0.5 hours writing, 3.5 hours reading/researching

The math textbook I ordered arrived, so I did some of that; I like this one much better than the other one I'd been using. I think they'll complement each other well. I find it useful to train my brain to think in a different way than I'm accustomed, and to focus carefully on the assumptions I make and what they imply. Also, I'm working with a lot of data right now, so it's helpful to have an orientation toward what may or may not be possible with it.

Read more of Kirk Bowman's excellent book on militarization and its negative effect on development in Latin America. It's really a model of multi-method (statistics and case studies) research, and he's very thoughtful every step of the way while generating new insights and overturning false "truisms" in the literature.

Based on some of the data in his book on the level of military participation (how many soldiers per thousand people in the population, a standard measure of militarization, MPR), I compared this to my database of years of military government to see if there's any correlation. Interestingly, while countries like Mexico, Colombia, and Costa Rica have both relatively few years of military government and relatively low MPRs, El Salvador, one of the countries most frequently governed by the military, had a lower than average MPR, and the two highest-MPR countries, Chile and Uruguay, are in the middle of the pack as far as number of years of military government. Since both countries have reputations for democratic stability prior to their coups in the 1970s, there may be something interesting going on, as all three of Mexico, Colombia, and Costa Rica also have reputations for stability in their own way (even if it's authoritarian stability in Mexico's case). Something interesting to follow up on next week.

Many thanks to this week's monitor, Laura Ascenzi-Moreno, and happy birthday once again! Next up is Rafael Mazer in San Francisco. More about him on Monday.

Have a great weekend!