Joseph E. Stiglitz and Cristina Kirchner

Back in October we spent a few days pondering the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, whose curious views are taken far more seriously in the corridors of power than they deserve. Stiglitz, as we pointed out, has called for a socialist U.N. superstate; so preoccupied is he with income inequality, moreover, that he views the Great Depression more fondly than he does the 1980s. Financial analyst Peter Tenebrarum has legitimately ridiculed Stiglitz’s claim that corporate tax rates have “little effect on investment,” observing that only “a life-long leftist academic and bureaucrat who has never created one iota of real wealth in his life” could ever utter such drivel. 

Then there are Stiglitz’s deep and longstanding ties to the corrupt Argentinian President Néstor Kirchner (2003-7) and his wife and successor, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (who left office in December). Stiglitz, who’s been a paid Kirchner…

There seems to a prevailing opinion among International Relations’ scholars that our world is one of perpetual crises. The moment one crisis ends, such as the threat of Ebola, another begins, such as Russian military involvement in Syria. Communication has always been an integral part of crisis management. Moreover, diplomatic crises are often defined as a breakdown in communication between states.

During diplomatic crises, nations make frequent use of the media. At times, this is in order to pass indirect messages to other nations. At other times, this is an attempt to control the narrative of the crisis in the local and global press. Controlling the narrative of a crisis may be achieved through the utilization of networks. Such activities are in line with a networked model of diplomacy, as opposed to the club model  (for more on this see Jorge Hiene’s paper). Networks may be made up of diplomatic…