Online mediums can be perceived as attracting wacky ranters unrepresentative contributors and exchanges and, therefore, forums or chats are often treated as if they do not provide an effective picture/sample of political discourse. But since over 80% of Americans are...
If there is one constant to modern social science, it is that you are always under-read. There is always some critical book you missed, some article you never had time for, some classic of which you...
Being new to the blogging world, I have been thinking a lot about the utility and influence of blogs. Blogs seem appealing in so many ways. They appear to be an effective means of disseminating...
Later this week, I will be participating in a roundtable discussion with my esteemed colleagues Juan Cole, Manan Ahmed, Joshua Foust and Madiha Tahir on "The Blogs of War: The Analytical Terrain of...
Wander around the political blogsphere and chances are, at any given moment, you'll find partisans of all stripes bravely stripping away the deceit of their rivals. Indeed, despite the best efforts of the "MSM" to mislead us all, the bloggers will uncover the facts. In 2004 they poured over maps of the Mekong Delta to prove Kerry's falsehoods. They blustered about partisan weighting to prove that Bush was really behind in the polls. They continue their efforts in this cycle. Even as we speak (to take but one example), fearless keyboard detectives will reveal the frightening truth about...
Via Matthew Yglesias and a quick google search I learn that the right-wing blogsphere is all in a tizzy over the fact that the Decemberists played at Obama's Portland speech. This apparently matters because:1. The left-wing mainstream media isn't reporting that some percentage of people clearly attended to hear the Decemberists rather than Obama. Ergo, Obama's not really all that popular. Or something.2. The Decemberists often play the Soviet National Anthem before their concerts. Given that they named themselves after the participants in an 1825 anti-absolutism rebellion in Russia and that...
I'm sure you're all well aware that:Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.You can read the other top Chuck Norris facts here and here.You've probably seen Chuck Norris with Mike Huckabee, his top celebrity campaign endorsement, appearing with him everywhere in Iowa and New Hampshire. Huckebee's actual plan to stop illegal immigration? "Two words: Chuck Norris."The question to our loyal readers and the blogosphere writ large is this: What are top...
I wanted to announce the birth of a new Duck. R. Charli Carpenter, an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, is joining our ranks for a poorly defined, and perhaps indefinite, guest stint. Professor Carpenter is a specialist in, among other things, transnational advocacy networks, particularly those involved in war crimes and human rights.She is the author of Innocent Women And Children: Gender, Norms And the Protection of Civiliansand the editor of Born of War: Protecting Children of Sexual Violence Survivors in Conflict Zones .Please extend her a warm welcome!
First up, expanding the blog collective. A big welcome to our new contributor, Maia Gemmill. Maia is a recent SAIS graduate in Russia-Eurasia studies with a concentration in Economics. We also co-authored "Children's Crusade: The Religious Politics of Harry Potter" in Harry Potter and International Relations. She's already, as you can tell, breathing new life into the Duck.Second, our blog rating is in:Apparently we use the phrase "bomb" a lot on our front page. Go figure.Just remember that this particular MPAA-rating spoof is a clever (or not) advertisement for a dating service.(via Rebecca...
For reasons that should come as no surprise (the Duck's staff ranges from centrist to leftist), our "international relations" blogroll doesn't get much further to the "right" than Oxblog or Dan Drezner. Most of the blogs we link to lean left.I'd like to change that, so if anyone has any suggestions for conservative international-relations and international-political-economy blogs that we should link to, please let me know. The conditions are:1. The blog actually has to fit those categories2. The blog must be predominately substantive policy and/or academic discussions of international...
I just discovered that my colleague at Georgetown, Tony Arend, has started a weblog on Georgetown's new - and barely used - blog system. Besides being an expert on international law, Tony's a Georgetown institution unto himself.Tony's latest post argues that the Geneva Convention is actually only one of a number of treaties that the US may be violating in Guantanamo Bay.I'd say "welcome" to Tony, except that his blog is older than the Duck.Filed as: international law, Guantanamo Bay, Geneva Convention and Arend