Remembering Our Lost Colleagues
I started this post sort of confessionally. It’s been a while since I wrote on the blog. I...
Farewell
The Hayseed Scholar podcast has come to a close. In this farewell episode, Brent's brother...
Can the news ever be impartial?
Probably not, but the problem isn’t impartiality it’s the politics of impartiality On...
Here We Go Again: Why American Presidents Can’t Resist Regime Change
The U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean is confusing the MAGA faithful. With rumors swirling of...
New
The Threat to Economic Hegemony is Economic Hegemony: Part II
This piece is the...
Conscious States in a World of Make Believe
I wrote the first draft of “What’s it Like to Be a State?” sometime in late 2017, during an unusual time in both my personal life and my research career. I was about halfway through my PhD at the University of Cambridge and was feeling both immensely homesick and quite bored—trapped in a small town that felt ripped from the Victorian era. I filled my free time watching large numbers of pre-recorded NBA games and, also, for some reason, reading philosophy of mind….
State Consciousness and Ontological Security
I appreciate this...
Featured
Benjamin de Carvalho
Dr. Benjamin de Carvalho joins the Hayseed Scholar podcast. Ben was born in Switzerland to a...
Who wants AI in the classroom?
I get emails. Sometimes they find me well; sometimes they try to convince me that I need to bring...
After Anarchy? On Hierarchy, Heterarchy, and Multiplicity
Kenneth Waltz famously claimed that anarchy—i.e., the absence of a global sovereign—is the...
Recent
Bullies, Follies, and Decadent Orders: Constructing Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern
On November 1, 2025, President Donald Trump threatened to end all U.S. assistance to Nigeria and —...
Exploring the Meaning of Responsibility
I’ve been thinking a lot about the meaning of “responsibility,” specifically in the context of...
Nuclear apocalypse now? Reflections on the movie “A House of Dynamite”
I had high hopes for director Kathryn Bigelow’s House of Dynamite, a new Netflix movie about U.S....
ACADEME
Why have so many Muslim communities embraced radicalism?
Over two decades have passed since the horrifying 9/11 attacks. Do we have a consensus...
Joseph Nye’s other big idea
Renowned international relations scholar and practitioner Joseph S. Nye passed away last week....
6+1 Questions About “The Social Construction of Christian Persecution through Quantification in International Religious Freedom Advocacy”
What is the name of the journal article (or book) and what are its coordinates? Miray Philips....
6+1 Questions about American Conquest: The Northwest Indian War and the Making of US Foreign Policy
What’s the name of the book, and where can we find it? American Conquest: The Northwest Indian War...