Whiskey & International Relations Theory

Episode 1: Gates of the West

We're baaack! In the inaugural episode of the second season of Whiskey and International Relations Theory, PTJ and Dan discuss Samuel Huntington's (in)famous 1996 book,

Episode 33: Status? You Just Met Us!

[audio updated to fix a mixing error] The second installment of our live taping at the British International Studies Association annual convention in Glasgow is a "Whisk

Episode 32: Social Forces, States, and Clydeside Whisky

Robert Cox's landmark article, "Social Forces, States and World Orders: Beyond International Relations Theory," appeared in the journal Millennium in 1981. Among other th

Episode 31: Great Balls of Power

Back in 2019, Uri Friedman wrote that we "find ourselves—as you will have heard in the corridors of power and conference rooms of think tanks, and read in the government’

Episode 30: A Long, Strange Trek

It's our first "actual" installment of Whiskey & IR Theory in Space! We discuss Star Trek: The Next Generation's 'gay rights' episode, "The Outcast," which Dan uses to in

Episode 29: Introducing: Whiskey & IR Theory... in Space!

Patrick and Dan talk about the newest feature of the podcast: a series in which they combine their long-running seminars on (international) politics and science fiction.

Episode 28: Are We Living in a Simulation... of Sovereignty?

PTJ and Dan discuss Cynthia Weber's 1994 book, Simulating Sovereignty: Intervention, the State and Symbolic Exchange. Weber examines "the justifications for intervention

Episode 27: Everything is Relational

It's a nostalgia episode for our two hosts, Patrick and Dan. They tackle Mustafa Emirbayer's 1997 article in the American Journal of Sociology, "Manifesto for a Relation

Episode 26: Anarchy vs. The Anarchy

The University of Chicago's Paul Poast claims that G. Lowes Dickinson was the OG "modern" theorist of international relations—and also an "offensive realists." John Mears

Episode 25: The New Hierarchy Studies

Scholars of international relations don't agree on much, but they at least agree that anarchy (the lack of a common authority to make and enforce rules) is the defining f

Episode 24: International Relations in China

What is the topography of international-relations theory in the People's Republic of China? What is the "Chinese School of International Relations?" Astrid Nordin (King's

Episode 23: Being Academic and Pandemic Time

In this “Whiskey Optional” episode, PTJ facilitates a conversation among four colleagues from different countries and different kinds of academic institutions about the c

Episode 22: So a Deputy Foreign Minister and an Academic Realist Walk into a Bar

In 2014, John Mearsheimer authored a Foreign Affairs article in which he blamed that year's Ukraine crisis on the U.S., NATO, and the EU. The next year he gave a talk on

Episode 21: Constructivists All the Way Down

Is Constructivism best understood as a scholarly disposition, a body of theory, or an intellectual movement? Is it still relevant, or has it exceeded its shelf life? What

Episode 20: International Order

In this installment of "Whiskey Optional," Stacie Goddard (Wellesley), Evelyn Goh (Australian National University), and Kyle Lascurettes (Lewis and Clark) join the podcas

Episode 19: "W" Stands for "Canonical Realist"

PTJ and Dan pick up where they left off – on Chapter 5 of Arnold Wolfers' Discord and Collaboration. There's a lot going on, including a discussion of revisionism, the qu

Episode 18: Name Your Discord Server "and Collaboration"

Arnold Wolfers is one of the most important figures of "mainstream" mid-20th century international-relations theory, but is now mostly cited for his definition of "revisi

Episode 17: The Institutionalists Strike Back

Less than a year after the appearance of "The False Promise of International Institutions," the journal International Security published replies from Robert Keohane and L

Episode 16: Promises, Promises

Patrick and Dan continue their nostalgic tour of 1990s international-relations theory and spend some time with John J. Mearsheimer's 1994 article "The False Promise of In

Episode 15: Understanding Remains an Open Question

Patrick and Dan discuss J. Ann Tickner's 1997 article, "You Just Don't Understand: Troubled Engagements Between Feminists and IR Theorists." Topics include liberalism and