Off to the Big Easy

I’m off to New Orleans to catch the last couple of days of the International Studies Association’s annual meeting, so blogging will be light for the rest of the week.

I’ll be speaking on two panels and looking forward to both. The first panel was organized by my FP colleague Dan Drezner, on the topic of — surprise! — foreign policy blogs and their impact on policy. Other participants include Charli Carpenter (who’s written a very interesting paper with Dan on the subject), Robert Farley, and my Harvard colleague Joe Nye, who will act as discussant and tell us where we got it wrong. It would be nice if our panel concluded that blogs are a revolutionary force in world politics that singlehandedly ushering in a new era of peace and prosperity. But somehow I doubt that.  

My second panel will be a tribute to famed IR theorist Kenneth Waltz, who is receiving a (richly deserved) lifetime achievement award from the International Security Studies sub-section of ISA. The panel consists of former colleagues and students of Ken’s and we will be there to sing his praises and discuss his many contributions. Should be lots of fun, as well as an opportunity for a group of tough-minded realists to show off our sentimental side.