Can civil-military relations scholarship provide prescriptive normative guidance for military leaders' appropriate behaviour in democratic backsliding? My new article in @journalofgss.bsky.social debates this civil-military conundrum academic.oup.com/jogss/articl... #CivMilSKy

Hi Civ-Mil scholars, American and Comparative, what books would y'all suggest about oversight on military affairs? I am not talking about SH, Feaver, Janowitz, and Schiff. More of the recent, process oriented, case studies or cross national stuff. Feel free to suggest your own?

Russia is in some ways a big winner of the Iran war, but domestically Putin has had a bad couple of weeks. Good piece by Alexey Kovalev: "The Kremlin is no longer just losing control of the narrative; it is now dismantling the very infrastructure it used to build support."

Very interesting essay on the strategic malpractice currently on display: www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

"[W]ar is never merely a technical contest. It is shaped by grievance, sacred narrative, the memory of past humiliations and the desire for revenge. Those are not atmospheric complications added to an otherwise technical enterprise. They are what the war is about." www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/o...

Really pleased to advertise these 4 LSE postdocs in the history of popular government as part of our ERC Synergy Project "Popular Government in Global Perspective (POPGOV)"

Check out this piece w/ @mattmotta.bsky.social on prediction markets as national security threats. It's not only gross and unethical that insiders are seemingly betting on things like operations in Venezuela and Iran--it can also be dangerous. responsiblestatecraft.org/prediction-m...

The war in Iran is likely to cause a huge global shortage of air defense with dire implications for Ukraine. The Gulf states, US, Israel are using an enormous amount of Patriot interceptors. We can produce about 600/yr. They are using that up in 1-2 days. So... 1/ www.economist.com/middle-east-...

The UK's legal position on the use of its bases in the Middle East is solid with one glaring hole: The US cannot act in collective self-defence with the Gulf States. It is the aggressor. Ergo the UK cannot assist the US in collective self-defence.

If you have time to read only one thing on today’s strikes, make it @nicolegrajewski.bsky.social ‘s analysis in @thebulletin.org .

Together with some stellar colleagues I reflect on the implications of this very public dispute between Anthropic and the DoD about ethical red lines. Read it here on @opiniojuris.bsky.social ttps://opiniojuris.org/2026/02/26/the-pentagon-anthropic-clash-over-military-ai-guardrails/

The first set of postdocs for our ERC project on popular government have just been advertised. These 3 postdocs will be based at UC Louvain with my co-PI Pierre-Etienne Vandamme and focus on contemporary democratic theory. Apply! jobs.uclouvain.be/Personnelsci...

Runciman's Rawls: in which I voice my complaint about how David Runciman chooses to misrepresent Rawls in order to provide a foil for his own views about how political philosophy should be done

Engelsberg Ideas just published my piece on Putin’s views vis-a-vis Trump’s claims to Greenland. It’s mainly a historical piece, where I try to understand how ideas about “spheres of influence” have evolved in the Kremlin’s thinking over the years.

A piece I wrote on 'Catastrophic Technology' for the American Philosophical Association blog - just up blog.apaonline.org/2026/02/16/t...

Die Lektüre dieses Artikels von Sven Altenburger über die republikanischen Ursprünge der allgemeinen Wehrpflicht ist gerade auch liberalen und linken Kritiker*innen einer Wiedereinführung der Wehrpflicht unbedingt ans Herz zu legen. www.blaetter.de/ausgabe/2026...

„Although Ukraine faces challenges, time is less & less on 🇷🇺 ’s side, however much Moscow portrays the situation otherwise. Moscow cannot wish away the fundamental mismatch between the military means it has available & the political aims it seeks to achieve.“ www.foreignaffairs.com/russia/ukrai...

Der Krieg gegen die Ukraine hat in Deutschland eine Debatte über die Notwendigkeit einer Wehrpflicht ausgelöst. Dabei werden die ideengeschichtlichen Grundlagen der Wehrpflicht von ihren Gegnern regelmäßig verkannt, nämlich Republikanismus und Egalitarismus: [€] www.blaetter.de/ausgabe/2026...

Are concerns about autonomous weapons overblown? In our latest podcast episode, Nathan Wood (@woodnathang.bsky.social) argues that we must move past catch-all terms and focus on the distinct legal and ethical challenges of specific systems.

My colleague Yue Guan is organising a fascinating workshop on (In)Voluntary Compliance in Aarhus (9–10 June), which I’m glad to take part in. Special focus on mandatory vaccination and conscription, but open to wide range of policies and approaches. CfP (deadline 15 Feb): cas.au.dk/globale-stud...

interesting new CFP - with a Cambridge Forum on AI, Militarism, and Security. realities-of-algorithmic-warfare.nl/2026/01/12/c...

In der Januar-Ausgabe der @blaetter.bsky.social schreibe ich zur Ideengeschichte der Wehrpflicht – speziell ihrer demokratischen Tradition und neoliberalen Deformation.

Neuer Text von mir für den @verfassungsblog.de – ein egalitäres Plädoyer gegen Wehrpflicht und Auswahllotterie, für eine allgemeine Dienstpflicht → verfassungsblog.de/soldaten-weh...

Neuer Text von mir für den @verfassungsblog.de – ein egalitäres Plädoyer gegen Wehrpflicht und Auswahllotterie, für eine allgemeine Dienstpflicht → verfassungsblog.de/soldaten-weh...

🚨New article by @jimgoldgeier.bsky.social and me in @twqgw.bsky.social: “NATO Did Not Cause Putin’s Imperial War.” A short 🧵. 1/4 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

📬 Ab heute im Briefkasten: Die Januar-»Blätter«! Mit @lisalandenberger.bsky.social, @krstorevic.bsky.social, @svenaltenburger.bsky.social, @susannegoetze.bsky.social, @annikajoeres.bsky.social, @robertosimanowski.bsky.social, @judithkohlenberger.bsky.social uvm 👉 www.blaetter.de/ausgabe/2026...

"Bürgerschaft: Aktuelle Entwicklungspfade und konzeptuelle Neubestimmungen" - diesem Thema widmen sich vom 18. bis zum 20. März die Sektion Politische Theorie und Ideengeschichte und alle, die sich ihr verbunden fühlen. Somit geht es im Frühjahr um die... https://www.theorieblog.de/?p=30301

📢 CfP: Military Institutions and Democratic Resilience Panel at the International Congress on Political Theory (Passau, 5–7 October 2026) Looking forward to receiving submissions until 15 December! tinyurl.com/military-dem...

"I got the sense that the German military is more popular in Vilnius than in (the East German city of) Görlitz" Silly article title, but some interesting nuggets on concerns regarding domestic support of re-arming Bundeswehr & slow withdrawal of the US from NATO www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Carrie Lee gives a great rebuttal to that war on the rocks piece.

✨Happy to share that I will be joining Oxford’s @blavatnikschool.bsky.social as a two-year Walter Benjamin postdoc from February 2026, continuing my political theory research on military institutions

🗣️ JOB! Professor of Political Theory and the History of Political Thought at Friedrich Schiller University Jena 📅 Deadline - 11 December 2025 berufungsportal.uni-jena.de?showProcedur...

My new piece for @jacobinmag.bsky.social reviewing "The Democratic Marketplace" jacobin.com/2025/11/capi...

#CfP: Papers for the 2nd #TheoryCongress ‘Backsliding, Resilience, Renewal? Democracy in Eras of Transformation’ can be submitted until 15 December. Panels will be held in either German or English. 👇Below the link to the call. There you will also find the link to the overview of the panels.👇

#CfP: Für den 2. #Theoriekongress "Backsliding, Resilienz, Erneuerung? Demokratie in Zeiten des Wandels" können bis zum 15. Dezember Beiträge für die ausgeschriebenen Panels eingereicht werden. 👇Unten der Link zum Call. Dort findet ihr auch den Link zur Übersicht über die Panels.👇

As of today, 'Who Will Defend Europe?' is available in paperback with an updated preface. I really did hope that by now, a year after first publication, some of Europe's defence emergency would have been addressed and some of the warnings in the book would have been proven wrong. amzn.to/4cFI1b6

📢 CfP: Military Institutions and Democratic Resilience Panel at the International Congress on Political Theory (Passau, 5–7 October 2026). Looking forward to submissions! tinyurl.com/military-dem...

Field “offers a lucid analytical template of New Right thought, along with penetrating analyses of some of its major figures such as Patrick Deneen, Yoram Hazony, and Adrian Vermeule.” @lkatfield.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...

Research Assistant (War Studies) King's College London - School of Security Studies School Office #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPK464/r...

Now available in the US. To help understand what norms Trump is breaking, Kori Schake's history of American civil-military relations.

Ein neuer Leviathan-Sonderband befasst sich mit „Politischen Theorien öffentlicher Finanzen“. Welche Fragen und Themen verhandelt der Forschungszweig? Wir haben bei den Herausgeber:innen @aaronsahr.bsky.social, Eva Weiler und @huhnholz.bsky.social nachgefragt. www.soziopolis.de/nachgefragt-...

My new article, 'Citizenship Renunciation without Emigration', is now available (open access) in APSR @apsrjournal.bsky.social 🧵 doi.org/10.1017/S000...

„Der andere Ökonom“ nun auch bei mir angekommen🤩 Ich verlose ein Exemplar. Gewohntes Muster: Retweet = Teilnahme. Auslosung am 3. Oktober. #MaxWeber #Finanzsoziologie #Fiskalpolitologie

Neuer Aufsatz: (Wie) lässt sich eine Wehr- und Dienstpflicht normativ rechtfertigen? www.soziopolis.de/pflicht-frei...

Was leistet die wehrhafte Demokratie? Und was braucht es zu ihrer Verteidigung? Aus gegebenem Anlass veröffentlichen wir ein Dossier über Perspektiven, Potenziale und Probleme eines (wieder) aktuellen Konzepts. www.soziopolis.de/dossier/wehr...

Mit einem Essay der beiden Gastherausgeberinnen @monikaoberle.bsky.social und Tine Stein sowie Beiträgen von Hubertus Buchstein, Verena Frick, Thomas Goll, @svenaltenburger.bsky.social und Nina Leonhard.

"Why Civil and Military Conscription Deserve a Second Look" by Sven Altenburger. (@svenaltenburger.bsky.social) ubwp.buffalo.edu/jopblog/2025...

Think your taxes are a private matter? I argue otherwise in my new open access paper, out now in European Journal of Political Theory: doi.org/10.1177/1474...

Aus unserer Sektionsreihe im @nomosverlag.bsky.social: Burkhard Conrad @rotsinn.bsky.social hat eine Besprechung zu "Politische Grundbegriffe im 21. Jahrhundert", hrsg. von Tobias Adler-Bartels, @svenaltenburger.bsky.social, Verena Frick, Tobias Schottendorf & Tine Stein, veröffentlicht. 👇