Your humble blogger (I like saying that. Now that Dan Drezner no longer has a blog [sniff], I will say it for him)...Your humble blogger is in London, and after a red eye flight, a noon presentation, ten hours of a sleep coma, another presentation, I'm ready to...
Apologies for the delay in Thursday linkage but was a bit under the weather. It's the Texas heat, making me crazy and violent, or at least so suggests a recent empirical study in Science though it...
Tuesday on Lake Champlain In comments, Assaf Moghadam notes that his Studies in Conflict and Terrorism critique of Bob Pape's work is free to download (PDF). In light of the 5 August 40-year...
Good morning... Aileen Blanley writes about Nisha Pahuja's attempt to film a camp run by Durga Vahini, the women's wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).  Through physical combat training and...
Brazilian transexual, feminist anger, the 'arrival' of the trans lobby, and a journalist leaving twitter. Did you get it all this week? In case you didn't, here's the summary (without commentary/opinion for now) with all the links you need: A few days ago Suzanne Moore (a journalist for the Guardian) wrote a piece on 'the power of female anger'. In this otherwise unremarkable post, one line has sparked controversy: We are angry with ourselves for not being happier, not being loved properly and not having the ideal body shape – that of a Brazilian transsexual. The comment sparked a Twitter...
In the spirit of last night's post, two blogs worth reading: Empirical Legal Studies and The Cultural Cognition Project at Yale. Here's Carolyn Shapiro at the former talking about two posts by Dan Kahan at the latter. Every once in a while I attempt to goad PTJ  by sending him links to pieces that are sure to raise his hackles. I tried that with Gary King's "all your case studies are belong to us" paper (PDF). Now I'm trying it with Phil Schrodt's response to Walt and Mearsheimer at his new blog, A Second Mouse. Joshua Goodman on the rise of the Israeli right. Also at The Smoked-Filled...
Good morning, Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ducks at sea! China The New York Times reports Western studios are giving Chinese censors early access to their films. Wikipedia's background on Chinese film censorship. Alyssa Rosenberg discussed this in June. Some Chinese directors don't like censorship Some in Taiwan are suspicious of cross-strait media deals More traditional censorship of Chinese media persists (more, more) But the media can now report on (appalling) air quality and the government might be seeking to reduce air pollution And Dan Drezner updates on China's non-leverage via...
Good mornin', here's your morning linkage... Mali Pascal Fletcher provides a good analysis of the challenges ahead for the French-led intervention in Mali. Angelique Chrisafis also examines the domestic stakes and neo-colonial implications of Mr. Hollande's War. Saudi Arabia The Saudi government beheaded a maid, who was a minor employed for two weeks when a child in her care died.  She was tried without legal representation.  Executing a minor is a violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Saudi Arabia is a signatory. Forty-five other maids are on death row, some for...
French troops took on an active combat role in Mali yesterday. Mark Leon Goldberg provides a short overview. After long delays, western African troops are reported to be headed for the country as well. There are interesting resonances here with Barak Mendelsohn's Combating Jihadism. In Syria, a jihadist group overran a government airbase. David Collier on Iran's Kurdish population. Marc Lynch assesses the "battle over Egypt's constitution." Dmitry Gorenburg evaluates Russian naval modernization. Paul Pillar questions the wisdom of "sabre rattling" when dealing with Iran. Modeling war at The...
I'm home sick. With my daughter. Who is also sick. So this will be brief. Sean Kay makes the "case for Chuck Hagel" at the Huffington Post. Daniel Larison slams Jonah Goldberg and other "petty, spiteful critics of Hagel." The Onion reports that Israel "plan to use veto power" against Hagel. Michael Flynn gives the Hagel debate a political-science spin. Reihan Salam defends American hegemony. The rise of actual neo-fascism in Hungary. Adam Elkus on the "market" for covert action. Is the Lavrov Plan back as a possible solution to Iranian proliferation? And also: LFC analyzes Harknett's and...
In the wide world: Taylor Fravel lets us know about China's surveillance fleet's op tempo (learn more about the China Marine Surveillance) and the role of cell phone service in territorial disputes Thane Gustafson talks about Russia's oil infrastructure Handy capsule history of the international oil market  Closer to home: From A Quantitative Peace, an examination of bipartisan appointments to the cabinet and sub cabinet (Would the idea of a "bipartisan" appointment to a cabinet ministry ever occur to someone in a Westminster government, aside from "national unity" movements?) Congress more...
Promotional and Disciplinary Peter Henne's guest post -- in which he asks questions about peer reviewing from the perspective of a junior scholar -- has been getting a lot of traffic. But it's a pretty big tell that no one has attempted to answer his questions. Iver Neumann's not the first scholar to be interviewed for both the Duck Podcast and Theory Talks, but he may be the first to have the latter interview released the day after he conducted the former. I've been enjoying Namesake, a webcomic involving characters travelling into classic stories. Check it out. Also take a look at Alex...