Gee, it’s almost like political scientists are relevant or something

In the beginning, political science blogs were mostly founded by frustrated policy wonks idiosyncratic scholars.  And lo, Lee Sigelman God spoke, and said, "hey, blogs are cool," and then The Monkey Cage was created — and it was good.  And now a whole cornucopia of political science blogs are arriving on the scene, written by ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

In the beginning, political science blogs were mostly founded by frustrated policy wonks idiosyncratic scholars.  And lo, Lee Sigelman God spoke, and said, "hey, blogs are cool," and then The Monkey Cage was created -- and it was good.  And now a whole cornucopia of political science blogs are arriving on the scene, written by people who are about as central to the profession as one can get. 

In the beginning, political science blogs were mostly founded by frustrated policy wonks idiosyncratic scholars.  And lo, Lee Sigelman God spoke, and said, "hey, blogs are cool," and then The Monkey Cage was created — and it was good.  And now a whole cornucopia of political science blogs are arriving on the scene, written by people who are about as central to the profession as one can get. 

So, for those of you interested in political violence and civil wars, be sure to bookmark Political Violence @ a Glance.  It’s a new group blog created by some of the all-starts in the field — Barbara Walter, Christian Davenport, Page Fortna, Roland Paris, Matt Kocher, Steve Saideman, Andrew Kydd, and many, many more. 

This blog, combined with the debut of The Mischiefs of Faction, have really amped up the presence of political scientists in the blogosphere.  It’s just too bad that the mainstream foreign policy community continues to neglect the contribution of political sci— say, who’s that on the cover of the Foreign Affairs?  Is that Kenneth Waltz, Robert Keohane, and Graham Allison I see? 

At a time when the United States is facing serious domestic and international challenges, it sure is nice to see so many political scientists engaged in public discourse on important issues of the day.  I’m sure these contributions will be appreciated by the non-academic wings of the foreign policy community.  Oh, wait…

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

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