IRCPPS: 2011-10-02

Saturday, October 8, 2011

IRCPPS in the Links: Is Burma on the verge of a democratic thaw?

in Dart-Throwing Chimp, Jay Ulfelder gives some analysis:

...Viewed through this wider lens, recent events in Burma make a little more sense. Like Gorbachev’s initially timid steps toward openness (glasnost) in support of economic restructuring (perestroika), the Burmese government’s recent reforms seem to identify that country as a budding case of liberalization by imposition. After the collapse of the USSR, dictators may have become more inclined to err on the side of caution and forego the potential gains from reduced economic friction. More recently, though, the Chinese government’s success (so far) in managing these trade-offs in its favor seems to have re-opened the door to liberalization from above.

Call for Papers: IGU Commission on Geography of Governance - Annual Conference - Lisbon, Portugal, April 2012

via PSRT-L:

     CALL FOR PAPERS

    IGU Commission on Geography of Governance

    Annual Conference 2012
    NEW CHALLENGES FOR LOCAL GOVERNANCE
    Lisbon, 12-14 April 2012

IRCPPS in the Links: More on US Senate Rule Suspensions

Gregory Kroger has a detailed history of the procedure in the Monkey Cage:

...By itself, last night’s precedent is not a major reform. The “right” to vote on suspending the rules after cloture is invoked was almost never used until last year. And since this “right” has only been used to record senators positions on defeated proposals rather than, you know, change public policy for the better, I am reasonably confident** that the republic will survive. The minority party can still force votes on pet amendments, but now the bar to do so has been raised. Instead of a single member filing a motion to suspend the rules and subsequently forcing a vote on the motion, now the minority party must band together and vote against cloture until they are guaranteed a vote on their priorities....

Summary: International Organization Volume 65 - Issue 04 - 2011

In this issue of International Organization:

Cederman, Warren, and Sornette test Clausewitz's assertion that the development of mass-nationalism after the French Revolution forever changed the nature and intensity of interstate war.
Pelc asks why some countries get better WTO accession terms than others.
Burton, Helfer, and Fariss examine and attempt to explain states' derogation (temporary legal suspension) of their obligations under human rights treaties during crises.
Salehyan, Gleditsch, and Cunningham analyze when states will support rebel groups (and when rebel groups will accept that support).
Kaczmarek and Newman find that extraterritorial actions by prosecutors in bribery cases do have a significant impact outside the country bringing charges.
Naoi and Kume attempt to determine why there is so much mass support for agricultural protectionism in industrialized countries.

Call for Papers: 5th Global Conference: Diasporas: Exploring Critical Issues

via inter-disciplinary.net:

This inter- and multi-disciplinary project seeks to explore the contemporary experience of Diasporas – communities who conceive of themselves as a national, ethnic, linguistic or other form of cultural and political construction of collective membership living outside of their ‘home lands.’ Diaspora is a concept which is far from being definitional. Despite problems and limitations in terminology, this notion may be defined with issues attached to it for a more complete understanding. Such a term which may have its roots in Greek, is used customarily to apply to a historical phenomenon that has now passed to a period that usually supposes that Diasporas are those who are settled forever in a country other from where they were born and thus this term has lost its dimension of irreversibility and of exile.

Around Academia: A Code of Conduct for Graduate Student Advisers?

The Chronicle of Higher Ed examines a proposal by three scholars for a detailed code of conduct:

Bad behavior among faculty who teach and advise graduate students can take many forms. It may amount to neglect: an adviser failing to respond to multiple requests for feedback at a crucial stage of a student's dissertation work. It may be much worse: a professor copying an advisee's ideas without attribution and trying to pass them off as his own.

What constitutes a violation of good conduct in graduate education, though, is both ill-defined and inconsistently rectified...

Call for Papers: 11th Global Conference of Environmental Justice and Global Citizenship

via inter-disciplinary.net:

Communities seeking environmental justice

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference aims to explore the role of environmental thinking in the context of contemporary society and international affairs, and assess the implications for our understandings of fairness, justice and global citizenship. ‘Environmental justice’ is conceived broadly as reflecting not only justice in the context of human communities but also towards other species, ecosystems, habitats, landscapes, succeeding generations and the environment as a whole. ‘Global citizenship’ is understood as an awareness of individual’s relative responsibilities in the global context.

IRCPPS in the Links: The "Nuclear Option" in the US Senate

In the Monkey Cage, Sarah Binder discusses the new precedent set by US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid last night in relation to the ability of the minority party to add non-germane amendments to a bill post-cloture:

What exactly happened? In brief (well, Senate-style brief), Senate rules prohibit non-germane (unrelated) amendments on the Senate floor after cloture has been invoked on a bill. In other words, unless all senators consent, senators can only offer germane amendments once debate has been limited on a bill. McConnell and Reid appear to have been negotiating an agreement that would have allowed Republicans to offer seven non-germane amendments post-cloture. But then a GOP senator moved to suspend the rules (which requires a two-thirds vote) so that he could offer non-germane amendments, including at least one related to the president’s jobs bill. Frustrated with the Republicans’ tactics, Reid raised a point of order that the Republican motion was dilatory. Under Senate rules, dilatory motions are not in order once cloture has been invoked. The parliamentarian advised the presiding officer to rule that the motion was in order, the presiding officer did just that, and a vote ensued on whether or not to sustain or overrule the chair’s ruling. Appeals of the chair require only a majority vote to pass, and Reid mustered all the Democrats save Ben Nelson to vote to overturn the chair. In practice, this means that the Senate tonight set a new precedent, by which I mean a new interpretation of the Senate cloture rule: Under cloture, a motion to suspend the rules to offer a non-germane amendment may now be declared dilatory. (If I’ve not quite nailed this down precisely, it’s because no one should try to disentangle Senate floor procedure after midnight. Please do correct my errors!)

IRCPPS in the Links: The International Roots of Arab National Councils

Jay Ulfelder writes about insights into the international system that we can gain from studying the formation of Arab National Councils during the "Arab Spring." He argues that they represent a manifestation of the second image reversed:

The important point here, though, is that these national councils have not arisen organically from domestic politics. There is undoubtedly some domestic logic to their creation–unified and coordinated revolutionary movements usually stand a better chance of toppling incumbent rulers than fragmented ones–but there is a strong outward-facing element as well. I think these councils came into being as quickly as they did–and maybe even at all–in response to pressures from foreign governments whose endorsements and material support they thought they needed to win their revolutions. Tellingly, SNC spokesman Ghalioun said at the international press conference announcing the council’s formation that one major benefit of the SNC’s existence “would be to provide a single body with which other countries could coordinate.”

Abstracting: Conducting Social Science Research in "Internet Time"

New paper by David Karpf posted on SSRN about how the fast diffusion of ideas through the Internet is challenging traditional social science methodology and what social scientists need to do to stay ahead of the curve:

This paper discusses three interrelated challenges related to conducting social science research in “Internet Time.” The rate at which the Internet is both diffusing through society and also developing new capacities is unprecedented. It creates some novel challenges for scholarly research. Many of our most robust research methods are based upon ceteris paribus assumptions that do not hold in the online environment. The rate of change online narrows the range of questions that can be answered using traditional tools. Meanwhile, new research methods are untested and often rely upon data sources that are incomplete and systematically flawed. The paper details these challenges, then proposes that scholars embrace the values of transparency and kludginess in order to answer important research questions in a rapidly-changing communications environment.

Call for Applicants: 2012 Environmental Public Policy & Conflict Resolution Dissertation Fellowship

Received via e-mail:

The Udall Foundation invites applications for the 2012 Environmental Public Policy & Conflict Resolution Dissertation Fellowship.

The Udall Foundation awards two one-year fellowships of up to $24,000 to doctoral candidates whose research concerns U.S. environmental public policy and/or U.S. environmental conflict resolution, and who are entering their final year of writing the dissertation. Dissertation Fellowships are intended to cover both academic and living expenses from July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2012. The application deadline is February 24, 2012.

Around Academia: US Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Copyright Case With Academic Implications

The Chronicle of Higher Ed offers a summary of the case, Golan v. Holder, in which Lawrence Golan, a music professor from the University of Denver, challenges Congress's ability to remove copyrighted works from the public domain. A decision in favor of the plaintiff would put the works of many foreign authors, artist, musicians, and playwrights back in the public domain in the United States, making it easier for professors to use them in textbooks and lessons, and also would make significantly more public domain content available to the digitization projects many university libraries are currently engaging in.

Around Academia: Expanding Online Offerings at Public Universities

In Inside Higher Ed, former governors Jeb Bush and Jim Hunt argue we can't move online fast enough:

...today -- right now -- colleges and universities must embrace new digital and online delivery tools to make educational content available to degree-seeking students wherever they are, whenever they need it. Doing so will allow colleges and universities to raise revenue, increase access and contribute to America’s long-term competitiveness.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

IRCPPS in the Links: How Divisive is too Divisive in US Presidential Primaries?

Jonathan Robinson writes in the Monkey Cage:

The “Niggerhead” incident and related mudslinging among the GOP presidential candidates prompts the question: how competitive is too competitive when it comes to primaries? Political scientists have long studied what is called the divisive primary hypothesis, and John wrote a post back in early 2008 (see also the comments) that presented some relevant research. John suggested that divisive primaries had little effect on the nominee’s performance in the general election...

Call for Applicants: Fellowship in Climate Change and African Political Stability

via the ISA blog:

The LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin announce a call for applications for pre-doctoral fellowships in climate change and security. The Climate Change and African Political Stability (CCAPS) program will offer up to three pre-doctoral fellowships for the 2012-2013 academic year. The CCAPS fellowship program aims to stimulate the development of the next generation of researchers and thought leaders on the topic of climate change and political stability in Africa. Fellowships are available to advanced PhD students, with preference given to those who have made substantial progress towards the completion of their dissertation. CCAPS will consider applicants working on a broad range of topics related to climate change, political stability, and security in Africa. Suitable topics may include, but are not limited to: climate change vulnerability in Africa; potential impacts of climate change on political stability or security in Africa; and strategies for addressing climate change challenges in Africa. Applications should be received by February 15, 2012. For more information about the fellowship, application guidelines, and deadlines please visit the website.

Call for Applicants: The Institute for Qualitative and Multi-Method Research, Syracuse University

Received via e-mail:

THE INSTITUTE FOR QUALITATIVE AND MULTI-METHOD RESEARCH, MAXWELL SCHOOL OF SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY, JUNE 18-29, 2012.

OPEN POOL APPLICATION DEADLINE: November 18, 2011

Call for Applicants: Carlos E. Castañeda Postdoctoral Fellowship in Mexican American Studies

via the University of Texas, Austin:

The Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) of the College of Liberal Arts is pleased to announce theCarlos E. Castañeda Postdoctoral Fellowship in Mexican American Studies supported by the Office of the President. This postdoctoral fellowship is in memory of Professor Carlos E. Castañeda (1896-1958), one of the first scholars and activists in Mexican American Studies, a UT Austin alumnus and faculty member, and a native of south Texas.
CMAS is accepting applications for this nine-month postdoctoral fellowship for the 2012-2013 academic year, effective September 1, 2012. The Castañeda Fellow is obligated to be in residence in Austin, Texas during the entire 2012-2013 fellowship year and to make a contribution to the Center's research program in the form of a major research or writing project. Use of the Mexican-American archival materials at the Benson Latin American Collection is encouraged. In addition the Castañeda Fellow is asked to teach one undergraduate course during her/his residency and to deliver a public lecture in the spring semester 2013. The fellow will receive an academic year stipend of $46,000, health insurance benefits, a moving allowance, office space, and logistical office support.
Applicants must have completed the doctoral degree (Ph.D./Ed.D.) within the past five years before the beginning of the fellowship year. The doctoral degree must be awarded by August 1, 2012 for consideration. Current UT Austin faculty members and doctoral candidates are not eligible.
The application deadline is 5:00 pm CST on Thursday, December 15, 2011.
Visit the following web page for more information for the Carlos E. Castañeda Posdoctoral Fellowship in Mexican American Studies.

IRCPPS in the Links: How US Political Campaign Advertising Works

John Sides writes on the subject in 538:

So what do we know about campaign advertising? There is a better answer to this question. Just as Mr. Beane turned to math geeks, we can turn to a different species of geek: political scientists. Here are the lessons of their research about when campaign advertising does and does not matter.

Campaign ads matter more when the candidates are unfamiliar...

Campaign ads matter more when a candidate can outspend the opponent...

Campaign ads can matter, but not for long...

IRCPPS in the Links: Authoritarian Regime Censorship from the Inside

via Slashdot:

Hacktivist cluster Telecomix released 54 gigabytes of Syrian censorship log data.The anonymized log data was collected from seven of 15 Bluecoat SG-9000 HTTP proxies used by Syrian government telco and ISP STE. Preliminary analysis revealed such keywords as proxy and Israel were blocked. And of course, much porn. The data set provides a unique look at Internet censorship from the inside. Internauts who enjoy regexes and charts are invited to help make a pretty infographic. Telecomix's#opsyria has been fighting censorship and facilitating communications [note: French language link] in Syria for the past few weeks, providing TOR, VPNs and technical advice and support via IRC...

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

IRCPPS in the Links: Political Science Journals as Indirect Lobbying

In the Monkey Cage, Henry Farrell discusses the motivations US military branches have to fund academic journals:

[Replying to a Foreign Policy article by Thomas Ricks on the cancellation of the Strategic Studies Review]...The very strong implication here is that if you are running a military service, and you are not able to shape the conventional wisdom, your interests (for which, read: budget) will suffer. Therefore, you need to shape the conventional wisdom. One good way to do this is to have your own, well-respected academic journal. While this journal will not overtly campaign for your causes (it does not advocate a ‘particular line’), it will nonetheless shape debate in ways that are congenial to your long term interests. Otherwise, after all, there would be no point in paying for it. In the absence of such a journal, you are forced to rely on the generosity of other journals which may instead, to your horror, publish articles suggesting that your service’s contribution is somewhere between secondary and negligible.

IRCPPS in the Links: Field Work in Conflict Settings

Jason Lyall writes in the Monkey Cage about the ethics and logistics of field work in a conflict zone:

...As part of my due diligence, I traveled to Khan Abad district with my survey team to participate in training sessions and to conduct site inspections of the survey actually being carried out. That’s when the problem arose. While we had negotiated prior access to our villages with the local militia commander, word had leaked from a careless enumerator that “two foreigners” (my program manager, Prakhar Sharma, and myself) were present. Turns out a rival arbakicommander, one who controlled the main route to our chosen village, had also heard the news and was now setting up an ambush to catch us as we exited the village. Since I’m writing this blog post, you know that things ended well...

IRCPPS in the Links: A Crisis of Leadership or Institutions?

Steven L. Taylor asks if the United States' political problems are a matter of failed leadership or failed institutions:

...Congress has appeared unwilling to assert itself, something I have noted (and criticized) in the past. Such unwillingness to more seriously confront the executive branch is a failure of leadership, to be sure. However, I would argue that, on balance, this lack of actions is founded very heavily in a lack of adequate institutional incentives and ability to adequately engage the topics at hand...

Around Academia: Princeton Attacks Assigning Exclusive Copyrights To Scholarly Journals

Via The Conversation:

Prestigious US academic institution Princeton University will prevent researchers from giving the copyright of scholarly articles to journal publishers, except in certain cases where a waiver may be granted.

The new rule is part of an Open Access policy aimed at broadening the reach of their scholarly work and encouraging publishers to adjust standard contracts that commonly require exclusive copyright as a condition of publication...

Abstracting: The Role of Al-Azhar in Post-Revolutionary Egypt

A Carnegie Endowment for Peace Paper by Nathan J. Brown:

All political forces in Egypt seem to agree: The country’s premier religious institution, al-Azhar, must be made more independent from the regime. But that agreement is deeply misleading; it masks a struggle within al-Azhar and among leading political forces over its role in Egyptian society. Part mosque, part university, part center of religious research and knowledge, al-Azhar is perhaps the central—and certainly the most prestigious—element in the state–religion complex in Egypt.

IRCPPS in the Links: On the Lessons of 1848 for the Arab Spring

A Foreign Affairs piece by Jonathen Steinberg:

...The lesson from the "springtime of nations" is that it is easier to overthrow the old regime than build a new one. Today, the crowds on the Arab street have no Bismarck to guide them to even limited democracy. New arrivals squabble with the ministers and generals of the old regime, the Islamic religious parties with the secularists, the urban activists with conservatives from villages and tribes. The revolutionaries call for "democracy" and "freedom," but nobody knows exactly what those terms might mean for societies imperfectly modernized and without the European experiences of rights, constitutions, and equality. Happy endings seem implausible.

Abstracting: The Promethean Dilemma: Third-party State-building in Occupied Territories by Darden and Mylonas

In the upcoming issues of Ethnopolitics:

Contemporary occupying powers seeking to build states on foreign soil are faced with a fundamental dilemma: How can they transfer coercive and organizational capacity to the local population without such capabilities being used to undermine the occupiers’ efforts to establish stable governance of the territory? Current thinking holds that the best way to manage the transition is to do it quickly, either by recruiting indigenous army and police units as rapidly as possible or by co-opting pre-existing groups of fighters to make them serve the state. If the occupier can build roads, provide public services, and expand the army and the police, so the thinking currently goes, he will achieve the necessary ‘buy-in’ from the local population that will allow him to pack up his things and go home, leaving a stable new order in his stead. When it comes to putting guns in the hands of the indigenous population, sooner is better.

IRCPPS in the Links: LSE Produces Twitter Guide for Academics

via Dan Drezner:

How can Twitter, which limits users to 140 characters per tweet, have any relevance to universities and academia, where journal articles are between 3,000-8,000 words long? Can anything of academic value ever be said in just 140 characters?

A new Twitter guide published by the LSE Public Policy Group seeks to answer this question, and show academics and researchers how to get the most out of the micro-blogging site. The Guide is designed to lead the novice through the basics of Twitter but also provide tips on how it can aid the teaching and research of the more experienced academic tweeter.

Suggestions for tweeting academics include, adopting different styles – from 'substantive' to 'conversational' – to match the content and intended audience; crowd-sourcing research activities, such as getting followers to gather information or analyse data, and setting up different feeds to provide targeted guidance and feedback for each taught class.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Call for Papers: Pan-European Conference on EU Politics