Welcome, why a blog, and what I study

Hi! Welcome to the inaugural post of what I hope will be an archive documenting my dissertation research from start to finish.

First, a little about me for any wanderers that come across all this: Currently a fourth-year doctoral student studying International Relations at Johns Hopkins University, I'm originally from West Virginia, studied politics, history, and classics as an undergrad at Washington & Lee University, and have a master of philosophy degree in Modern European History from the University of Cambridge. 

Why a blog? Several reasons:

• To keep me writing -- Writing is hard. I'm one of those students that tends to produce prose in furious spurts, working late into the night for day after day...and then finds himself incapable of creating anything for weeks on end. The theory behind this is simply: the more I write, the more comfortable I'll be writing and the less writer's block I'll suffer.
• To have a conversation with myself -- Don't get me wrong, readers are welcome if not expected here. But this blog is definitely conceived of as a sort of diary where I can talk to myself about my project in a conversational tone, recapping progress and brainstorming new directions.
• To document and share -- I enjoy researching my field, and a record of what I'm looking at and what interests me should be enjoyable to look back on as I move forward, and to share with anyone interested in my topic.
• To plug in -- Academia seems to be increasingly 'hyperlinked' or 'entrepreneurial.' Successful scholars seem to try to connect their work dynamically through blogs, social networks, and online fora. This blog should help me practice explaining my work to others, while encouraging me to stay connected to the work of other professionals in the field.
• To relieve stress -- In case you haven't noticed, the four reasons above all have their root cause in anxiety about the path I'm starting down. If writing is hard, writing a dissertation is doubly so. Laying everything out in front of me, connecting it with images and online content, should help relax me by giving me a different way to view my research, normalize and institutionalize how I think about and approach the work, and allow me to have some fun with it all.

So, all that said, what am I studying? This is a really, really hard question to cogently answer. I call it 'The Cocktail Party Conundrum', my term for the awkwardness that ensues when an aspiring grad student like myself tries to explain what he studies to...well, virtually any other human being. Do I give lots of detail, or a little? Do I use the jargon that is so important to framing my research question, or do I try to use more widely applicable concepts? Do I try to use metaphors? How do I make what I do sound interesting? How do I make it sound relevant, and worth being paid to do? Oh, look, my shaking hand has just spilled my drink...

Let me try to put it simply: I study the origin and evolution of concepts of right and responsibility among the great powers in international politics.

...well, that's not so simple after all. More awkward than simple. Try this: I study how great powers deal with concepts of right and responsibility. Ok, a bit more clear--but 'deal with' is an uncomfortable phrase, probably reflecting my own indecision at this point over what I'm going to argue and the difficulty of applying any one term across 500 years of history...

So let's try another formulation: I study how concepts of right and responsibility are operative in the international politics of great powers. Simple, a little vague, but okay for a short sentence.

So, if that's the short conversational version, here's the long conversational version:

I explore what being one of the most powerful states around entailed in the past, how it changes, and what it means today.

• What special rights do states get from a large amount of power? Are they 'legitimate' rights--and what does that mean--or more like what the Athenians claimed over the Melians?
• If you're really strong, does your power saddle you with responsibilities that weaker states don't have to worry about? How are these responsibilities enumerated--are they set down in treaties or are they like that scene from A Few Good Men about the mess-hall and the rulebook?
• What happens when powerful states pay no attention to these concepts--when a powerful state doesn't claim or exercise special prerogatives vis. the rest of the world or ignores formal or perceived responsibilities?
• Where do these concepts come from in practice and theory, and what is there relationship to each other? Do rights necessarily come with responsibilities? Does the responsibility to do something necessarily call into being a corresponding right to achieve the desired end?

So there you have it: a bunch of really loaded questions about what it means to be a 'great power' in international relations. We'll see if I can mold them into a research project and find some answers in the days ahead. It'll be hard--but most things worth doing are.

Thanks for reading, Natalie!