RIP Bob Jervis
December 14, 2021 9:58 AM Subscribe
Bob Jervis (1940-2021). Jervis was the preeminent scholar of International Relations. His contributions revolutionized how scholars and practitioners think about nuclear weapons, perception, and complexity in the international sphere.
Reflections in in the Washington Post by Stacie Goddard, Jack Snyder, and Karin Yarli-Milo here.
The Political Science department at Columbia University (where Bob taught for 40 years)'s obit is here:
"Robert Jervis, born April 30, 1940, in New York City to Herman Jervis, a lawyer, and Dorothy Jervis, a potter, died of lung cancer on December 9, 2021. He was at home, in the presence of Kathe, his wife of 54 years, and his daughters, Alexa and Lisa. He was a husband, father, and grandfather extraordinaire, a giant in his field of International Relations, a mentor to legions of younger scholars, an enthusiastic provider of feedback to university administrators, a museum goer and opera lover, a skilled napper, and a pioneer of the capsule wardrobe."
Jervis was the fourth most cited political scientist on undergraduate syllabi. He was the author of 8 books, with his last one published in 2017.
Among the highlights: the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order, election to the American Philosophical Society, and election to the National Academy of Sciences. His doctoral dissertation (The Logic of Images in International Relations) is still in print.
Reflections in in the Washington Post by Stacie Goddard, Jack Snyder, and Karin Yarli-Milo here.
The Political Science department at Columbia University (where Bob taught for 40 years)'s obit is here:
"Robert Jervis, born April 30, 1940, in New York City to Herman Jervis, a lawyer, and Dorothy Jervis, a potter, died of lung cancer on December 9, 2021. He was at home, in the presence of Kathe, his wife of 54 years, and his daughters, Alexa and Lisa. He was a husband, father, and grandfather extraordinaire, a giant in his field of International Relations, a mentor to legions of younger scholars, an enthusiastic provider of feedback to university administrators, a museum goer and opera lover, a skilled napper, and a pioneer of the capsule wardrobe."
Jervis was the fourth most cited political scientist on undergraduate syllabi. He was the author of 8 books, with his last one published in 2017.
Among the highlights: the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order, election to the American Philosophical Society, and election to the National Academy of Sciences. His doctoral dissertation (The Logic of Images in International Relations) is still in print.
It ruined simplistic rationalist--and "realist"---explanation for me pretty much for life.
Which is funny because Bob was a realist!!!
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 11:02 AM on December 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
Which is funny because Bob was a realist!!!
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 11:02 AM on December 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
One of these “I was against the Vietnam War, but not on moral grounds” folks
posted by moorooka at 11:57 AM on December 14, 2021
posted by moorooka at 11:57 AM on December 14, 2021
One of these “I was against the Vietnam War, but not on moral grounds” folks
Bob, along with a number of other IR scholars, used their own personal money to buy a full page ad in the New York Times protesting the 2003 US invasion of Afghanistan. He also was active in anti-war student protests when he was at Berkeley in the 60s. But go on king!
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 1:02 PM on December 14, 2021 [5 favorites]
Bob, along with a number of other IR scholars, used their own personal money to buy a full page ad in the New York Times protesting the 2003 US invasion of Afghanistan. He also was active in anti-war student protests when he was at Berkeley in the 60s. But go on king!
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 1:02 PM on December 14, 2021 [5 favorites]
I’m just quoting his actual words
His whole career has been in the intellectual service of empire. “International Relations” is a bogus discipline.
posted by moorooka at 1:47 PM on December 14, 2021
His whole career has been in the intellectual service of empire. “International Relations” is a bogus discipline.
posted by moorooka at 1:47 PM on December 14, 2021
Well, interesting that he was a realist! But Misantropic's responses here a nice reminder that "realist" doesn't mean "pro-war" or interventionist. (And I'm not sure how "against the Vietnam War" squares with "servant of empire.") I suppose I was conflating realism in my mind with macho swaggering on foreign policy decisions.
I do maintain that a lot of useless-to-dangerous foreign policy analysis would be avoided if people kept the limits of rationality in mind, though. Including their own.
posted by col_pogo at 3:17 PM on December 14, 2021
I do maintain that a lot of useless-to-dangerous foreign policy analysis would be avoided if people kept the limits of rationality in mind, though. Including their own.
posted by col_pogo at 3:17 PM on December 14, 2021
.
posted by JoeXIII007 at 3:39 PM on December 14, 2021
posted by JoeXIII007 at 3:39 PM on December 14, 2021
His position on the Vietnam War, as on the Iraq War, was that they were bad because they were bad for the empire’s interests; unlike other imperial interventions (and remember the guy worked for the Cold War CIA) they failed the imperial cost-benefit analysis. There is no moral content in this type of opposition; no questioning that the USA has the “right” to undertake this type of aggression if it is in fact in its interests. Which presupposes the existence of a “national interest” common to both the public and the military-industrial complex, which is the foundational dogma of the pseudo-intellectual IR discipline.
posted by moorooka at 4:30 PM on December 14, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by moorooka at 4:30 PM on December 14, 2021 [2 favorites]
I will need to do a lot more reading to form an opinion about his work, but I am now aspiring to have an obituary that includes recognition for being "a skilled napper."
Thank you for sharing something of his life with us, MisantropicPainforest.
posted by kristi at 5:01 PM on December 14, 2021
Thank you for sharing something of his life with us, MisantropicPainforest.
posted by kristi at 5:01 PM on December 14, 2021
One of Jervis' influences was Thomas Schelling. From his wiki page.
"Stanley Kubrick read an article Schelling wrote that included a description of the Peter George novel Red Alert, and conversations between Kubrick, Schelling, and George eventually led to the 1964 movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb."
posted by clavdivs at 7:49 PM on December 14, 2021
"Stanley Kubrick read an article Schelling wrote that included a description of the Peter George novel Red Alert, and conversations between Kubrick, Schelling, and George eventually led to the 1964 movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb."
posted by clavdivs at 7:49 PM on December 14, 2021
His position on the Vietnam War, as on the Iraq War, was that they were bad because they were bad for the empire’s interests
Not sure he was wrong about that, so either there’s a category of “bad for the empire’s interests and also bad for everybody else” or one ends up with a pretty messy anti-imperial moral calculus.
posted by atoxyl at 10:13 PM on December 14, 2021
Not sure he was wrong about that, so either there’s a category of “bad for the empire’s interests and also bad for everybody else” or one ends up with a pretty messy anti-imperial moral calculus.
posted by atoxyl at 10:13 PM on December 14, 2021
There is no moral content in this type of opposition; no questioning that the USA has the “right” to undertake this type of aggression if it is in fact in its interests..the foundational dogma of the pseudo-intellectual IR discipline
your criticism is misplaced. there is no transnational global government. there is no universal religion or universally accepted moral truth. the only political entity with agency in the world today is the nation-state. if you disagree with what a nation-state does--which i do a lot too!--like thinking that a war was a genocidal nightmare, then you should criticize that nation-state as insufficiently recognizing its own people, as being not democratic, or not conforming to your view of morality, if you can defend whatever that is.
but saying "international relations as a course of study is a tool of empire!" in a thread about a man's obit is just meaningless late night stoned dorm room chatter.
posted by wibari at 10:44 PM on December 14, 2021 [3 favorites]
your criticism is misplaced. there is no transnational global government. there is no universal religion or universally accepted moral truth. the only political entity with agency in the world today is the nation-state. if you disagree with what a nation-state does--which i do a lot too!--like thinking that a war was a genocidal nightmare, then you should criticize that nation-state as insufficiently recognizing its own people, as being not democratic, or not conforming to your view of morality, if you can defend whatever that is.
but saying "international relations as a course of study is a tool of empire!" in a thread about a man's obit is just meaningless late night stoned dorm room chatter.
posted by wibari at 10:44 PM on December 14, 2021 [3 favorites]
ITT: Metafilter, a pseudo-intellectual bogus discipline in service of empire.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 7:36 AM on December 15, 2021
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 7:36 AM on December 15, 2021
Which presupposes the existence of a “national interest” common to both the public and the military-industrial complex, which is the foundational dogma of the pseudo-intellectual IR discipline.
Many IR scholars are members of the Quincy Institute (indeed they founded it!) which is the most powerful anti-imperial/pro-restraint think tank in the US. Hard to square that with some sort of imperialism.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 8:35 AM on December 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
Many IR scholars are members of the Quincy Institute (indeed they founded it!) which is the most powerful anti-imperial/pro-restraint think tank in the US. Hard to square that with some sort of imperialism.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 8:35 AM on December 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
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I read Perception and Misperception in International Politics as a freshman in college 20 years ago. It ruined simplistic rationalist--and "realist"---explanation for me pretty much for life. I wish more policymakers had taken its lessons to heart in the almost 50 years since it was published. They might have been a little more humble, a little less confident of their own brilliance, and we might have seen fewer diplomatic and military disasters.
posted by col_pogo at 10:48 AM on December 14, 2021 [3 favorites]