59 thoughts on “Nob-les Oblige: An Introduction”

        1. Not technically (spent all my life in Canada), but OU has always been my team. It helped that my hometown (Ottawa) has a minor football team called the Sooners.

          As an aside, I’ve always held out hope for a J.C. Watts presidential run. Not only was he an OU star, but also the starting quarterback for Ottawa’s professional team, the Rough Riders. I figure that makes him pretty much infallible.Report

    1. I lived in Columbus for a few years as a kid. My connection to the Buckeyes is entirely of upbringing, my mother did some graduate study there and every autumn was basically an OSU fest.Report

  6. Welcome, Nob. You’ve been tearing up the comments like nobody’s business, and I am really looking forward to your stuff.

    I had not been informed you had been made a frontpager, or I wouldn’t have stepped on your toes for the Friday Jukebox with the Etta James tribute. Apologies. Of course, more Jukeboxing would surely be welcome…Report

  7. I love the following sports teams: …The Ohio State Buckeyes and the Texas Longhorns.

    All that Chicago crap and the liberalism I could accept, and I know I encouraged you to be more controversial, but this is going too far.  It’s clearly an effort to be deliberately offensive.

    As to postings on international (foreign? do they really still use that non-PC word in Austin?) affairs, there’s literally a wide world of interesting things to post about.  I’d encourage you to pick up on current events, particularly those that might not be making front page news, and give us your best explanation.Report

    2. Technically we use the buzzword “Global Policy Studies” for what I do. In fact my specialization is explicitly Global Governance and International Law, which seems to me, basically a catch all term for a generalist like me that likes to muck around with international institutions.

      For the immediate future, I think I’m basically going to pick a topic a week and write a memo length blog post about it. If there’s sufficient interest I’ll follow up. This stuff’ll often be random, ranging from nuclear proliferation, detention/drone strikes, to uranium recovery from sea water, Asian pop culture wars and Basel banking regulations.

      I am something of a “finger in every pie” person. So I’m always game to listen to where folks want to go.Report

  8. I would like to know what international issues Gentlemen here at the League find interesting.

    Jump in and write about what you find most interesting.  We need more foreign affairs stuff, just getting started will likely spur the conversation more.  Welcome!Report

      1. Thanks, Jason.

        Those are definitely things I’d like to touch on.

        One thing I’d like to do is also use my blog posts as a way show what sort of work policy students/wonks are up to these days. I will likely have guest authors with op-eds posts and have them come in for discussion from time to time, particularly people who are good in fields like development and aid.Report

          1. Hopefully not. My colleagues are generally quite extraordinary, but being the drab generalist, I’m a bit more ordinary. I’m only extraordinary in the breadth of my knowledge rather than the depth.Report

    2. Seriously.  This is one subject area about which I have become increasingly fascinated over the years.  I surely have my ideological views in general on the subject, but one thing I’ve learned the last few years is that those views rarely provide much guidance, or really much of interest at all, to say when it comes down to 95% of the nuts and bolts of international relations.  Questions of war and, to a lesser extent, sanctions dominate probably close to 100% of public discussion on international relations, but in reality they make up an almost trivial percentage of actual international relations.

      So I guess that’s my request – I would love to read, learn, and debate about facets of international relations that do not require debating “War! What is it good for?” or “Sanctions?”Report

      1. Well, if you check above, I’ve started out with something that’s connected to security, but also has to do with some of the more nuts and bolts aspects of actually determining who owns what in the international system.

        I think I’m going to focus on examining the UN Convention Law of the Sea over the next month or so. It’s an area I’ve spent a fair amount of time looking through, and gives us a nice discussion area to talk about the history of maritime governance and the roots of what I would consider the first true “transnational” or “global” system of governance, rather than simply a nation to nation transaction mechanism.Report

    3. If I may make some requests: (1) safari tourism was what I originally wanted to study after college; (2) piracy’s impact on world trade was a close second (not the nerdy kind of piracy – swashbucklers! Arrrgh!); (3) how the U.S. treats Brazil like complete shit and no one knows or cares about it (especially as it relates to some of the power politics around the last Olympics selection.)Report

  12. Welcome, Nob! I very much look forward to seeing more foreign affairs posts around here, I tend to get lost in all the philosophy stuff around here and some International stuff would be a nice change. I’m so excited I am very willing to give you a pass on your terrible taste in sports teams.Report

    2. Am I right in guessing you’re a Cheesehead, Plinko? If so, my dearest condolences to your recent gutrenching tragedy.

      In addition to international stuff, I’m also hoping to snag a couple science blegs now and then.

      I think in general ecclecticism is my greatest strength, and I tend to have friends who can help me fill in my blanks. Look for many random guests showing up.Report

      1. Yes, but I’m over it, don’t worry, just giving you a mild heckling as your choice of teams is almost the perfect storm to the stereotypical Wisconsinite – who holds deep resentment toward sports teams from Chicago, Texas and The Ohio State University (in that order).

        For professional reasons I’m very interested in the TPP, so any memos you might choose to write on that subject would be most interesting. What we hear is mostly  vague junk, even though it’s actually very important to the way industry trends will shake out.Report

      2. Plinko’s not the only Cheesehead here still wondering who those guys were that played the Giants this just-past Sunday. They looked a lot like the Green Bay Packers but obviously were not the same people. Uncanny.Report

      1. That actually looks like the area around the LBJ building, which you can see here:

         

        http://kutnews.org/post/top-morning-stories-june-13-2011

        http://www.google.com/imgres?q=lbj+building&um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1366&bih=536&tbm=isch&tbnid=T3FIzvKQwkc2aM:&imgrefurl=http://kutnews.org/post/top-morning-stories-june-13-2011&docid=ns6QbEKK6rKnmM&imgurl=http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/kut/files/201106/LBJ_6_building.jpg&w=3072&h=2304&ei=3jIbT7DGLoTy2gW265zoCw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=829&vpy=108&dur=705&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=163&ty=105&sig=105287673977416817240&page=1&tbnh=161&tbnw=228&start=0&ndsp=10&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0Report

          1. I don’t mind Ando’s stuff…

            Check this place out

            http://www.google.com/imgres?q=donner+cmu&um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1680&bih=918&tbm=isch&tbnid=rLWYwU6N0dSqLM:&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/haikiba/sets/1072264/detail/&docid=k8OSKCcicuVVLM&imgurl=http://farm1.staticflickr.com/29/54414176_859b5fa35a_m.jpg&w=240&h=180&ei=-IodT-2iB4qEsALB6onjCw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=1253&vpy=471&dur=150&hovh=144&hovw=192&tx=75&ty=76&sig=100714962211238511698&page=1&tbnh=140&tbnw=187&start=0&ndsp=43&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:0

            It actually looks worse in person.Report

  15. A dungeon masteras sci- fi fantasy geek, and an avid smoker of cigars! I bet you are beating the ladies off with a stick. 😉Report

  19. Hook’em Horns!

    It’s good to meet another Longhorn.  But, I don’t think I could get along with a Buckeye fan.

    At least there will be some talk about foreign policy… even if I’ll be reading more than contributing.Report

  20. “I would like to know what international issues Gentlemen here at the League find interesting.”

    After this past week, my big international issues question is where can I go that has a sunny beach that underdeveloped enough to have no cell phone or wifi reception, but developed enough to have quality mai tais?Report

  21. Welcome!  I’m currently doing a masters’ in international affairs with a focus on development and conflict.  I’d be very interested on your ideas on international development (my own are decided anti-Washington Consensus) and potential changes to global multilateral institutions to give a greater role to developing countries.  (The G8 in particular is looking increasingly outdated, with China becoming the world’s largest economy,  Brazil’s economy surpassing Italy’s, and India’s passing Canada’s.  The UN Security Council is at least as bad, the World Bank and IMF even worse.)Report

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