to Sjb123 and Xanthe,
I was at the International Relations talk at the visit day, wearing a brown jacket and speaking in an american accent, sitting in the front row - i must have seen one of you? it seemed that there were very few people there at the talk...
incidentally what did you think of mr buzan? i spoke to a few knowledgeable people about his comments about the differences between studying IR in the US vs in the UK and was told that his opinions were very debatable. it seemed to me that he said IR depts in the US:
1) all flock to the going trend in political thought
2) focus on what "we" the Americans will do about pending foreign policy issues instead of keeping the discussions purely academic
3) tend to put a premium on "rational economic" thinking instead of a more normative, subjective approach
4) are far less international (ie reluctant to criticise the US) than UK depts
and lastly that if you want to be taken seriously in washington, you absolutely must have at least one degree from a US uni...
---wondering if you agreed with him on this, what your reactions were?