Quantitative and formal analysis of international relations, comparative politics, and American politics.
Michael A. Allen A spoiler warning before I get to the heart of the discussion: This blog entry is being posted the Monday after the release of The Dark Knight Rises. The blog post deals with material presented in the film, plot elements, as well as some dialogue, so consider this a warning. While I am not going to … Read more
In Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey (not to be confused with their most Excellent Adventure), the duo are killed and sent to Hell. On their way to an eternity of punishment, Death gives them the ability to escape their fate if they can best him in a game of their choosing. The wager seems to … Read more
The United States Geologic Survey is having a deep sale on hundreds of maps. To better decorate my office, I am picking up a few. Two that might be of interest to the political science crowd: US Command distribution across the globe: The historical presidential elections map is also good: Michael A. AllenMichael … Read more
For the Midwest Political Science Association annual convention this year, I have only one paper. I will present a paper co-authored with Sam Bell and Chad Clay looking at the impact rivalry has on dispute escalation in asymmetric dyads. Friday (4/13) at 4:35 pm, on the panel 18-22 Rivalry and Conflict, we will present the paper … Read more
While I am not attending ISA physically this year, I have two different papers being presented by co-authors. As such, a bit of shameless self-promotion. The first paper is being presented by Matt DiGiuseppe on Tuesday (4/3) at 8:15 AM in Hospitality Suite 2201 on the Economics in International Processes panel. Our paper, "Austere Alliances: Sovereign … Read more
While browsing Reddit, I came across this well done photoshopped picture of what Hitler would look like as a contemporary male: I found it striking how much I, and I imagine others, have been socialized to see the left as the personification of evil while the right is normal. Naturally, people looking at him in … Read more
The movie version of the book The Hunger Games (Paperback, Kindle) is being released this week; the movie is expected to draw a large crowd and is already drawing superb ratings from critics. As such, given that there are both political and economic themes that run in the book that are ripe for political scientists and economists, … Read more
Ralph Sundberg at the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) sent me this video they put together displaying organized violence in Africa for a 21 year time period: The data can be found here: http://ucdp.uu.se/ged/ Michael A. AllenMichael A. Allen is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Boise State University. His research focuses on international conflict, … Read more
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita explains how to buy a car cheaply–something he mentioned on the Colbert Report this week: The Colbert interview can be found here. Michael A. AllenMichael A. Allen is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Boise State University. His research focuses on international conflict, military alliances, and quantitative methods … Read more
Peer Review of the Internet – “It will enable sentence-level critique of written words combined with a sophisticated yet easy-to-use model of community peer-review. It will work as an overlay on top of any stable content, including news, blogs, scientific articles, books, terms of service, ballot initiatives, legislation and regulations, software code and more-without requiring participation … Read more