Gone Conferencing!

A few preliminary thoughts at the start of the American Political Science Association annual meeting.

Photo by Terren Hurst on Unsplash

The hard-working staff here at Drezner’s World — from the boss of bosses down to the lowliest intern — will be in Los Angeles attending the American Political Science Association (APSA) annual meeting for the next few days. The posting will be pretty light and the drinking might range from moderate to heavy.

A few quick observations before the conference deluge begins:

1. Every time I attend a conference in Los Angeles I think it will be a piece of cake to navigate downtown LA. And every time I learn anew that DTLA is really, really big, that it takes forever to get from point A to point B. As a result I am always 15-20 minutes late to everything.

2. Twenty-five years ago, I was occasionally warned off of writing about economic sanctions. Since the policymaker consensus at the time was that they never worked, the topic was viewed as something of an intellectual backwater. That was then. This year’s APSA conference features at least six panels just on sanctions and a lot more that are sanctions-adjacent. I arrived early in Los Angeles to participate in a half-day sanctions seminar. Let this be a lesson to those trying to figure out their dissertation topics: write about what interests you, not what others think should interest you. It’s the only way to stay sane.

3. Speaking of grad school decisions that have long-lasting effects, Paul Musgrave has an excellent post about why the choice of where to go to graduate school matters: He argues, “the often-made observation that people like going to conferences because they get to see their grad-school friends offers an unusually frank and revealing truth about why early choices are important.” Why is that the case? Musgrave concludes, “the accumulative advantage of networking is nontrivial. It’s a substantial accelerator for careers and work, and although initial disadvantages can be overcome that’s not exactly a boost to a career so much as an additional hindrance. Thinking about the long afterlife of those late-night sessions coding R or debating Waltz is a good way to understanding the glacial pace of the academic career.” Read the whole thing.

4. I regret to report an uptick in masks in response to the surge of COVID-19 cases. I don’t regret that people are choosing to wear masks; I regret that it might be necessary.