If an airstrike happens in Gaza and no one live tweeted it, did it happen? That I’m even pondering this question demonstrates a shift in the evolution of information control in military operations. Perhaps the issue we’re facing is that in times past we needed a barrier between the publicly available information about combat operations … Continue reading A thought on Gaza and Twitter
Politics
Book review! “Crafting Peace” by Caroline Hartzell and Matthew Hoddie
Caroline Hartzell and Matthew Hoddie make an argument that the most robust form of negotiated peace involves a well-designed power or institution sharing agreement between the parties involved in a civil war. They make this argument in “Crafting Peace” using a statistical analysis of conflict cessation that includes variables covering duration, external intervention and measures … Continue reading Book review! “Crafting Peace” by Caroline Hartzell and Matthew Hoddie
Book Review! Scott Strauss’s “The Order of Genocide”
As time passes and we are able to collect more data on the Rwandan genocide, it is becoming increasingly important that we recognize not only the externalities that created socio-political pressure in Rwanda leading up to the genocide, but also systematically study why the perpetrators of violence made the decision to participate. Generally we see … Continue reading Book Review! Scott Strauss’s “The Order of Genocide”
How ICCM Got Me Thinking About Experimental Design
We have all probably had a time when we thought to ourselves,"I have to tweet hard since most people won't see/remember one particular tweet." I would generally agree, but there was one tweet that stuck in my mind from the International Conference on Crisis Mapping this past weekend at the World Bank. It got some … Continue reading How ICCM Got Me Thinking About Experimental Design
Amnesty Australia talk
Big shout out to the TechChange team, especially to Gerard McCarthy our Director of Asia/Pacific Programs to getting this video rendered, edited, and up for viewing. Just some thoughts on tech, human rights and small island states - the talk was given in July in Sydney, Australia.
The political economy of cynicism: What else could you do with $100,000 in Pakistan?
I'm generally not big on entering into the fray when it comes to the politics of the Muslim world, since I'm not an expert on the topic. But I am an expert on political economy and coalition behavior is contested spaces. The news of Pakistan's Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour's $100,000 reward to anyone who murders Nakoula … Continue reading The political economy of cynicism: What else could you do with $100,000 in Pakistan?
Friday Wrap-up
What's happened in political economy, conflict and tech this week? Every Friday I'm going to take on the personal challenge of writing a wrap-up with a bit of analysis, along with the usual longer posts and book reviews. So without further ado... Mining strikes continue in South Africa after the Lonmin miners' strike in August. … Continue reading Friday Wrap-up
Philippe Le Billon: Wars of Plunder (Columbia University Press: 2012)
Philippe Le Billon’s Wars of Plunder takes previous research on the mathematical relationship between natural resources and conflict and combines this with qualitative understandings of power and space to create a nuanced explanation of how different natural resources relate to conflict. Focusing initially on work done by economists such as Paul Collier and Macartan Humphreys, … Continue reading Philippe Le Billon: Wars of Plunder (Columbia University Press: 2012)
Benghazi part 2
So I was going to do two parts, but upon reflection I decided against it. The second aspect I was thinking about writing on was fairly partisan, and while politics is part of this site's purview I decided in the end it's best to leave the partisanship to the domestic politics folks. I'll have a … Continue reading Benghazi part 2
The Benghazi Incident: In two parts (Part 1)
So there are just things I have to say about this tragedy. This stems from two comments I made on Facebook this morning and I will write two separate posts because they're effectively different topics on the same event. This part is in reference to my dual background as a political scientist and a seminarian. … Continue reading The Benghazi Incident: In two parts (Part 1)
Charles P. Martin-Shields 