Blogbooks

IR and All That: Classic Readings on International Relations

This is a collection of fragments, a work in progress, meant to aid friends and students–really, whoever cares to stop by–in discovering the world of International Relations.  To the question I so often get from students, past and present–“what should I read?”–I herewith try to supply an answer. It is a sort of preliminary syllabus for the study of international relations emphasizing history, philosophy, and law, with an occasional nod at contemporary affairs.

What They Think: A Survey of the Views of Foreign Leaders

It is one of the peculiarities of modern reporting on international relations that the speeches of foreign leaders (presidents, prime ministers, foreign secretaries) seldom garner much attention in the news media. This website, which I started in conjunction with a class on international relations, gathers a wide variety of perspectives from around the world, mostly from 2014.

Energy Predicament: Notes Toward a Better Understanding of Six Intersecting Pieces of the Energy Puzzle: Climate Change, Peak Resources, Nuclear Proliferation, Food Security, Speculative Finance, and Geopolitics

This website contains some 500 entries exploring the main pieces of the energy puzzle, compiled in the period from 2008 to 2015.

The American Experiment: Documents on the Foundations of American Constitutionalism and Diplomacy

This collection of documents is a sort of greatest hits of the era of the American Revolution, according to yours truly. It is not intended to be comprehensive; the selections are sometimes idiosyncratic. My main purpose is to offer an accessible guide to key themes in American constitutional and diplomatic thought.

Cause for Depression: A Pictorial Guide to the 2008 Financial Crisis

A picture guide to the earthquake in the world of high finance that occurred in 2008. Through charts, graphs, and tables, I sought to understand the dimensions of the current financial crisis–its origins and causes, its likely consequences, its potential remedies. Posted in fall and winter of 2008-09.