Cheap Talk

By Jeff Kaplow and Marcus HolmesNews Government News Commentary History

Cheap Talk episodes

October 04, 2021 The Experiment That We're Running in This Crazy World of Ours
Pure theorizing versus applied research; positivist and non-positivist approaches in international relations; international relations is what the field says it is; the relevance of the international relations paradigms; a defense of methodological pluralism; and Marcus reads a quote from Kenneth Waltz several times
Further reading:
David A. Lake. 2011. “Why ‘isms’ Are Evil: Theory, Epistemology, and Academic Sects as Impediments to Understanding and Progress.” International Studies Quarterly 55(2): 465–480.
John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt. 2013. “Leaving Theory Behind: Why Simplistic Hypothesis Testing is Bad for International Relations.” European Journal of International Relations 19(3): 427–457.
59 min
September 25, 2021 The Real Victims Are the Gala-Goers
Judging the US-Russia summit; the risks of failed summit diplomacy; AUKUS; countering China versus nonproliferation policy; nuclear submarines; the role of precedent and norms in international relations; and Marcus makes a note in his Google calendar
55 min
September 15, 2021 Maybe Quibbles To Be Had There
Cheap Talk makes its triumphant return for season 2: The US withdrawal from Afghanistan; reputations for resolve in international relations; foreign policy as a partisan issue; the legacy of 9/11; and Marcus didn’t know what to do, so he went to class
35 min
November 10, 2020 Plucked From Obscurity
1 hr 2 min
November 01, 2020 Facebook Is a Criminal Enterprise
48 min
October 26, 2020 Freedom From the Burden of Explanation
42 min
October 19, 2020 That's Just Good Business
20 min
October 11, 2020 There Were Bales of Hay and It Was a Nice Day Out
Taking diplomacy seriously; the Cold War ends with a fizzle; summit diplomacy; Jimmy Carter saves the day; and Marcus recommends an excellent article in International Studies Quarterly.
Further reading:
Marcus Holmes and Keren Yarhi-Milo. 2017. “The Psychological Logic of Peace Summits: How Empathy Shapes Outcomes of Diplomatic Negotiations.” International Studies Quarterly 61(1): 107–122.
Jeffrey M. Kaplow. 2016. “The negotiation calculus: Why parties to civil conflict refuse to talk.” International Studies Quarterly 60(1): 38–46.
Marcus Holmes. 2018. Face-to-Face Diplomacy: Social Neuroscience and International Relations. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
41 min
October 05, 2020 We Learned Not a Whole Lot
Continuity of government; interpreting foreign policy signals in a crisis; decision-making in the loss domain; benefiting from chaos; and Marcus worries about the lingering effects of COVID
26 min
September 27, 2020 Our Expectations Are Too High
Whether international security institutions matter; power politics; using institutions to avoid taking action; constraining versus screening; and Marcus feels bad for institutions sometimes
23 min