Pedro de Abreu G. dos Santos, Ph.D.
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Podcast, Random Stuff About Teaching, and Random Stuff About Stuff

International Relations Playlists (Plural!)

9/21/2021

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Below are the links to the playlists I developed for some specific course sections

What's IR/US Stuff


Race and International Relations

 


HIstory: 1648 to 1918


History: 1918 to 2000 (that's a long time, this is kind of a random list!)


History after 9/11


Pandemic Songs!


Realism and Liberalism

Constructivism


Feminism: Country Style!


 

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COVID Article Roundup: April 1-5

4/5/2020

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Here are some of the most interesting/intriguing sources I have found these past days, in no particular order, except for the first one that is about mental health.
  • The One You Feed is another podcast I enjoy that deals with mental health and mindfulness. This episode I am sharing is a compilation of experts sharing their strategies to cope with emotional issues. All podcast episodes help me think about priorities and how I personally deal with adversity, but this specific episode is a good one to start thinking about how to deal with the stress of our current situation. 
  • This Al Jazeera's The Listening Post episode is very interesting, talking about the geopolitical for the COVID narrative. Al Jazeera is always interesting to me since it many times rejects the narratives established in the West and in the East, providing a critical view of how we collective "see the world."
  • This Nature article highlights four Global South countries and their approach to prepare for the pandemic. This quote highlights the overall strategy for the countries highlighted in the article: "Without the luxury of well-funded hospital systems, Nigeria and other low- and middle-income countries began ramping up measures to keep COVID-19 from spreading as soon as they confirmed their first cases of the disease — in some cases, even before. That includes shutting down most activities with the threat of arrest, quickly rolling out tests to detect genetic sequences from the virus and a willingness to deploy rapid, easy-to-use tests — even if they are not as accurate as the conventional variety, which requires more laboratory capacity."
  • I got the Nature article above from the Nature Podcast (link to the episode here). They now have a Coronapod version dealing solely with the pandemic. So far this has been a pretty good resource to hear from experts some interesting insights. 
  • Speaking of podcasts, Science Vs is one of my favorite podcasts out there, and the episodes on the pandemic have been very interesting too. The last episode (Is Coronavirus Airborne?) discusses aspects of the virus that I was not really thinking about.
  • File this one under creepy but interesting: this Endgadget article is talking about Google's Comunity Mobility Reports. "The reports show location data from folks who have agreed to share their location history with Google in order to show places that are following instructions to shelter in place -- or not." This is a short article and at the end they have a short paragraph discussing other policy strategies that include using cell location data: "Location tracking has been used by nations like Korea and Taiwan to track movements of quarantined and healthy citizens. However, such actions are of limited use alone. Those countries have also been testing a high percentage of their populations and implementing stricter social distancing rules as well."
  • This is an interesting Atlantic article (I have seen other similar articles) talking about the environmental consequences of the worldwide shutdown. Here is my favorite quote: "A quick search for the phrase birds are louder on Twitter reveals that many other people have been wondering the same thing I have lately: Are the birds chirping more fiercely these days, or am I losing my mind? With spring migration in full swing in the Northern Hemisphere, there are certainly more birds around. But the reduction in noise pollution—and, in some places, its total absence—might make it easier to notice the usual trilling and squawking."
  • This Guardian article revisits Italy since the beginning of lockdowns. The title of the article says it all: Singing stops in Italy as fear and social unrest mount. This quote shows the issues that are arising since the lockdown: "Tensions are building across the poorest southern regions of Campania, Calabria, Sicily and Puglia as people run out of food and money. There have been reports of small shop owners being pressured to give food for free, while police are patrolling supermarkets in some areas to stop thefts. The self-employed or those working on contracts that do not guarantee social benefits have lost salaries, and many small businesses may never reopen."
  • Two last podcast recommendations are related to the economy. Planet Money and their sibling podcast The Indicator have been focusing a lot on the economy (US focus but some global discussions too) and the unemployment situation in the US. A lot of insightful stuff.
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COVID Article Roundup: March 29-31

3/31/2020

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Notes from March 29

One thing that is becoming very clear is that supply chains matter. There is a lot of information out there about what it takes to bring supplies in, what states (and corporations) are doing to address shortages and the long term impacts of disruptions in trade. There are two articles that popped up on my feed that I think are worth sharing. First, Axios' Inside the start of the great virus airlift discusses what the US government is doing to bring the medical supplies needed. There is an interesting discussion about the nationalization of the supply chain:

"(Rear Admiral John) Polowczyk (working with FEMA) said many members of Congress "want me to nationalize this supply chain by using the Defense Production Act. They want me to do all the buying, all the distributing, and all the allocation." But he's been resisting that. "This medical supply chain, there's like six, seven big distributors who have like 600–700 nodes that push out product," he said. "I'm not going to re-create that. I'm looking to break down barriers ... to help them feed product where it needs to go." He said the federal government will buy some medical supplies but will try to feed them into existing supply chains. Polowczyk said he doesn't want to use the Defense Production Act, but he leaves the door open to using those powers to move supplies around the country if his current plan doesn't work."
​

The Texas Monthly article Inside the Story of How H-E-B Planned for the Pandemic focuses on the importance of preparedness inside the private sector, especially the grocery store sector. This was so far one of the most fascinating articles for me since it showed how private (non-state) actors may have been better prepared for the pandemic than local, state, and federal officials.

Moving to international law, the forum Just Security had an interesting discussion about "punishing" countries for pandemics. The article, COVID-19 and International Law: Must China Compensate Countries for the Damage? lays out the reasons why it is unlikely that China will be required to compensate other countries, arguing that "Claims that China has committed internationally wrongful acts and has an obligation to compensate foreign governments form part of a feature of this pandemic that is not really about international law." Moreover, the author states that "The most important consequences of the geopolitical aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic will appear after countries bring the outbreak under control in their territories." I appreciated this article for bringing some key international treaties to explaining what can and cannot happen based on precedent. 

There were other interesting articles, here are a few links:
  • BBC article about Tunisian workers (mostly women) self-isolating inside a factory to continue the production of medical supplies.
  • A Guardian article discussing the gendered dynamics of labor and family during the pandemic. Spoiler alert: women are being punished for being women in a man's world.
  • A NY Times article about the economic responses to COVID-19 in Denmark.
  • This Project Syndicate commentary about what developing countries should do to flatten the curve.

Notes for March 30

I am going to start this roundup with the first academic article I have seen on COVID 19. Adolph et al. (2020) wrote Pandemic Politics: Timing State-Level Social Distancing Responses to COVID-19 where they analyze state policies in reaction to the virus and the factors influencing such policies. In their analysis, "all else equal, Republican governors and governors from states with more Trump supporters were slower to adopt social distancing policies. These delays are likely to produce significant, on-going harm to public health" (p. 2). This is a provocative quote in the same article: 

"We strongly believe that realistic assessments of decision-making by elected officials must take electoral motivations and career ambitions seriously – as impolitic as that may be. Elected officials, regardless of party, must be responsive to the concerns of their voters and party leaders. However, this essential feature of democratic representation does not inevitably produce the best policy outcome" (p. 13).

This Independent article is one of the many I saw discussing the role of the February 19 Champion's League game between Atalanta and Valencia (a Spanish team). The game was played in Milan (30 miles away from Atalanta's home Bergamo), and the movement of people and created what many are now referring to as a "biological bomb." According to the article, "At the time, few in Italy were greatly concerned about Covid-19. Two days after the match was played, though, the country saw its first confirmed death from the illness, and within two weeks Bergamo was reporting a sharp increase in its rate of coronavirus cases." I also wonder how many Valencia fans were in the Stadium and eventually made their way back to Spain. 

I am also sharing here the link to a Tweet from Dr. Rama Dieng that highlights a number of written pieces about COVID 19 from a feminist (and mostly Global South) perspective. 

Finally, two more interesting artifacts that are COVID-adjacent. First, this Planet Money episode about unemployment in the US in March explains why the system is not enough to address the economic depression that has started and will follow COVID 19. Next, this 10 Percent Happier Podcast episode about how to engage "corona-deniers" delves deeper into some of the ethics surrounding this whole situation. This was a very interesting piece, and I also recommend the 10 Percent Happier website (or other mindfulness apps and sites) to help in these stressful times. 
​

Notes from March 31

​
I want to start this roundup with a great podcast episode from Brene Brown on grieving and finding meaning. Whether you realize it already or not, the world as we knew it is no more. This podcast was very provocative and provided some great insights on how to think about this pandemic and its consequences.

Now a quick tour around the world of COVID around the world.
  • In Sweden, some are arguing that their culture may help since they already kinda social isolate anyways. On the policy side, "Sweden’s more formal efforts to tackle the coronavirus are controversial. Unlike in neighbouring European countries (including Denmark, which currently has a similar number of fatalities), public authorities are avoiding stricter measures and following a strategy of trying to slow down the spread of the virus in a calm and controlled way, while focusing on the protection of vulnerable groups."
  • This Foreign Policy commentary focuses on China and their attempt to divert blame from them when it comes to the COVID pandemic. They conclude the article by stating that  "the CCP does not actually hope to convince the world that the virus may have started in the United States—or Italy, for that matter. But it absolutely does feel the need to blunt and undercut Washington’s efforts to point out China’s early role in letting the coronavirus get out of hand, a devastating reality for Beijing’s efforts to portray itself internationally as a responsible global power and potentially damaging domestically too if this international consensus is allowed to seep back into mainland China." This is where public health is not the focus, but state power and state posturing become part of the analysis of COVID 19 and its aftermath.
  • This Eurodad (European Network on Debt and Development, not a European father...) piece focuses on Latin America and the issues with addressing the pandemic in the region. Here is a quote with a bunch of terms from our classes: "In Latin America, most national health systems were transformed under the influence of the Washington Consensus, driven by the Bretton Woods Institutions. This reform process emphasised the liberalisation of the health sector and the contraction of the public health system. Structural adjustments have left health systems vulnerable to shocks and have compromised countries’ ability to provide basic healthcare to all citizens."
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COVID 19 Articles Week of March 23

3/26/2020

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Here I am compiling news articles about COVID 19 that connect in some way to things I discuss in my IR and comparative classes, or they are just articles that I thought were interesting. I am sharing these articles via email with students but thought I would also compile them here. There is little rhyme or reason for the articles, just things I stumble upon and think is worth sharing with my students. Below are the email messages copied and pasted to this blog.

The first one I shared with my POLS 121 course already but thought I would share here since some of you are not in POLS 121. In this article Cynthia Enloe discussing why using the term "war on Covid" and war analogies are problematic.

Here is a really good BBC article discussing a brief history of pandemics. Here is the most interesting quote for me: "If these numbers shock, it’s because today epidemics are rarely discussed in history classes, while in the not so distant past, they were simply a terrible fact of life. There are few memorials to the victims of disease." I would add that, in general (or at least in my experience), global health is discussed very briefly in introduction to IR course. I am sure there are exceptions, but most textbooks have small sections or a small chapter tacked in the end of the book. I remember teaching about it during the H1N1 fears, but eventually I moved away from discussing pandemics at length in class, even when the Ebola scare happened. In the early 2010s I even showed the movie Contagion in class (the first half hour is pretty much what is happening now, then it gets Hollywood). Maybe this is more for me, since I feel I dropped the ball talking about this in my classes, and I am sure now it will be a big point of discussion for the years to come.  

This Politico article talked about the Trump administration ignoring a "pandemic playbook." When I am reading this, I am less worried about the criticism of Trump's response and more on general ideas of bureaucracies and standard operating procedures.
​
This Atlantic article from March 25th has been shared widely among my social media circles. Here are some good quotes:

"To contain such a pathogen, nations must develop a test and use it to identify infected people, isolate them, and trace those they’ve had contact with. That is what South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong did to tremendous effect."  

"
Italy and Spain offer grim warnings about the future. Hospitals are out of room, supplies, and staff. Unable to treat or save everyone, doctors have been forced into the unthinkable: rationing care to patients who are most likely to survive, while letting others die. The U.S. has fewer hospital beds per capita than Italy."

"These shortages are happening because medical supplies are made-to-order and depend on byzantine international supply chains that are currently straining and snapping. Hubei province in China, the epicenter of the pandemic, was also a manufacturing center of medical masks."

"Inequalities will widen: People with low incomes will be hardest-hit by social-distancing measures, and most likely to have the chronic health conditions that increase their risk of severe infections."

"After 9/11, the world focused on counterterrorism. After COVID-19, attention may shift to public health. Expect to see a spike in funding for virology and vaccinology, a surge in students applying to public-health programs, and more domestic production of medical supplies. Expect pandemics to top the agenda at the United Nations General Assembly." Expect my POLS 121 to talk about global health 😷

Here are two Monkey Cage articles about China that I think are interesting. Monkey Cage was created by political scientists and was then purchased by the Washington Post. If you are having trouble opening the articles (paywall) let me know and I can send you a PDF.

China’s coronavirus response could build public support for its government, written by Dan Chen, a friend of mine who is also a KU Ph.D. 

China is also relying on propaganda to tackle the covid-19 crisis, written by Haifeng Huang of the University of California, Merced. 

An article from Reason provides some interesting insights on the possible economic impacts of th.e pandemic. Here is the link to the article. The article focuses solely on the impact on the US economy, discussing research on the economic impact of the 1918 pandemic. Here is the concluding paragraph that I think is important to emphasize:

​"Given our highly mobile and connected society, any future influenza pandemic is likely to be more severe in its reach, and perhaps in its virulence, than the 1918 influenza despite improvements in health care over the past 90 years….Unfortunately, a 2005 report suggests that the United States is not prepared for an influenza pandemic. Although federal, state and local governments in the United States have started to focus on preparedness in recent years, it is fair to say that progress has been slow, especially at local levels of government."

This last article is from the BBC and discusses the fears that the epicenter of the disease in Italy will move from the north to poorer regions in the south. At the end of the article there is this small tidbit about Germany: "Germany's relatively low death rate was largely due to the high number of tests being carried out, said Christian Drosten, head of the Charite University Hospital's Institute of Virology in Berlin." Next week I will try to find some articles that discuss Germany more closely, and I encourage you all to take a look at what happened in South Korea as well to understand more about what is "working" right now.

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International Relations Playlist

12/13/2019

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I remember some time in the mid-2000s Michael Tierney came to one of my graduate classes at KU. While the focus of the conversation was, if I remember correctly, something about the principal agent model, the conversation eventually moved towards this IR Playlist he had been compiling. I think his visit was very early in this process, since according to Tierney's playlist page the original playlist came from Kate Weaver who was our IOs professor at KU at the time. This was early in my graduate school career (year one or two) but this idea sounded so cool to me that I kept going back to Tierney's website and using those songs when it fit my course schedule.

Fast forward many years, now I teach Intro to IR on a regular basis and Spotify exists. These last two years I have been trying to create a Spotify Playlist for all of my classes, sometimes I am more successful than other times. In last year's Global Gender Issues class I asked each student to share with me their "anthem" and I got introduced to A LOT of Lizzo, which was great for me! We started class with a song from the list and I asked whose song that was and why they chose it. It was not always related to the class, but it was a fun way to get introduced to "what the kids are listening these days" and get to know my students a bit. 

This year I decided to do something more intentional in my Intro to IR, trying to make as many meaningful connections to the material as I could. I relied heavily on Tierney's playlist, but gave my own spin in some areas too. One of my colleagues asked me to share the playlist and the thought process for how the songs connect, so below I share the playlist and some of the rationale. Just like Tierney, I urge you to send me suggestions of other songs to add to the playlist, and other songs to connect to course material related to IR. I will add to this post as I use new songs and will include links to YouTube videos as I go (this is definitely procrastination from grading, so this will be a work in progress-probably forever). 


​
 So here are some of the connections (some of these connections are better than others):
  • First day, I start with Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changing" mainly because the title fits what's going on these days and because I want to know if students know Bob Dylan. There is, of course, more that can be said given Dylan's own story and his songwriting.
  • For globalization, I always play Despacito. It still is YouTube's most viewed video of all time, and is popular way beyond Spanish speaking countries. If I have time, I also show any other Pit Bull video from the early 2000s, mainly to show students how that dude does not age, and it is kinda creepy at this point. I also get a kick that the fourth most viewed video on YouTube is a random episode of ,Masha and the Bear, which I am sure you only know what it is if you have small children and are as lax as we are in our family with screen time. 
  • I spend one class playing some songs about patriotism and freedom, and we discuss what they think the song is about before listening and then listen closely to the lyrics.There is always at least one dude that never realized "Born in the USA" is a protest song. Then we play David Hasselfoff's "Looking for Freedom" as we discuss the fall of the Berlin Wall. Then we play back to back Toby Keith's classic "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue" (the youtube video is great! no sarcasm, I really mean it) and Team America World Police's "America, Fuck Yeah" (which at this point most students have never seen). Finally, I play Lupe Fiasco and Skylar Grey's "Words I Never Said" which is a very political song that pulls no punches against the US foreign policy establishment. I think about adding Immortal Technique's "Bin Laden" to the list.
  • I play two songs from Tierney's playlist a lot before my realism classes, Busta Rhymes's "Anarchy" and Tears for Fears "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." 
  • For Constructivism, I play Meek Mill's "What's Free." I suggest skipping Rick Ross sexist and homophobic verses (so start the song at around 1:45), but play the rest. This is, of course, a US-centric song, but it sparks good conversations about intersubjective understandings. 
  • Normally, there is a discussion about RMA and drones and whatnot, so I like playing Flight of the Concord's "Robots" and Daft Punk's Robot rock. But more importantly, you must show this old SNL skit about robots. 
  • I also play Jamala's 1944. This song can fit in different lectures, I think I play this when talking about nationalism and the EU. It is also fun to introduce Eurovision to the students.
  • Hickas' "Ye Mosht Sarbaz" (A Bunch of Soldiers) introduces students to Iranian hip-hop, which I connect to globalization but also to discussions of Middle Eastern politics. 
  • Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, and Delivered" is Ban Ki-Moon's favorite happy song! I play this on UN days.
  • BREXIT bloc! Mick Jagger's "England Lost" (I liked it), Paul McCartney's "Despite Repeated Warnings" (meh), Fascinating Aida's "So Sorry Scotland" (hilarious), and Breunion Boys "Britain Come Back" (just plain ridiculous). Take your pick, or play them all!
  • I always have Rebecca Black's Friday. No relation to IR, just a really catchy song!
  • Megadeath "Peace Sells" is a great companion to a discussion of the military industrial complex.
  • John Kongos' "He's Gonna Step on You Again" can be played in different contexts. I think I played when talking about ethnic violence.
  • 99 Luftbaloons, classic Cold War!
  • "Where is the Love" by the Black Eyed Peas is surprisingly political, slightly more than Boom Boom Pow. I played this during our discussion of terrorism, especially in the context of 9/11 and post 9/11 dynamics.
  • System of a Down's "Holy Mountains" fits the discussion of genocide. It was especially fitting this year when we ended up talking a lot about Congress passing a bill recognizing the Armenian Genocide. I spend some time talking about the band and their activism. 
  • I bring Gangham Style again for globalization, since it once was the most watched video on YouTube.
  • RATM's "Sleep Now in the Fire" is great when talking about global finance, but it especially interesting because at 1:04 there is a guy holding a Trump for President 2000 sign. 
  • Money, please! I play three songs about money, but there are many others: Pink Floyd's "Money" > Cardi B.'s "Money" (but this song is still good tho!). Wu-Tang's "C.R.E.A.M." always a good one too.
  • Poverty: Besides having one of the most underrated artists of the 2000s in this song, Kanye West's "The Good Life" has one of the best lines about poverty I have heard. "Whether you broke or rich you gotta get this/Havin' money's not everything, not havin' it is."
  • I also play Queen's Live Aid performances when talking about hunger and famine. But then we talk a about how these fundraiser are not enough.
  • I could not think of any songs about the environment, so I asked students and they suggested Lil Dicky's "Earth." 

I will update this list as I continue to "refine" my selections. I did not bring any feminist songs this year, but I have previously played various Pussy  Riot songs, I would appreciate any other suggestions.

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