The Watsonblogs project, hosted by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, provides an online space for Watson faculty and affiliates to post thoughts and analysis of international affairs. By hosting a group of bloggers under the Watsonblogs umbrella, it is our hope that we can create a critical mass of vibrant, cutting edge and thoughtful insights on contemporary global problems. If you have any suggestions about this initiative, please contact us at Watsonblogs@brown.edu.

Word games Foreign policy is typically made behind closed doors. Treaties and trade agreements may become public information once they are signed, but the planning, strategizing, and negotiating that creates them is hidden from public debate. Sometimes, however, the process that creates...
by Daniel Widome at August 31, 2010 03:58 PM -08:00 GMT

Housing benefit, statistics, policy-based evidence and an unclear situation There has recently been a lot of discussion about changes to the UK's Local Housing Allowance (LHA): a benefit which pays or contributes to the rent of low-income households. The plan is to, among other changes, reduce the maximum monthly...
by jon_mendel at August 15, 2010 02:01 PM +00:00 GMT

New Website Up We recently redesigned the Participatory Budgeting Project website. In particular, we streamlined the Resources section. Rather than trying to provide exhaustive (and exhausting) lists of everything PB, we're now highlighting a limited number of PB experiences, publications, and organizations that...
by jlerner at August 9, 2010 03:47 PM -05:00 GMT

San Francisco Community Congress On August 14th and 15th, the San Francisco Community Congress will be discussing a range of policy initiatives and directions for the city, and participatory budgeting is on the short list:...
by jlerner at August 6, 2010 12:16 PM -05:00 GMT

Heffernan on science blogging, culture and deconstruction in NYT In a recent NYT piece, Virginia Heffernan argues that "it’s time to don the old Derridean cloak and re-enter the unwinnable science-culture battle?" I have a number of concerns about Heffernan's piece. I fail to see where it is Derridean...
by jon_mendel at August 2, 2010 07:32 PM +00:00 GMT

Clean start Anyone concerned with the dangers posed by nuclear weapons (which, arguably, should be pretty much everyone) has had a busy and promising year so far. In the past six months, the United States and Russia have negotiated a new arms...
by Daniel Widome at July 26, 2010 12:42 PM -08:00 GMT

Blogging about a blog post about science blogging Hauke Riesch and I have been researching science blogging - looking at some of the networks, boundaries and limitations in play here. We recently presented on the topic at the excellent Science and the Public Conference at Imperial. This led...
by jon_mendel at July 15, 2010 07:23 PM +00:00 GMT

Allied voices The United States has always depended on regional allies around the world to support its foreign policy agenda. But this is especially true today. Experiences with near-unilateralism in Iraq and elsewhere have shown that the United States cannot simply impose...
by Daniel Widome at June 25, 2010 06:54 PM -08:00 GMT

Street Etiquette: Boston vs. Amman Living as a young, single, girl in the Middle East I’ve learned never to make eye contact with anyone on the street, especially since most people on the street are men. This might sound rude to some from the US,...
by Phoebe Sloane at June 15, 2010 08:03 AM -05:00 GMT

Putting it Together: Pre-Kenya Evan and I are in the final stages of pre-trip organization. In two weeks, we'll be on the ground in Kenya, carrying out our pre-production workshops for community radio stations who have answered our call for participants. Right now, we're...
by CBerman at June 14, 2010 10:49 AM -05:00 GMT

Times blog piece on science and research communication Alexander Holmes and I have a post up on the Times science blog: discussing science/research communication and the importance of effective public engagement with research. We argue that the UK government's Science: So What? science communication initiative has illustrated many...
by jon_mendel at June 3, 2010 05:58 PM +00:00 GMT

Global upstarts Recent months have been busy ones in the world of nuclear diplomacy. Many of the most important events already have been covered in this space. But this month, signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) gathered in New York to...
by Daniel Widome at June 1, 2010 02:08 AM -08:00 GMT

Participatory Budgeting at the US Social Forum The Participatory Budgeting Project is excited to announce a special workshop at the US Social Forum in Detroit, featuring organizers of the first participatory budgeting process in the US (Chicago's 49th Ward) and the largest process in North America (Toronto...
by jlerner at May 28, 2010 03:38 PM -05:00 GMT

Video: Democracy in Action Check out the new video on participatory budgeting in Chicago's 49th Ward: If you like the video, register on the website and vote for it in the contest!...
by jlerner at May 6, 2010 01:06 PM -05:00 GMT

The Conservative Party, research and non-conventional families Research is playing a prominent role in the upcoming UK election - will all the major parties using or abusing it in order to justify their policy proposals. One interesting case study of what can go wrong can be found...
by jon_mendel at May 2, 2010 11:43 PM +00:00 GMT