Inside ‘Operation Absolute Resolve,’ the U.S. Effort to Capture Maduro www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/u...

Something in the water today, everybody’s got itchy trigger fingers.

How it feels like to be a political scientist working on security and US foreign policy right now:

In order to ‘run a country’ you kinda have to be, you know, in country.

Their messaging is so fucking incoherent. Maduro was an illegitimate leader who lost in 2024, which is why we're replacing him with his VP instead of the person who won in 2024. We did this to stop fentanyl, which is why he's indicted for cocaine. We're also occupying Venezuela via Zoom call.

‘In varietate concordia, motherfuckers!’ 🇪🇺

Die deutsche IB-Normenforschung reagiert auf die News aus Venezuela:

Keine raumfremden Mächte im Großraum!

‘Do you crypto, ‘bro?’

The Situation Ballroom.

‚But the BRICS, ‘bro, what about the BRICs, ‘bro, the Chinese delegation just arrived in Venezuela, ‘bro. The American Century is over, bro.‘ Uncle Sam: ‘Hold my beer.’

European leaders like Merz and Macron are pretending that this US-led coup was about restoring Venezuelan democracy rather than a geopolitical power play for oil and regional dominance, because otherwise they would have to condemn Trump’s aggression in Latin America just like Putin’s in Europe.

Not for the first time, where other European leaders wring their hands over Trump, Spain’s Sánchez draws a line. A stance that is only looking more sensible (more *realistic*) as time goes on.

Many observers still struggle to define US foreign policy under the second Trump administration, but it really isn’t that complicated. The United States employs military power to ensure its national interest, as it always has in the post-Cold War era. But unlike the preceding 80+ years

The Danish Prime Minister at the moment:

Con Air 2: Venezuela Vengeance

Entweder wir legen den gleichen völkerrechtlichen Maßtab von illegaler Aggression an alle Staaten und ihre Führer an, oder wir unterlassen ab sofort eine normative Unterlegung unsere Außenpolitik und argumentieren nur noch mit Macht und Interessen. Man sollte sich entscheiden.

Carl Schmitt right now:

The 80s are back!

This is not a military intervention for the purposes of regime change and nation-building like in Iraq, but seems a much more targeted operation in the vein of US invasions of Grenada and Panama. The target was a criminal leader in the eyes of Washington, who was deeply involved in the drug trade.

Die Weltlage ist angespannt, aber hier im Österreichischen Krisenreaktionszentrum Innsbruck lassen wir uns nicht aus der Ruhe bringen. 🇦🇹

Regime change in Venezuela, which is clearly Washington’s goal here seems to fly in the face of the anti-interventionist agenda of America First, but it actually aligns with the strategic vision of hemispheric dominance and great power geopolitics the 2025 NSS has laid out.

‘Sir, it’s the UN, and the EU called as well…’ ‘Oh, the UN, boohoo. And the EU, bunch of cry babies. I’m busy here wiping my ass with the War Powers resolution, launching an unprovoked attack on another country and kidnapping its leader. Then I need to bomb some empty fields in Nigeria before golf.’

Pax Americana - Empire Edition? Hemispheric Primacy? America First 2.0? Or simply: ‘We’re America, Bitch.’

Here is to dry January!

Neujahrswanderung.

FROHES NEUES!!!

‘Mr. Bond, we’ve been expecting you. Welcome to S.P.E.C.T.R.E.’

Ein Deutschland, das sich kollektiv mal weniger einscheisst, wäre die wahre Zeitenwende. www.zeit.de/politik/deut...

I’m truly excited to share that The Oxford Handbook of Emotions in International Relations, co-edited with Andrew Ross , is finally out in the world. lnkd.in/dZYNS2Jb This project has been a journey: full of ideas, conversations, challenges, and inspiration.I’m deeply grateful to all contributors.

Ein bisschen Ehrenrettung der Hessen, immerhin. Schöner Lesestoff am Silvestermorgen.

Schönste an der Wanderung die Einkehr…

‘And you wanted to go through the Mines of Moria...’

‘Far over the Misty Mountains call to dungeons deep and caverns old.’

Südtirol ❤️

Deutsche Fallschirmjäger in Zweibrücken äußern sich zu den Vorwürfen:

Schneetarn ausgegeben.

On my path to ‚civilisational erasure’ one red wine at a time. #Europe

Survived another day in hellhole Europe.

Me responding to my inner critic suggesting I should move on from Top Gun quotes and references in my lectures:

Der Großvater von @carlomasala1.bsky.social

The discourse on Europe would be massively improved if we could just fly every QAnon basement dwelling, ragebait posting, culture war engagement farming, Joe Rogan wannabe, pro-Trump MAGA ‘murican to a nice town in Italy and have them bite into a real tomato for the first time in their life.

Falls ihr euch fragt, wo es die Bücher von @frankstengel.com, @gloefflmann.bsky.social und @meibauir.bsky.social im Laden zu kaufen gibt.

Born to Urlaub.

Greetings from Europe, which is obviously being crushed by the weight of civilisational erasure due to tyrannical EU censorship and policy dogma, while simultaneously committing cultural suicide with rampaging knife wielding grooming gangs of illegal aliens, great coffee though.

The motherload.