After months, and perhaps years, of cajoling and haranguing the Hayseed Scholar, friend of the pod (episode14) Matt McDonald finally convinced Brent to turn the tables and become a guest on the podcast. Matt interviewed Brent at the end of the International Studies Association conference in Montreal, in Matt's hotel room. Over a few beers and with much good cheer, they chat about Brent's growing up in Iowa, attending Chicago Bears games as a...
The government of a country makes explicit or implicit threats to another: "if you cross this line, we will inflict harm upon you." The threat fails; the government crosses the designated line. Has deterrence failed? Well, yes. Of course. By definition. It is, for example, unequivocally true that the United States did not deter Russia from invading Georgia in 2008, nor Ukraine in 2014, nor Ukraine (again) in 2022. Should you have any doubts...
There is more continuity in the history of U.S. military basing policy than is typically assumed.
Since marginalized communities tend to suffer disproportionately when governments make contemptible policy choices, it stands to reason that those communities might develop a heightened sensitivity about the merits of new policies. At the very least they have reason to cultivate a perspective and preferences that differ from people with resources (money, power, societal standing) to buffer them from the consequences of poor policy stewardship....
Twenty year recollections of the 2003 invasion of Iraq are popping up. Some are debating whether there were any positive outcomes from the war, others reflecting on what it meant for those who fought (on the US side) or suffered (on the Iraqi side). The Iraq war has played a big role in my career, but I wanted to talk about what it means for the liberal internationalist orientation to the world. The Iraq War and Me In the first lecture of my...
The Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage (“The World Heritage Convention”) entered into force in 1975. The world heritage regime, in effect, produces the shared heritage of humanity. States use their right, as set by the Convention, to nominate sites within their borders; the files accompanying the nomination make the case for the site’s “outstanding universal value.” The relevant...
PTJ and Dan discuss Cynthia Weber’s 1994 book, Simulating Sovereignty: Intervention, the State an…
The blogosphere peaked somewhere in the mid-2000s, so why would anyone start blogging in 2023?
Elif Kalaycioglu, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science at The University of Alabama. She conducts research on politics of humanity and global cultural politics, centered on questions of order-making, subjectivity, and recognition and with an empirical focus on UNESCO’s world heritage regime. Her research has appeared in Security Dialogue, International Political Sociology, and the Oxford Encyclopedia of...
The Russian government has developed a symbiotic relationship with the country’s pseudoscientific community.
Dima Kortukov is a post-doctoral scholar at the University of Kentucky. He holds a PhD in political science from Indiana University. His scholarly interests include authoritarian politics, governance, democratization, political economy, conflict, and Russian/post-Communist politics. In his research, he analyzes the foundations of institutional change and explores the determinants of elite political behavior. He has published peer-reviewed...
One year ago, Russia launched an illegal war on Ukraine, committing horrific war crimes against the people of Ukraine. Analyses and memorials abound, and I'm probably not the only person writing about this on the Duck today. I wanted to address a specific aspect of this war, though: why Russia's carefully cultivated ties with far-right forces in Western Europe and the United States failed to undermine Western opposition to the war. Undermining...