Althouse: International Studies.

May 11, 2018

International Studies.

36 comments:

rhhardin said...: Game theory isn't that interesting. No language involvement.; 5/11/18, 9:22 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: The Use and Abuse of Game Theory in International Relations; 5/11/18, 9:23 AM
rhhardin said...: Handy rock-paper-scissors strategies

http://worldrps.com/game-basics/gambits/; 5/11/18, 9:24 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I wish I had studied X when it was Y...; 5/11/18, 9:35 AM
Sebastian said...: 50 years from now, after "diversity" has corrupted everything:

"I wish I had taken science when it was, like, science."; 5/11/18, 9:38 AM
robother said...: From Ignorance is Bliss' cited Game Theory article:

The game known as “chicken” is commonly used to analyze crisis bargaining. The story behind the game is that two socially maladjusted youths of my parents’ generation are barreling toward each other in jalopies in a misguided attempt to demonstrate their courage....

Be careful what you wish for, International Studies Dude.; 5/11/18, 10:00 AM
pacwest said...: Thanks for the link Bliss. To me nothing shows the difference between Obama's foreign and domestic policy and Trump's. So much of Obama policy was theory, academician type. Trump's is common sense. Granted, flying by the seat of your pants using common sense as your sole guide can lead to some uncomfortable situations. But theory as practiced by past Presidents has a pretty bad track record of late.

A common sense revolution led by a madman.; 5/11/18, 10:04 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: I wish college were still college. Heck, I wish school were still school.; 5/11/18, 10:04 AM
Nonapod said...: I took a game theory course in college. It was one of the most interesting courses I can recall since it seemed to elucidate a lot of things about human relations to me.

I have no idea what sort of things are taught in a contemporary International Relations course, but if it's anything like whatever John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and Barrack Obama practiced it'd seem pretty worthless.; 5/11/18, 10:10 AM
Carter Wood said...: The great '80s pop band, Game Theory, always had interesting things to say about relations.; 5/11/18, 10:15 AM
Jupiter said...: Sebastian said...
"50 years from now, after "diversity" has corrupted everything:"

Try 50 minutes. The universities are piles of shit. Dig a hole. Shove 'em in. Bury 'em.; 5/11/18, 10:21 AM
MadisonMan said...: So much of Obama policy was theory, academician type. Trump's is common sense. Granted, flying by the seat of your pants using common sense as your sole guide can lead to some uncomfortable situations.

This is my problem with many politicians these days, who are not leaders like Trump is. Too much of their decision-making is driven by studies from hand-picked consultants. (I think this is especially true in Madison). I vote for people who will make decisions, not use study results to guide their decisions, and to hide behind when the decisions turn out to be bad ones. ("But the study suggested...")

Consultants are the bane of Madison taxpayers.; 5/11/18, 10:28 AM
Daniel Jackson said...: So does Jimmy Carter (and most of the US State Department).

Trump, however, knows.; 5/11/18, 10:41 AM
Big Mike said...: You mean International Studies, as taught today, doesn't involve studying The Theory of Games and Economic Behavior and the Nash Equilibrium? WTF do they teach, then? Nothing that works in the real world, I imagine.

Note for pacwest, I suspect that after years of face to face negotiations Donald Trump has an intuitive grasp of the Nash Equilibrium, even if he has no notion of who John Nash was.; 5/11/18, 10:52 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/11/18, 10:54 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: I don't like "International Studies" being an academic field below the graduate level.

Undergraduate students who want to prepare for an international career should study history, geography, sociology, economics, political science, languages and literature.

Now we have "International Studies" as a class even in some high schools. Sad.; 5/11/18, 10:56 AM
Mr Wibble said...: So much of Obama policy was theory, academician type. Trump's is common sense. Granted, flying by the seat of your pants using common sense as your sole guide can lead to some uncomfortable situations. But theory as practiced by past Presidents has a pretty bad track record of late.

My model for a while has been that the Dems have two wings, the Pragmatics (democrat because it benefits them: union workers, lower-class, etc.) and the academics. Bill Clinton was a Pragmatic. Obama and Hillary were academics. The academics are true believers in the far left stuff, and worse develop a sense of superiority based off credentials, and a habit of trying to fit the world into a nice, neat theory.; 5/11/18, 10:56 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: Don't you need a FISA warrant to listen in on all those conversations of other people in cafes?; 5/11/18, 10:58 AM
Jupiter said...: As the universities have shifted from providing a useful education to providing a useful credential, their market has broadened. There are far more people able and willing to obtain the latter commodity than there ever were for the former. But in order to consume all the money that politicians are willing to throw at them, they have needed to make their offerings more "accessible". Meaning, "no math!". Since they are no longer teaching anything of value, they have a lot more time for indoctrination.; 5/11/18, 11:12 AM
Gahrie said...: I was an International Relations major back in the 1980's. (IR/PoliSci double major); 5/11/18, 11:12 AM
MadisonMan said...: Don't you need a FISA warrant to listen in on all those conversations of other people in cafes?

I hope not! Best part of coffee shops, sometimes, is the conversation at the table next to yours.; 5/11/18, 11:17 AM
robother said...: Game theory and practice are the difference between criticism and art. Best criticism tries to understand how art works its magic. Some of the best practitioners of game theory are animal species, viruses and genes, who presumably have no intellectual understanding of Game Theory.; 5/11/18, 11:27 AM
robother said...: "Don't you need a FISA warrant to listen in on all those conversations of other people in cafes?"

You telling me that Ann is part of the Deep State? I am well and truly fucked.; 5/11/18, 11:29 AM
Anonymous said...: @ Mr. Wibble An excellent analysis!; 5/11/18, 11:38 AM
pacwest said...: "I suspect that after years of face to face negotiations Donald Trump has an intuitive grasp of the Nash Equilibrium"

Sounds like common sense to me.

I like MadisonMan's point about leaders. The contrast between Obama and Trump couldn't be more stark.; 5/11/18, 12:25 PM
James K said...: Almost any college major ending in "Studies" is soft PC pablum.; 5/11/18, 12:25 PM
madAsHell said...: I've seen pictures of Israel attacking Damascus, but I'm not seeing many news reports.; 5/11/18, 12:51 PM
J. Farmer said...: I think for those interested in international relations, diplomatic history is a far more useful topic of study.; 5/11/18, 1:09 PM
Caldwell P. Titcomb IV said...: Ann Althouse said...
I wish I had studied X when it was Y...

I majored in Y, but should've majored in Why Not?

"A robot developed by Japanese scientists is so fast it can win the rock-paper-scissors game against a human every single time. The Janken robot recognises [BBC] hand shapes and reacts with a winning move in just a thousandth of a second. That's so fast that the human eye can't tell the robot is technically cheating."; 5/11/18, 1:35 PM
traditionalguy said...: Balance of power made war more costly and less likely. But the game never changes. If both countries want peace, there is no war. But if one wants war, there is war. And War makes money lenders rich. So they buy politicians.

Trump cannot be bought. So there will be peace.; 5/11/18, 1:43 PM
virgil xenophon said...: Thoughts on "Game of Chicken": Many contend that one way to assure "winning" is for for one driver, in order to convince his opponent that he can't be bluffed, should rip the steering wheel off the column and toss it out the window to pointedly demonstrate to his opponent that he can't now possibly change course. But what if his opponent doesn't see all of this "signalling" because his vision is so intently focused on the centerline in order not to stray off course? Oh oh..; 5/11/18, 3:13 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: Now with the current president international relations are just about anger management.; 5/11/18, 4:54 PM
Be said...: International Studies being an equivalent to Environmental Studies (a lite version for people not up to the rigors of actual Multidisciplinary Study), wonder if the journalist even knows what Game Theory is outside of the "Beautiful Mind" portrayal of John F. Nash, Jr.; 5/11/18, 6:32 PM
Be said...: Journalist? Journaller? Random person who wrote in a hipster cafe notebook?; 5/11/18, 6:33 PM
WA-mom said...: This photo reminded me of something. Whatever happened to that Open Secrets website in the early 2000s?; 5/11/18, 8:53 PM
Douglas B. Levene said...: "Almost any college major ending in 'Studies' is soft PC pablum." The original "studies" programs were designed to allow students to study a variety of topics - history, literature, arts, music, religion, etc. - tied to a particular geographic area, such as East Asian Studies, Russian Studies, South Asian Studies. The core of these programs was the study of a difficult foreign language: Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Sanskrit, etc. That's what gave them academic rigor and weeded out the thumb suckers. That's apparently not the case for the modern "studies" programs such as Woman's Studies, Gender Studies, African-American Studies, Asian-American Studies, Critical Race Studies, etc. etc., none of which have any academic rigor but all of which do a fine job of indoctrinating students in the latest flavor of social justice.; 5/12/18, 3:59 AM