When Constitutional Functions Blur
Constitutional orders rarely announce that they are becoming less constitutional. More often, the...
What If Iran Acquired the Nuclear Bomb? A Case for Uncomfortable Diplomacy Over Catastrophe
Amid US and Israeli strikes aimed at preventing Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons,...
Middle East Studies: Still beating that strawman?
Or, who is the strawman here? This is my second post reflecting on the recent American Political...
The hypothetical science
Are we reaching the limits of experimental approaches to international politics? I just returned...
New
Adam Sandler and the Rise of the Rest: Theoretical Myopia and the Liberal International Order
Film critics have approached Adam Sandler’s films the same way that IR scholars have analyzed the rise and fall of the Liberal International Order (LIO)
Recentering the Catholic Church in European State Transformation
Did the study of state formation ever lose its religion? There’s a new wave of interest in the Catholic Church as an institutional formation.
How Quals can avoid becoming our own worst enemies
Simple steps to...
Featured
The Pedagogical Legacies of the Pandemic
Did the pandemic durably change our pedagogy in International Relations (IR), or were...
Episode 1: Gates of the West
We’re baaack!In the inaugural episode of the second season of Whiskey and International Relations…
How Russian economic policy is gender
Every year I make my third year Bachelor students read Carol Cohn’s article “Sex and Death in the...
Recent
On religious dialogue and “stochastic terrorism”
Potentially inflammatory rhetoric should be addressed with dialogue, not bans Recent antisemitic...
Today’s sanctions aren’t special. They’re just keeping up.
We keep hearing that we live in an unprecedented “age of sanctions.” Trade and globalization data tell a different story — the world got bigger, not meaner.
Our Age of Bronze is Collapsing: Nolan’s Odyssey as Allegory for the Decline of American Hegemony
Editorial Note: this post contains spoilers. Christopher Nolan is one of the most important...
ACADEME
What Politics and IR can teach AI pedagogy
[Editor’s Note: This is a write-up of a workshop proceedings. It is posted under my name, but the...
Rest Well, Raul Pacheco-Vega
Our community lost the inimitable Raúl Pacheco-Vega this week. Someone who knew him better than me...
Divided Government and Multilateral Assistance
In January of 2025, the Republican party gained “the trifecta,” controlling the Presidency and the...
6+1 Questions about Resilient Statehood
Why did some states successfully avoid conquest by European empires? Logan Cochrane’s new, co-edited volume tackles this puzzle.