We’re heading into a bit of a slump for regular blog posts. Matt’s defending his PhD dissertation this coming Friday, and has, strangely, decided to prioritize that over blogging. Go figure. Anyway, he’ll be laying low until that beast has been slain. Meanwhile, I’m getting ready for a couple of months of field work starting next week, during which time my internet access will be intermittent and bandwidth challenged, at best. The weekly Spatial Forces Index will be one casualty of our schedules, at least for the next couple of weeks. I’ve tried to be religious about getting it out every Monday for the last three months, but for now, it’s got to fall by the wayside while we take care of other committments.
Taco Lab
From some grad students at the Fluid Interface Lab at MIT Media Lab
Burak Arikan
New Research on Suicide Terroism
Dropping in briefly to draw attention to interesting content in the latest issue of International Security. First, an article entitled “Motives For Martyrdom: Al-Qaida, Salafi Jihad, and the Spread of Suicide Attacks,” by Assaf Moghadam. Second, some correspondence, in response to the Johnson and Mason article, “No Sign until the Burst of Fire: Understanding the Pakistan-Afghanistan Frontier,” in the Spring 2008 issue.
Go read.
Surviving Urban Sieges
I’ve been commissioned to write a review essay for Transitions Online, built around Peter Andreas’ Blue Helmets and Black Markets: The Business of Survival in the Siege of Sarajevo (Cornell University Press, 2008). Just received my review copy from Cornell University Press. I’ve been looking forward to reading the book for a while, ever since the author’s research article on “The Clandestine Political Economy of War and Peace in Bosnia” appeared in the winter 2004 issue of International Studies Quarterly.
MICHAEL A. INNES 