carsonaust.bsky.social
Prof, dad, travel, outdoors, Pistons
At UChicago since 2015
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www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/series/corne...
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We’ll talk about the history of the series, its future, and how book publishing with the series works
With Alexander Downes, @profsaunders.bsky.social, @pstaniland.bsky.social, @proftalmadge.bsky.social, and me. Moderated by Acquisitions Editor @jackieteeo.bsky.social of @cornellupress.bsky.social
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Appreciate the shout out and so glad to hear the article generated good discussion!
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More about CIR, a top-15 MA program and one of the oldest MA programs in International Relations in the world.
cir.uchicago.edu
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A huge perk: working in a fantastic intellectual community for International Relations and all other fields at University of Chicago.
Also: living in the incredible city of Chicago. It has everything.
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As the faculty director of CIR, I will work closely with the SIP. So I have a personal stake in getting great applicants. *Please* repost, share with friends, send suggestions, etc.
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This position was long held by Matthias Staisch, who was an excellent leader at CIR for many years. Big shoes to fill!
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The SIP will also be responsible for teaching up to four courses annually and will supervise a small number of MA theses.
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The Senior Instructional Professor (SIP) and Assistant/Associate Director will work closely with each cohort of MA students. Their duties include managing various curricular and co-curricular programs, supervising teaching faculty, coordinating course offerings, and supporting student well-being.
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The agedness of leaders—both real and perceived—is likely to be a key issue in the upcoming U.S. election *and* a persistent issue in international diplomatic encounters. We hope future work will build on ours to further illuminate this important topic [END].
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There is a growing IR literature on the role of leader age. This almost always focuses on the raw numerical age of leaders. We think there is much promise in analyzing the perceptual and performative dimensions of leader age in the context of high-level diplomacy and statecraft.
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However, 20+ hours of face-to-face meetings with the elderly Mao convinced Kissinger that those early assessments were mistaken. More optimistic views of Mao’s abilities helped justify engaging him further, as well as bolder steps on U.S.-China cooperation.
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We show, for instance, how Kissinger and Nixon were initially unsure about how deep and durable U.S.-China cooperation could be even after the “opening to China,” partly due to reports that Mao was experiencing senile decline. Early meetings did not easily dislodge such views.
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Those who see a foreign leader as losing agency will often be inclined to “bypass” or marginalize them as a point of contact in high-stakes diplomacy, constraining the extent of cooperation.
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Our focus is diplomacy, not elections. We argue that physical and behavioral cues that older leaders give in face-to-face settings affect whether their counterparts perceive them as senile and losing their “agency”—i.e., their ability to produce and execute reasoned decisions specific to their role.
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Trump, on the other hand, is often seen as performing younger than his age in front of political audiences. This is regardless of how the two men might *actually* compare in terms of health and competence.
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Over to IR/diplomacy!
In "More than a Number," we build on gerontological findings on age-related stereotypes. Thus Biden’s behavior is often seen along the lines of the “default descriptive stereotype of older people”—namely that they are “warm but incompetent.”
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Biden has been prone to “verbal slips and malapropisms” his entire political career. However, old-age stereotypes and his advancing age have turned what were once forgettable slip-ups into tell-tale signs of senility for many.
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Even forgiving-sounding stereotypes cut both ways. The article notes that the special counsel’s report characterized Biden as a “well-meaning elderly man” with memory problems. This may elicit sympathy in some settings …but can be deeply problematic for individuals in high-stakes positions.
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This kind of news coverage focuses on *signs* of elderliness, even senility. Biden's verbal and physical features are seen as embodying stereotypical indicators of physical, possibly mental decline. These are seen as tell-tale signs of old age taking its toll.
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A theme of the Biden/Trump discourse is that numerical age only tells us so much. Voters tend to judge Biden more harshly partly because his public *performances* exhibit stereotypical signs of old-age decline.
www.nytimes.com/2024/02/10/u...
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Another report:
www.axios.com/2023/10/14/i...
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One report:
www.wsj.com/livecoverage...
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To be clear, I am interpreting the meaning of Iran's threat based on a) the public language in reporting thus far, and b) what I think is a much more plausible, credible, and (for Iran) strategic threat than a threat to directly intervene
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More likely than a direct intervention: Iran is threatening to green light a full-scale offensive by Hezbollah in the north. A two-front war is credible and very costly to Israel. And keeps Iran fighting through its proxies
(Note: Iran may be issuing more precise threats privately)
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There is nothing in reporting so far that specifies direct Iranian intervention. Iran's response could take a number of forms
Language in WSJ report is "no one can guarantee that the situation in the region will remain the same"
What does this mean?
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I don’t think we should assume freezing $ means they believe Iran was directly involved. It could well be a milder form of punishment (vs military action) that reflects intelligence that Iran has long supported Hamas but wasn’t directly involved
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Polisky
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Pretty clear this is an effort to reset the narrative about Iran’s role after the WSJ story from earlier in the week
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www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...