Recent News and Activities -- Prof. Joshua S. Goldstein
Updated Dec. 19, 2011
InternationalRelations.com:
I've been blogging at InternationalRelations.com, discussing what's most important in the crowded picture of daily news.
New Book:
My new book, Winning the War on War: The Decline of Armed
Conflict Worldwide (Dutton/Penguin), is about the decreasing number and size
of wars worldwide and the unsung successes of peacekeeping and other efforts for peace. Despite the gory headlines, the
decade since 9/11 has been the most peaceful worldwide in the last century.
I've spent the fall speaking and writing about "Winning the War on War," and have had articles in
The New York Times, the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, and Foreign Affairs. I've done a bunch of radio interviews
including NPR's "Talk of the Nation" and, upcoming, the BBC's "The World." On Christmas Day I have an Op Ed coming about
Peace on Earth." There's a 3-minute video up on YouTube ("Peace Is Increasing"). Check out the book website, winningthewaronwar.com.
On Jan. 30 a panel at the JFK School at Harvard will include myself, Steven Pinker, and two other participants. In April two linked roundtables will be held at the International Studies Association
in San Diego, on the decline of violence. Organized by Nils Petter Gleditsch, they will focus on my new
book and Steve Pinker's new The Better Angels of Our Nature (Viking, Oct. 2011), which discusses the long-term
decrease in violence and cruelty over human history. In addition to my and Pinker's arguments, counterarguments and
discussion will come from John Mearsheimer, Richard Falk, Azar Gat, Peter Wallensteen, Page Fortna, Andrew Mack,
Jack Levy, and Bradley Thayer. This will be fun!
Earlier background: I published an
Op Ed on the
subject some years ago. I've gone to meet and discuss the issue with researchers at the main peace research centers
working on the question -- PRIO in Oslo, Norway in 2010, the Human Security Report Project in Vancouver in 2009,
the Conflict Data Project in Uppsala, Sweden
in 2007, and the University of Maryland researchers earlier in 2007.
I chaired a panel at the ISA conference in New York in February 2009 on
"The Decline of War? Empirical and Causal Arguments." This was a chance to get the major researchers
on this topic together in one place. Participants included Bruce Russett, Andrew Mack, Nils Petter Gleditsch,
Joseph Hewitt, Peter Wallensteen, Neta Crawford, John Mueller, and Karin Fierke.
With Neta Crawford, I co-chaired an all-day
conference May 5 at CCNY in memory of my friend
Randy Forsberg on the subject of "the end of
war." The program is here.
Book Award:
War and Gender (2001) recently won the International Studies Association's "Book of the Decade" Award along
with two other books.
Recent Books:
International Relations (Pearson Longman), 10th Edition and
Brief 6th Edition
are in print for 2011-12 classes. They include an insert section
on "Global Challenges in 2030" containing eight original essays each written by a well-known IR professor:
Joe Nye, Beth Simmons, Shibley Telhami, John Ruggie, Charli Carpenter, Andy Moravcsik, Dan Drezner, and Michael Doyle.
Principles of International Relations (Pearson Longman, July 2008). ISBN 0-205-65266-2.
New podcasts are available from Jon Pevehouse and me, one per chapter, on the textbook websites.
Other News:
I'm going to get involved with the new Global Studies program that Craig
Murphy is running at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
My article "On Asterisk Inflation" about standards of statistical significance in political science,
is in PS, January 2010. I sent copies to the main political science journal editors.
In Fall 2008 I was a visiting professor emeritus at Yale and taught a graduate course on Theories of International Relations for Masters students.
I was on a roundtable about Hayward R. Alker (my dissertation advisor)
at the International Studies Association conference
in San Francisco, March 2008. I chaired a panel at a conference in memory of Hayward at the Watson
Institute at Brown University, June 6-7, 2008.
University of Maryland -- I am Nonresident Sadat Senior Fellow, at the
Center for International Development and Conflict Management. I have been helping
Shibley Telhami, holder of the
Sadat Chair for Peace and Development, with analysis and presentation of fascinating data from
public opinion polls taken in six Arab countries over recent years. This appointment has also
let me visit the university and dabble in some other projects there from time to time.
In April 2008 I participated in a day-long conference on deterrence at the
University of Maryland, organized by Shibley Telhami and Thomas Schelling.
I have a chapter on Chicken games in international negotiations in
a new
volume on cooperation edited by William Zartman and the late Saadia Touval (Cambridge U. Press).
War and Gender:
I presented a paper on women combatants through history at the WREI
conference at the women's memorial at Arlington Cemetery on Oct. 27.
In December 2010 I gave a lecture on concepts of masculinity and femininity in
military systems, via videoconference to a conference in Malta. From the engineering lab at U. Mass
I could almost feel myself on the beach in Malta (not!).
Also in December 2010 I gave a radio interview to the PBS "Wide Angle" series for
a podcast they are producing in the run-up to a new series on women in the military.
In April 2010 I gave a talk about the history and recent experiences of women
soldiers, at the Kennedy School at Harvard.
In January 2010 I traveled to Oslo, Norway to give a keynote address at a
conference on gender sponsored by the Norwegian Armed Forces, "Gender in military operations:
Why it matters and how it should be done." I also gave a talk on gender and war at PRIO.
I wrote a short article on "Female Combatants" for the forthcoming
Encyclopedia of War edited by Gordon Martel (Wiley Blackwell).
December 2007 -- I was the keynote speaker at the final conference
of the Genderforce project
in Sweden, an amazing collaboration of the Swedish armed forces,
police, rescue services, and a foundation. I learned that for military
officers, the reasons for understanding gender are "operational effectiveness" and "force protection."
In 2010 I used this language to communicate with the male officers in Norway -- it works!
I organized a visit by the gender advisor to Sweden's armed forces (founder of Genderforce),
Charlotte Isaksson, at Harvard July 18, 2008. Cynthia Enloe, Carol Cohn, Katharine Moon, and others
contributed to a lively exchange of ideas.
Details here.
April 2007 -- I was keynote speaker at a European Union conference in Budapest
on gender in
the EU's security and defense policy. The EU does a lot of peacekeeping but we also had
interesting discussions of lessons the United States is learning about gender during its stay in Iraq.
In the August 2007 issue of International Studies Perspectives, I participated
in a forum on "Mainstreaming gender into the IR curriculum," organized by Charli Carpenter.
During its first three years I served on the editorial board of the new APSA journal, Politics
and Gender.
Stress Reduction:
But enough about me. Relax and take a few deep breaths while looking at a
view from my office window.
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