Quantitative and formal analysis of international relations, comparative politics, and American politics.
Michael Flynn Tom Ricks at Foreign Policy has a brief article discussing questions posed to General Petraeus by Republican senators recently. Just a few thoughts on this issue…
Michael Flynn is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Kansas State University. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Binghamton University in 2013. His research focuses on the political economy of foreign policy with a specific focus on security cooperation and military deployments.
For the better part of the past half-century the two most prominent theoretical approaches to the study of international relations have been realism and liberalism. Realism, viewing the state as a unitary and rational actor, argues that states pursue their own interests in an anarchic international environment. The ability to accomplish their goals, however, is curbed by the fact that other states are similarly engaged in the pursuit of their own interests. Ultimately realists view the potential struggles generated over conflicting interests to be determined by the distribution of power in the international system. Generally speaking, "stronger" states will prevail while weaker states do not (Morgenthau 1948, Waltz 1979).
Alternatively, liberal scholars tend to disagree with the realist assumptions that the state is a unitary and rational actor, instead proposing that we can improve our understanding of state behavior by examining the interests of domestic political actors, looking at the incentives and constraints established by the domestic political institutions within the state, focusing on legal and moral aspects of international behavior, etc. Whereas realist arguments view the state as having one national interest, liberal views may interpret the so-called "national interest" as simply the reflection of the dominant political coalition in the state, or as the end result of values and norms associated with domestic political institutions and structures (Trubowitz 1998, Russett and Oneal 2001).
While the debate has cooled somewhat in recent years, Ferrell and Robinson (2009) have offered a rather unique take on the issue.
Keep reading for more…
Michael Flynn is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Kansas State University. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Binghamton University in 2013. His research focuses on the political economy of foreign policy with a specific focus on security cooperation and military deployments.
Another piece on the China-North Korea relationship.
Just a quick thought on this and on the broader question. There are some pretty clear reasons for wanting to do something about the current regime in North Korea. But when people discuss what should happen, the common refrain seems to be treating China like a teenager that wants oh so badly to drive mom and dad's car, but just hasn't proven himself yet. I'm fairly certain this article explicitly mentions the notion that the US has tried to get China to feel like it has some "responsibility" for taking care of this issue, and I think this is part of the problem.
Michael Flynn is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Kansas State University. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Binghamton University in 2013. His research focuses on the political economy of foreign policy with a specific focus on security cooperation and military deployments.
The UN Security Council was set to vote this morning on new sanctions/strengthening existing sanctions targeting Iran. The US administration seems to be keen on building up just how tough these new sanctions are. I have to wonder how much of this is simply rhetorical and how much reflects an actual belief in the efficacy of sanctions within the Obama administration.
Michael Flynn is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Kansas State University. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Binghamton University in 2013. His research focuses on the political economy of foreign policy with a specific focus on security cooperation and military deployments.
I found this article while glancing at Thomas Ricks' blog at FP–It's about the issues that US troops have been facing in Afghanistan with the weapons they're assigned. I've commented on similar micro-level issues before and I think this AP article is pretty closely related, although it focuses more on the US side. I really think framing the issue in the way that the AP does undercuts our ability to
understand what the problem is.
Michael Flynn is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Kansas State University. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Binghamton University in 2013. His research focuses on the political economy of foreign policy with a specific focus on security cooperation and military deployments.
With all of the recent bluster about North Korea, I’ve started thinking more about how far the NK regime can push its luck before it finally starts to become a burden to China, rather than an asset. They seem to pop up every couple of years with some sort of wild antics, so I wonder … Read more
This is a topic that I’ll probably expand on later, but I was just reading an article discussing the role of Hamid Karzai’s brother in the present Afghan conflict. This article gets at an issue that I’ve thought about before. From the FP article cited above: But he could not exist without the support of coalition … Read more
I remember reading Michael Tomz's book Reputation and International Cooperation: Sovereign Debt Across Three Centuries for a seminar a couple of years ago, and someone having made a remark about how Tomz was probably just really interested in the time period or the subject matter, but had to frame the research in such a way as to justify its relevance beyond what might be the author's more narrow interests. Since then I've had a few discussions with some of my advisers on the topic of how we frame our research–essentially how we sell a line of research as relevant to our field. Overall though, I've found that this is a topic that seems to have stayed out of in-class discussions for the most part.
Michael Flynn is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Kansas State University. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Binghamton University in 2013. His research focuses on the political economy of foreign policy with a specific focus on security cooperation and military deployments.
Joshua Keating at Foreign Policy had a piece posted a couple of days ago that just caught my eye. It basically talks about the current status of terrorist training camps and what the itinerary for the typical attendee entails. It's pretty brief, but I think it covers some interesting subject matter. And let me preface … Read more
Over the past year or so I've been getting more and more into network analysis–Both for its theoretical and methodological components. For the most part, this methodological approach has not seen widespread use in political science, although network approaches are steadily growing. Emilie Hafner-Burton, Miles Kahler, and Alexander Montgomery have a relatively recent article about … Read more