The Nova is a collaborative weblog from the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism. The purpose of this blog is to bring together bright and talented individuals to discuss the some of the biggest issues facing the world today in Terrorism and National Security Affairs, broadly defined.
There are a few guidelines for the weblog worth noting.
- ‘Chicago Rules’ apply. For those who do not know much about the University of Chicago, there is a long history of very open academic freedom. Whether it was communist sympathizers in the 50’s or free market economists in the 80’s, people have always been able to espouse whatever they want regardless of popular opinion. That does not however, mean that anyone is free from criticism. Indeed, the University has a well-deserved reputation for being candid in its criticism, even if it hurts. This blog will let people say what they really think, and we will criticize them mercilessly for it.
- This is not an advocacy blog. We are not here to promote any given point of view and will hopefully have multiple conflicting points. This is by design. Therefore, you get no rhetorical points for showing that “Even someone at their own blog disagrees with them.” This also goes to Chicago Rules.
- We want to raise the level of public discourse. Our contributors will be mostly (but not necessarily all) academics. We hope to serve as a window into the world of academia, where questions that people care about a lot in the real world are discussed and thought about very deeply. Unfortunately, the world of political science, and especially international security has done a very bad job of interfacing with the global community at large. We hope to be a forum where academics can refine their ideas with the wider world community, and where people who are interested in international security issues can come to get a better understanding of international security, no matter what their background.
- We are focused on Security and Terrorism. It says so right in the name. While I am sure that there will be digressions, everything here should be about Security or Terrorism.
We hope that our new readers will enjoy this weblog, and feel like a part of a community. Please try and follow the rules listed above. We will try to avoid modding except for spam. The coin of this realm, truly is a good idea.
