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An N of 1: A Political Scientist in Operation Iraqi Freedom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2004

Russell A. Burgos
Russell A. Burgos
Affiliation:
Russell A. Burgos received his CPhil from UCLA (rburgos@ucla.edu)
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Extract

A bunker is an odd place to reconsider a course syllabus, especially during a mortar attack in the middle of the night. Teaching the historical case study method in introductory courses in international relations, I often told students that we need history in IR, since our theories do not lend themselves to laboratory testing. In the future, I'll drop that comment. Since February 2003, I have been serving on active duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom, mostly in the Sunni Triangle. Wartime service has proved to be something of a laboratory for me and has caused me to reevaluate some of the received wisdom of international relations. War has validated some things we teach, but it has also rendered problematic some conclusions I held perhaps too comfortably. I have been trained by the military to see war with a soldier's eye; it has been a strange experience to see it instead through the eyes of a political scientist. Service in Iraq has provided me the opportunity to consider the academic study of politics and war in real time.The author wishes to thank Dan Caldwell, Deborah Larson, Alan Rozzi, James Q. Wilson, the editors of Perspectives on Politics, anonymous reviewers, and the men and women in uniform lost during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Type
PERSPECTIVES
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , September 2004 , pp. 551 - 556
Copyright
© 2004 American Political Science Association

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