personal
It rivals Buckley vs. Vidal, I tell you
My latest bloggingheads diavlog is up. This one is with The American Prospect‘s Ezra Klein. Topic include Todd Purdum’s Vanity Fair essay on Bill Clinton, why Ezra hates political science, and the state of public intellectuals in America. Go check it out (warning: the sound quality is a bit erratic)!!
Bloggingheads 911: Miami!!
What happens when Bloggingheads.tv has three planned diavlogs collapse at the last minute? Why, they break the glass and call on the most reliable media whore in the business — and Megan McArdle!! Go check it out. Topics discussed include the recent Israel-Syria negotiations, the uber-lame-duckness of George W. Bush, Black Lieutenant Syndrome, and the [...]
So Tuesday was a pretty good day….
Earlier this week I received official word that I’ve been promoted to full professor, after a remarkably transparent and stress-free process. So how does it feel? Pretty damn good. After all, this happened just two and a half years years after the late unpleasantness. Despite that, it happened before I turned forty (I was genuinely [...]
Bitter academics, tenure, torture, and pie
These are all topics for conversation in my latest diavlog with Megan McArdle. Go check it out! For a dissent on the pie-throwing question, click here. Apparently I’d understand it — if only I had a soul.
Because The Atlantic is trying to diversify beyond Ivy League bloggers
I’ll be guest-blogging over at Megan McArdle’s Atlantic blog for this week. The comments section there actually works, so blogging at this site will likely be minimal during this time period.
Eagle soaring… for the moment
International relations scholars are/should be familiar with a series of edited volumes on U.S. foreign policy entitled Eagle ________. Eagle Entangled, Eagle Defiant, Eagle Resurgent, Eagle in a New World, etc. With all the talk of lost hegemony, my latest column for Newsweek International points out that even if U.S. power is waning, it hasn’t [...]
A polite and civil bloggingheads
My latest bloggingheads diavlog is with National Security Network executive director Heather Hurlburt. Most of the chat is about whether it will be possible to have a reasonably civil debate about foreign policy during the general election campaign (Heather is more pessimistic than I on this front). In this segment, however, I use my political [...]
A hegemonic bloggingheads
My latest bloggingheads diavlog is with Rob Farley from Lawyers, Guns, and Money and the Patterson School of Diplomacy. Topics include the Super Bowl, waning hegemony, Republicans who like Obama, and bold Super Tuesday predictions. Go check it out!! There’s also this challenge to listeners:
Crime…. it’s not just for smart people
I can corroborate every detail that Megan McArdle recounts in this blog post, although, in my memory, the potential criminal shuffled away only because he saw me give him the Clint-Eastwood-in-The-Good-The-Bad-And-The-Ugly-Death-Stare. No, no, that’s not true — he was just a very inept criminal.
The nine lives of autocrats
My latest column for Newsweek is now available online. It’s about how authoritarian leaders have innovated at keeping themselves in power. The opening paragraphs: Ten years ago the autocrat was an endangered species. According to the conventional wisdom, authoritarian regimes were incapable of adjusting to a world of globalization and global civil society. Autocrats recognized [...]
