Yesterday, Michelle Kosinki of CNN reported via Twitter that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was holding a special briefing for "faith-based media" only. She later relayed that the State Department was refusing to release the list of invited media or a transcript of the event. And we've now learned that the topic of the briefing was the state of religious freedom around the world. This creates a dangerous precedent and raises some serious issues...
by Steve Saideman Put "do not cite, do not circulate" on your paper. I received a paper for the upcoming ISA which had that instruction on it. I yelled at (ok, I mocked) my students last week for doing the same thing. In the olden days, folks would put "do not cite" on their papers because they wanted to polish them before submitting, that they didn't want to have errant results widely circulated. Perhaps there is a fear...
Being at home sick is a perfect moment to reflect on another area of obvious Russian-American collusion – the anti-vaccine movement. Yep, United States, slide over and make some room for your emerging anti-immunization post-Soviet friends. While Russian women might be coming from a different anti-vax background - just like in America it’s mostly women in Russia who make health care decisions for the offspring - they employ the same reasoning...
This is a guest post from Paul Poast, an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. “Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.” That was Churchill’s summary of US foreign policy. After US President Trump’s call for “huge” monetary payments by allies hosting US troops, it seems the US is again pursuing “other possibilities.” Just as...
by Stephen M. Saideman I teach a 3rd year PhD workshop that is mostly focused on getting students through their dissertation proposals (a roadmap for their dissertation research). Along the way, we cover other topics, like how to get on conference programs, what kind of non-academic employment there is, and, yes, social media. Last night, we covered the latter category, and I was surprised at the response: why don't I make money off...
This is a guest post from Adnan Naseemullah from is Senior Lecturer in International Relations, King’s College London, and the author of Development after Statism (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Indian airstrikes near Balakot inside the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the 26th of February, and Pakistani airstrikes in response, have created anxiety because nuclear conflict lies at the end of a steep escalation ladder. India was...
This week has seen a number of key events and crises in global politics that have made crystal clear once again the careening mess that is US foreign policy under the current administration. The Trump administration has no real overarching strategy—the argument that allies in Europe and elsewhere should bear more of the costs of their defense was not articulated as part of any coherent broader vision—and gutting of the diplomatic corps has left...
Each Spring, Bridging the Gap (BTG) announces the recipients of our annual Policy Engagement Fellowships (PEF), the purpose of which is to support efforts by scholars to connect their research on international issues to the policy community. One of our 2018–19 PEFs is Dr. Erin Snider, Assistant Professor of International Affairs at Texas A&M University's George H.W. Bush School of Government and Public Service and a Fellow with the New...
Guest post by Tiffany S. Chu, Alex Braithwaite, Faten Ghosn, and Justin Curtis Plans to fund a border wall at the U.S.-Mexico border are troubling D.C. politics. During his campaign for the presidency, candidate Trump promised a wall would be built to reduce security issues he associated with existing border policy. In the longest government shutdown in history, Democrats in Congress refused President Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion in funding...
This is a guest post from Eric Van Rythoven. Eric Van Rythoven recently finished his PhD at Carleton University studying emotion, world politics, and security. His work is published in Security Dialogue and European Journal of International Relations. The Trudeau government is in crisis. Yesterday morning Jody Wilson-Raybould, Canada’s former Attorney General recently demoted to Minister of Veterans Affairs, resigned from cabinet. ...
This is a guest post by Betcy Jose and Alessa Sänger. Jose is currently a Fellow in the Cluster of Excellence: Formation of Normative Orders at Goethe University. Sänger is pursuing a Master Degree in Curatorial Studies at Goethe Universität and Städelschule and is a collection assistant in the Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt am Main. In a speech at UNESCO just days after a horrific terrorist attack in Paris for which DAESH claimed...
Pope Francis recently visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE). His trip is historic, not just because it's the first by the head of the Roman Catholic Church. He will also lead an outdoor mass, the first to be held, according to the new coverage, in the Arabian Peninsula. Additionally, the Pope signed an accord of "human fraternity" with the Grand Imam of al-Azhar University, the top center of religious learning for Sunni Muslims. This all...