Last night was a big one for foreign policy bloggers and for Foreign Policy bloggers at the International Studies Association. At the first annual reception for International Studies Blogging organized by our friends at the Duck of Minerva, the Duck’s Dan Nexon announced the winners of the first annual OAIS (Outstanding Achievement in Interrnational Studies) Awards, i.e. the "Duckies." FP‘s Dan Drezner won the prize for Best Blog. And I won the Special Achievement Award, defined as having made "an
outstanding contribution to the development, legitimation, and
forwarding of international studies blogging."

That’s a great honor for a little old Aardvark. It’s humbling to be recognized out of so many great peers and colleagues — I guess now I have to try to actually blog more! So many sincere and profound thanks to all. A full list of the winners, including Erica Chenoweth and Barbara Walter for Political Violence at a Glance for Best New Blog, will likely be posted over at the Duck soon.

The Duckies were fun, and I think they are part of something important about the growing centrality of blogging for political science and international studies. The large, enthusiastic crowd at the reception revealed the increasingly robust intellectual community around these blogs. The fact that the reception was hosted by Sage and placed on the official conference program signals growing institutional acceptance. And that’s the context in which the Duck’s Dan Nexon has just been named the new editor in chief for the association’s flagship journal International Studies Quarterly with an insanely ambitious plan to incorporate online engagement and blog-tested innovations.   

I have to get back to the conference and don’t have time to dig in right now, but the debates about the role of public online engagement in our scholarly portfolios and the changing realities of academic publishing and public engagement are only going to accelerate. I’m excited to see them and plan to write more about this all soon. But for now, back to the ISA!