I wrote something last month about how this and the similar Russian case were USG cooperation in transnational repression: foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/08/t...

Trump, at the urging of Rod Blagojevich, lifted sanctions on former Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik. That, I argue in @foreignpolicy.com, is a win for Putin and instability at Europe’s expense. foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/10/t...

I find Ankara's eagerness to send troops to Gaza as part of the international stabilization force as bold of a move as its positioning in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings.

Just doubling down on my view that if you are anywhere left of Nazi on the political spectrum you should have no problem condemning any and all Nazi iconography

A good reminder from @gonultol.bsky.social that you can write about the West's willingness to accommodate Erdogan without actually endorsing the West's willingness to accommodate Erdogan www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/o...

I’m hearing on his deathbed Dick Cheney accepted the light of Islam and immediately sent himself to a black site

A U.S.-backed peace plan promises a new start for Gaza. Israel’s far right may have other plans.

Maddening to me that so many colleagues think it is "the one simple trick to solving the Palestine conflict" without any reference to actual politics.

Fun podcast this week: @nicholasdanfort.bsky.social and I talked to @hannahluci.bsky.social about Istanbul! We talked about waterfront privatization, cafes, and how the city has changed in the last two decades.

Had a really fun time talking about Istanbul (in Istanbul) with @hannahluci.bsky.social and @selimkoru.bsky.social kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/talking-is...

A U.S.-backed peace plan promises a new start for Gaza. Israel’s far right may have other plans.

I can’t recognise War on the Rocks anymore: warontherocks.com/2025/10/the-...

Come for the article, stay for the maps! Thanks to @sinanciddi.bsky.social and the team at @foreignpolicy.com for this: foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/28/t...

@ishaantharoor.bsky.social channels everybody who watched Turkey's descent into pure authoritarianism and is now watching Trump do the same damn things in this piece www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

My new piece: New measures from the United States and European Union confirm why Russian energy exports were always a double-edged sword. foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/29/p...

Come for the article, stay for the maps! Thanks to @sinanciddi.bsky.social and the team at @foreignpolicy.com for this: foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/28/t...

Sarkozy is going to jail but he’s not the first one. In our new dataset we track modern leaders who have been prosecuted by their own states. There are 215 of them. Turns out leader prosecution is a common & healthy practice in democracies. Full access link: foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/28/d...

The “bad borders” myth has only masked the true sources of problems in the region. tcf.org/content/repo... (5/5)

"But seeing the way people have clashed over borders or struggled with their contradictions can still offer some insights. Turkey, for example, has reaped the benefits of its victory over imperialism for the past century. But the specter of Sevres has also fueled + tcf.org/content/repo...

I honestly expected the Biden team to eventually get tougher on Israel as a matter of self respect rather than out of any moral principals

PODCAST: Reckoning or reverting? Israeli society after the ceasefire Dahlia Scheindlin explores the lessons Israelis are drawing from two years of war, and explains why international pressure is the only path to a political settlement. Listen now 🎙️ www.972mag.com/podcast-reck...

Super @nicholasdanfort.bsky.social @centuryintl.bsky.social essay refuting Sykes-Picot/"artificial borders" reductionism in explaining conflict and narrating the historical processes that drew the map of the modern post-Ottoman Middle East: tcf.org/content/repo...

@nicholasdanfort.bsky.social ‘s history of Middle Eastern border creation, richly illustrated with historical maps, shows that there is nothing exceptionally conflict-prone about the shape of regional states. (4/5)

A popular story holds that colonial borders are the source of problems in the Middle East. The narrative is promoted by everyone from the Islamic State to American politicians—neoconservative and liberal and otherwise. (1/5)

Grateful to @centuryintl.bsky.social for the chance to bring together, update, and expand some of my writing on maps and Middle Eastern borders tcf.org/content/repo...

»After eight months, Ottoman forces finally repulsed the Allied assault, saving Constantinople and indirectly launching Mel Gibson’s career.«

“In retrospect, the focus on how the British and French divided up the Middle East risks distracting from the more salient fact that they were colonizing it in the first place.” Fascinating essay on how the map of “the Middle East” came to be as it is.

“inclusive citizenship remains the most reliable path to peace and stability”

Grateful to @centuryintl.bsky.social for the chance to bring together, update, and expand some of my writing on maps and Middle Eastern borders tcf.org/content/repo...

Turkish Cypriots Go to the Polls. Will It Matter? "Whoever wins, it is becoming harder to imagine a future where the Cyprus problem is settled peacefully in keeping with the interests of all stakeholders. foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/08/e...

Turkey has big interest in Sunday's presidential election in the unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Ankara has in recent years called for a formal divide in Cyprus, abandoning reunification efforts. This article gives a good summary of the stakes 👇 foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/08/e...

In light of Bahceli's most recent remarks about a possible rapprochement with Turkey's Alevis, recirculating my piece on the rapprochement with Bahceli: foreignpolicy.com/2025/07/30/t...

I teamed up w/ @fpri.bsky.social fellow @slair.bsky.social to write about one of our favorite missiles :: American Missiles and Russian Dachas: Tomahawk and the Future of Stability and Deterrence in Europe open.substack.com/pub/behindth...

I don't think this is quite true. Yes, the Biden Administration was an utter failure. That said, I don't think we can understate the relative power of Trump in this: a lock grip over his own party, an opposition that was trending increasingly against Israel. He had close to unprecedented freedom

I will continue to vigorously condemn Biden's handling of Gaza, but analytically I don't think this weekend's agreement proves Biden could have done the same if he'd just applied more pressure...

The Antisemitic/Tankie Left is real and noxious and dangerous. Its influence has been compounded by more reasonable progressives who refuse to call it out and those on the right who want to exaggerate its presence to avoid talking about Israeli crimes.

The ceasefire in Gaza, now in effect, depends on the promise given by an inveterate liar and conman (Trump) to a ruthless terrorist organization (Hamas) that he will prevent another serial liar, conman, and war criminal (Netanyahu) from resuming the war:

Bitterly ironic that after years of anti-imperial posturing, Erdogan is now boasting about securing Hamas's signoff on an international mandate for Palestine.

Bitterly ironic that after years of anti-imperial posturing, Erdogan is now boasting about securing Hamas's signoff on an international mandate for Palestine.

there was a ceasefire when trump came in. he let israel blow that up, let famine spread, let his goons murder starving people, before using the power he'd had since he took office. grotesque to call this peacemaking. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/us/politics/trump-mideast-visit-israel-gaza.html

New from me in @foreignpolicy.com: how the US has gone from leading a global push against transnational repression, to proactively supporting it: foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/08/t...

Useful article on elections in Northern Cyprus and the question of Cyprus' future. "[The island appears destined to remain divided, while the north is pulled deeper into Ankara’s geopolitical agenda." foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/08/e...

Turkish Cypriots Go to the Polls. Will It Matter? "Whoever wins, it is becoming harder to imagine a future where the Cyprus problem is settled peacefully in keeping with the interests of all stakeholders. foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/08/e...

This is the most elegant summary ive heard of a certain ideological trend in Lefty academia

The parallels with the post-Kemalism debate here are striking thewire.in/books/decolo...

This touches on a dynamic I have thought about for a long time.

My thoughts on the Quantico meeting

And more recently, also here by Ryan Gingeras: foreignpolicy.com/2025/08/14/t...

My latest piece for @foreignpolicy.com Erdogan’s visit to Washington showed that the United States and Turkey just don’t need each other as much as they used to. foreignpolicy.com/2025/09/30/t...