🚨Departmental Newsletter - June '26 🚨

Leroy Sané looks like one of these academics hired on "promise" ten years ago, then tenured on "potential", and since permanently very publicly applying but never quite getting way-too-large grants.

curaçao's football team is officially equal to brazil's

I have questions.

We are hiring! Please share 👉 💡 2 PhD positions 🇳🇴 Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen 🗓️ 4 years 💶 Fully funded 👩‍🏫 25 % teaching ⏳ 11 August 2026 🔗 www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Just like my newest article is also 95% done. The remaining 5% of writing will focus on setting up a structure, reading relevant literature, developing an argument, and testing it empirically.

NEW — My first true foray into AI haterdom is about how those of us not convinced by AI’s inevitability are a real constituency worthy of a voice. Give it a read:

Wrote a thing on why buying into the “generative AI is inevitable so we need to stuff it into all crevices of higher ed” narrative is not only bad pedagogy, but bad Political Science. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

'Frontiers' are now inviting 'handling editors' for individual manuscripts instead of simply reviewers - what fresh unpaid hell is this?

🚨 DEFCON-4 UPDATE 🚨 Israel-Libanon und die sog. "Pufferzone" - jetzt als kurze Einschätzung von mir auf Spotify, Apple und co. open.spotify.com/episode/474z...

Trump tut ja was er kann, aber wieder waren die Chinesen schneller. www.faz.net/aktuell/wirt...

A lot of questions raised by my KA$H bottles are already answered by my KA$H bottles.

🚨 NEW: "Why US–China relations have not escalated yet: Power rise, power transition, and perceptions of resolve" from Michiel Foulon and @meibauir.bsky.social. 📑👉 Read, in full, for free: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

When the child has to stay home sick but it's also ice cream weather. 🦖🍦

I'm quoted in this excellent @deutschewelle.dw.com analysis on the politics and law of buffer zones, in the context of Israel's incursion into South Lebanon - check it out here: www.dw.com/en/israel-in...

Wie ich die nächste Folge DEFCON 4 vorbereite:

Kaum draußen, direkt geadelt. 😎

🚨 Podcast Alert - Raise to DEFCON-4 🚨 In der Premierenfolge unseres neuen Podcasts diskutieren @gloefflmann.bsky.social @frankstengel.com @malteriemann.bsky.social und ich den Iran-Krieg, Trump, und das Siechtum der 🇺🇸 Demokratie. Hört mal rein: 👉 open.spotify.com/show/48hA7TG...

📣 My new publication with @GustavMeibauer is now out in @ejisbisa.bsky.social “Why US-China relations have not escalated yet: Power rise, power transition, and perceptions of resolve" It’s open access: doi.org/10.1017/eis.... @meibauir.bsky.social (1/4)

Somewhere Bismarck is looking down in confusion as Germany projects power by sending 4,000 pensioners, 12 buffet stations and a TUI loyalty program through the Strait of Hormuz

🚨Publication Alert 🚨 New @ejisbisa.bsky.social article with @michielfoulon.bsky.social: 👉 'Why US–China relations have not escalated yet: Power rise, power transition, and perceptions of resolve'. 👈 We grapple with power transitions & impending (or not) 🇺🇸/🇨🇳 war. 📖 (OA): doi.org/10.1017/eis....

🚨 Job Alert: AsstProf International Peace & Security in Amsterdam (VUA)🚨 workingat.vu.nl/vacancies/as...

Hungarians celebrated the landslide defeat of Orban by singing "We Are the Champions" out in the streets

The best news for all of Europe in a long time ☺️ Thank you Hungarians

Please don’t tell the Americans that this election was not actually about JD Vance. They need it so bad.

Ah yes. My war has created a lot of problems to be solved by my war. This is the kinetic version of that T-shirt meme.

I'm proud to report that one week before term start my email inbox to-do folder now only has four remaining tasks, only two of which are outstanding reviews, neither of which is overdue. Please clap.

Hightechnical? Flytechnical?

🚨Job alert🚨 We are looking for two lecturers/assistant professors in environmental politics (permanent!) www.bath.ac.uk/jobs/Vacancy...

German IB won't know what hit 'em.

This is what happens if you ignore domestic politics in explanation. It is also maps fairly precisely onto the argument in my recent @risjnl.bsky.social article, for what it's worth: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Het is weer tijd voor de 🇳🇱 cursus Nederlands. 🇳🇱 Nu we oefenen met ‘een afspraak maken’, realiseer ik me dat het misschien een beetje triest is dat mijn standaardantwoord altijd ‘ik kan niet, ik moet werken’ is.

Ummm.

I had severe #ISA26 fomo until I saw what the seminar rooms look like this year. 😉

Nightmare AHA interview

As the Netherlands head to the polls today (local elections 🗳️) it is a good moment to treasure democracy, free and fair elections, and celebrate the thousands of folks running and volunteering. Happy voting.

Co-author/conspirator meeting with @gloefflmann.bsky.social. We may or may not have updates on the Strait of Hormuz soon.

Of all realists these people could (vaguely) know, it's always either Mearsheimer or Kissinger, i.e. literally the worst possible candidates in terms of informing policy.

This further supports the notion that universities in particular have an ethical responsibility to resist basically anything AI at every opportunity.

This is ironic in that this is exactly the way ChatGPT might respond and then self-correct (only when asked again).

35-39% would approve of Trump's self-nomination as god-emperor.

Oh hai 🤩

Assistant Professor of International Relations #ECPRMemberJobs 🎓 PhD degree in International Relations 🏫 @radboudpol.bsky.social ⌛ Fri 27 March buff.ly/Zncytlm #PolSciJobs #PoliSky #AcademicSky

🚨 Departmental Newsletter 🚨

I'm going to say what should be abundantly obvious to everyone by now: #𝙏𝙧𝙪𝙢𝙥 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙖𝙡𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙮 𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙧. Yes, the fighting is still ongoing. Yes, the U.S. and #Israel will continue to bomb #Iran and continue to fuck things up there for probably several more weeks. But that won't change anything 🧵

When co-authors ask me about the status of our manuscript.

Republican leadership looking into this issue like

Das ist hochnotpeinlich.

Couldn't levying a tariff on gas help? Let the producers pay their fair share; America will make billions.