Belgium Study Abroad 2009

Don't forget: email me (dmgibler (at) bama.ua.edu) if you are interested in the Belgium study abroad program for 2009.

Random News (Africa Edition)

Have you heard yet about the riots in Nigeria? Some interesting comparisons between news coverage of the riots and the terrorism in Mumbai.

Sending "messengers of death" to the DRC?

Class Notes -- Restraint

Here are the notes for today's class.

Summary Statistics for Exam 2

Summary stats for test #2:

Max-- 96
Min-- 45
Mean-- 77
Median-- 81

Here is a copy of the exam key (in case you haven't seen it before).

Random Things Political

Ballot design for dummies: lizard people?

For BdM fans, there is a documentary about him running on the history channel. The next Nostradamus? Hmmm. Next showing, Saturday, December 6th.

Class Notes -- Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism

Here are the notes for today's class.

Class Notes -- Military Interventions and Refugee Disasters

Here are the notes for today's class.

Two Posts on Writing (and some funnies...)

Most irritating phrases in the English language, thanks to Oxford (and the Monkey Cage), here.

What are the possible benefits of writing well? Do you know who Watson and Crick are? How about Avery, MacLeod and McCarty? Take a look at the discussion on writing here.

Other funnies-- Obama must give up his Blackberry, and Sarkozy stops Putin in his tracks.

Class Notes -- Air Power and the (First) Persian Gulf War

Here are the notes for today's class.

PSC413 Revised Schedule

Here is the revised schedule for the last few weeks of the semester. Note well-- you can only access the articles through the provided links while on a campus computer.

Tuesday, November 18th--

Press, Daryl G., "The Myth of Air Power in the Persian Gulf War and the Future of Warfare," International Security. 26:2 (Fall 2001), 5–44

Thursday, November 20th--

Posen, Barry R. “Military responses to refugee disasters,” International Security.
Summer 1996 v21 n1

Tuesday, November 25th--

Discussion of US Interventionism

Tuesday, December 2nd--

Pape, Robert, “The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism”, American Political
Science Review, Vol. 97, No. 3 August 2003: 1-19.

Tuesday, December 4th--

Gholz, Eugene et al., “Come Home, America: The Strategy of Restraint in the
Face of Temptation.” International Security, Spring 1997, 21(4)

Politics and the Media

Since today is election day, I thought it'd be nice to take a look at who would be covering the election all day. There are actually quite a few interesting recent analyses about how the US media covers politics, but below are two that caught my eye:

First, here is a link to an analysis of country coverage by the New York Times (thanks to Marginal Revolution). And here is an analysis of the major network polls. Does this ordering make sense? Why might there be bias, even in polling?

Class Notes -- Polarity and AFP part deux

Here are the notes for today's class.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...

from Dani Rodrik's blog... the credit crisis in one picture.

Class Notes -- Polarity and AFP

Here are the notes for today's class.

More random news...

Here is a nice link for those wanting to maximize their influence this election. But if you want to just watch pretty pictures that also have to do with international relations, then check out this video that maps flights across the globe.

Talk at the Rotary Club

Today at noon I'll be giving a talk at the Rotary Club of Tuscaloosa. For a link to the presentation, click here.

Note to PSC413 students: this has much to do with American Foreign Policy!

World War II Posters

Here is a link to some amazing World War II posters. Notice the rhetoric being used but also to how many facets of life the war is supposed to affect...

Class Notes -- Deterrence

Here are the notes for today's class.

Random News of the Day

A recent study of college students and where they should vote has some interesting implications regarding local voting rules:

Thus, in the extreme, the “rules” might even depend on when you showed up in the registrar’s office and whom you spoke to.

Andrew Gelman has more on ideologies among the US electorate. Notice how different the House and Senate are from general public opinion. Why do you think this is the case?

Do you want to know how much professors get to study stuff like the above? An all too true comic about academic salaries versus athletics salaries is here.

Class Notes -- The Long Peace

Here are the notes for today's class.