the title of the song

So I’ve enjoyed Waltz’s series of posts talking about how to apply IR theory to personal relationships. While these are all fine and good, they don’t really approach the level of awesome of the raging CNAS and friends debate over autotune and Jay-Z vs. the Game that has immerged in the last few weeks (original Jay-Z vs. the Game post from Marc Lynch here and a summary of responses here. I think I’ve spent the better part of the yesterday having arguments about this.

And don’t get me wrong, I think this is a really entertaining way of modeling unequal power.

Want to talk about the persistent power of insurgents? Well then you can talk about how personal experience can cause you to side with the oppiset side that your sectarian identification would indicate

Want to talk about identity signaling? Well then you can debate how the intentional use of auto-tune in the future could act as a signifier of pro or anti Jay-Z sympathy, in contrast to a firmer signal of alliance like direct lyrical attacks on him and his.

Want to talk about alliance formation in unstable states? Well then you can debate about whether the leagues of the anti-Jay-Z will form a coalition to rival the existing hegemony (think of a hip hop EU), or merely a sea of rogue states with which the dominate power must play wack-a-mole, and what the potential costs of each scenario are.

However, I think one thing that’s getting lost in the entertainment value of this series, is that at the end of the day this is a model, in the same tradition of grand strategy IR modeling Lynch could have said big country X and small country Y and we could all be having exactly the same argument (lord knows I know nothing about hip hop, and that didn’t stop me). This one is cute and entertaining, so it gets written about, but at the end of the day Jay-Z and the game have the same problem that most models do. They are, by definition simplifications of the actual complexities of the International system.

For those readers in charge of training debate, MUN or polsci undergrads, may I suggest this as the new test grounds for establishing baseline knowledge and intelligence of recruits about alliance dynamics, signaling and basic IR models? But for those who are crafting current policy, I hope there is more depth of knowledge expected about how we tailor models to the particular arena before it is turned into policy.