My Greatest Hits (and Misses) of 2014

What I got right, what I got wrong, and that time everyone got mad at me for tweeting about Ukraine.

As 2014 comes to an end — and not a moment too soon as far as I'm concerned — I decided to glance in the rear-view mirror and re-read all the FP columns I posted over the past twelve months. By my count, I published 49 columns last year, on topics ranging from the Iran talks, the all-too predictable world-view of DC think tanks, the (misguided?) war on the Islamic State (IS), the Ukraine crisis, the "chickenshit" flap, Europe's (non-existent) role in the "rebalance" to Asia, and a host of others. Here's my personal list of favorites (in no particular order), followed by a mea culpa for some big things I missed.

No. 1: How to get a B.A. in IR in Five Minutes

Inspired by Saturday Night Live's Father Guido Sarducci, this tongue-in-cheek column described the five things any IR major will remember five years after they graduate. Quick review: 1) anarchy, 2) balance of power, 3) comparative advantage, 4) misperception, and 5) social construction.

Readers seemed to enjoy the piece, even if they had just spent thousands of dollars to get an IR degree. I just hope nobody plagiarized it for their final exam....

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