ballots: Success in Counterinsurgency Warfare. After two decades, the United States is finally leaving Afghanistan, and only 2,500 U.S. troops remain in Iraq. In both countries, the insurgencies continue. It...
Centering George W. Bush in the Etiology of the Iraq War
The second- and third-most downloaded articles at the journal Security Studies both tackle the causes of the Iraq War. This might reflect an imbalance of supply and demand: there aren't that many articles in leading international-relations journals that focus on the question of why the United...
The Vision Thing: More on the New Duck
Is there still room for a traditional academic international-relations blog? An overview of relevant history and the Duck’s approach to blogging.
From “Wilsonian” to “Rooseveltian” Liberalism
Daniel Deudney and John Ikenberry recently published a ‘big think’ article in Foreign Policy. They note that the Biden administration’s approach to foreign and domestic policy – including its particular understanding of the relationship between them – is best understood as “Rooseveltian” in character. What should we make of this?
The New Duck of Minerva: Preliminary Details
The Duck of Minerva is getting a reboot. What’s changing, and why? This posts begins the process of providing answers.