Quick Path to Success as an International Relations scholar

One of the shorcuts to international relations fame is to come up with some key new term that vaguely describes a clear international relations term. Even better, if you can somehow coin an alfa-numerial phrase to describe international relations like: G-77, G8, G20, G2, G0, P5+1, V4...your career as a international relations or political scientist will be fly... like a G6!

Cue music below!!!



All real terms in international relations by the way!

Revolutionary Icon?

From Eugène Delacroix’s 1830 painting "Liberty Leading The People" to Tiananmen Square’s “Tank Man” revolutions and revolts in popular conscience are often distilled to a singular iconic image.

With that in mind the Boston Globe recently published a gallery of  stirring photos of the recent popular revolt against Ben Ali in Tunisia.

The runaway favorite was this image, depicting a Tunisian man clutching a baguette and a limp cigarette in his mouth. The image became rapidly popular across the blogosphere.
Even the normally somber blog of the Middle East Institute used the image.

Weather or not this image spreads remains to be seem far to often deserving photos such as the great image of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro golfing in military uniforms (here) are thrown on the scrap heap of history.

The Female Guerrilla: Between propoganda and exploitation

A recent New York Times article profiled female PKK fighters in Northern Iraq, The images of Kurds and Kalishnikov's overflows with needless romanticism. More than anything it reminded of similar staged photos of the Eritrean female guerillas of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front.
Compare New York Times article to these

                                                               Note markings on check

Note innnovative use for Kuffieyeh scarf

Note hijabi...looks highly staged like someone just thrust the weapons into her hands

                                                Note squeaky clean AK-47...including bayonet

                                                Combination of some of the above themes