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Tag Archives: Middle East
The Aesthetic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
On episode 18 of the Loopcast, Sina and his guest discuss fashion and national security. Around 23:00 comes the money quote: “There’s a lot of black hair dye involved being a dictator.” Here’s the logic: [I]n a democracy, your hair … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged culture, democracy, dictatorship, entertainment, fun, history, how-to, humor, international relations, Middle East, politics, rhetoric
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Kurds and Statelessness
Last week one of my academic heroes, James C. Scott, came to Duke to give two talks. The first was a lunchtime discussion of his recent book, Two Cheers for Anarchism. The second was a lecture elaborating on The Art … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged behavior, culture, foreign policy, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Kurdistan, Kurds, leadership removal, Middle East, political science, politics, research, security, Syria, Turkey, violence, war
1 Comment
The Randomness of Borders
Rivers and oceans help to form natural boundaries, but if it’s a straight line you can bet that it’s essentially random–and it might even be in the wrong place: Four Corners Monument, which marks the intersection of Arizona, Colorado, New … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged data, economics, education, elections, ethical statistics, foreign policy, fun, history, how-to, international relations, micro-institutions, micro-institutions everywhere, Middle East, nerd, political science, politics, research, technology, violence, war
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Hackers vs. Diplomats
Katherine Maher’s Foreign Policy piece got a lot of (deserved) attention last week. If the topic interests you, go read the whole thing. I’ll highlight the parts that are most relevant to our recent conversations on internet politics. On the … Continue reading
More Baby Name Regulation
We just talked about this less than two weeks ago: countries that have lists of banned baby names, or lists of permissible names. Azerbaijan will soon join the second category, with one important difference. The Azeri government’s justification for the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged behavior, culture, education, foreign policy, international relations, micro-institutions, Middle East, politics, war
1 Comment
Politics of Beards: Post-Mubarak Egypt Edition
In Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood members generally tend to go with the full but well-groomed beard and moustache. However Salafists – the ultraconservative fundamentalist Muslims – like to let their beards grow long and wild, often leaving their upper lip clean-shaven as a nod to how … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged behavior, culture, Egypt, fun, humor, international relations, micro-institutions everywhere, Middle East, politics, Syria
1 Comment
How to Be a Dictator in the Age of the Internet
Having taken a look at electronic voting in Friday’s post, today we look at the other side of the coin: how can dictators use the internet to stay in power? Laurier Rochon has a few answers in a free e-book, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged autocracy, behavior, dictatorship, elections, how-to, humor, internet politics, Middle East, online politics, politics, power, rhetoric, technology
1 Comment
Afghanistan Casualties Over Time and Space
The data comes from the Defense Casualty Analysis System for Operation Enduring Freedom. Here it is over time: Notice the seasonality of deaths in Afghanistan, likely due to the harsh winters. Here is the same data plotted across space (service … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Afghanistan, casualties, data, foreign policy, graphics, Iraq, Middle East, political science, politics, public opinion, R, statistics, violence, war
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Modeling Third-Party Intervention in Civil Wars
Inspired by the 2011 coalition action in Libya, Shahryar Minhas and I recently developed a new agent-based model of third-party intervention in civil wars. If you are attending the ISSS/ISAC conference in Chapel Hill, you will get a chance to … Continue reading
A New Blog on Political Violence
This has already been shared by brighter lights than mine, but readers of this blog might be interested in Political Violence @ a Glance. Not surprisingly, many (all?) of their recent posts have to do with the Middle East/North Africa … Continue reading
