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...

It’s publication day 🥳 my book is officially out in the world thanks to @stanfordpress.bsky.social, and I celebrated by giving it the 6+1 treatment at the @duckofminerva.bsky.social.

American Conquest by @szarejko.bsky.social is out now! "This exciting, vital book places the frontier at the center of US foreign policy and forces us to rethink nineteenth-century American foreign relations." —Eric Grynaviski www.sup.org/books/politi...

So, yeah, we're making another go at posting more content at the @duckofminerva.bsky.social. But whether or not that happens, we are restarting our Substack site, but as a mirror of the blog rather than an independent newsletter. New and backfill content should start appearing tonight or tomorrow AM

I know there's a lot happening today, but this is sneaking in under the radar. This proposed new rule would absolutely crush foreign PhD students, potentially making it impossible for them to enroll with any certainty of their ability to finish www.politico.com/news/2025/08...

The fact that so few colleges are willing to publicly talk about student visa issues says a lot about the state of higher education as the new academic year gets underway. www.insidehighered.com/news/global/...

Despite the subtitle @dandrezner.bsky.social gives a hopeful look at how Tufts (and I think many universities) are managing in the face of the Trump assault on higher education. open.substack.com/pub/danieldr...

My students aren't clamoring for me to bring "AI" into my Political Science classes, so why do I keep getting emails promoting "AI" in the classroom? Some thoughts at the @duckofminerva.bsky.social:

A new flyer and promo code for 20% off my forthcoming book at the @stanfordpress.bsky.social website: www.sup.org/books/politi...

Paul Musgrave is 100% correct here

Statement from the largest economics association about the BLS firing As context: AEA approximately never makes such public statements This is a big deal

Facts Will Not Save You hegemon.substack.com/p/facts-will...

I'm watching Mike Waltz's confirmation hearing for US ambassador to the UN. He was nominated by Donald Trump in May following his decision to bench Elise Stefanie, who'd sailed through her confirmation hearing in January. Waltz is the first man being publicly interviewed for this job since 2007.

From 2025, #JoGSS is run by a new editorial team headed by Ulrich Petersohn & @jamespattison.bsky.social. Read their editorial to learn about the vision and goals shaping the journal's next chapter 👉 doi.org/10.1093/jogs...

For the @duckofminerva.bsky.social, I wrote about some attempts to give IR a new conceptual foundation:

I reviewed Barry Buzan's recent book, Making Global Society: A Study of Humankind Across Three Eras (2023), for Political Science Quarterly. Some related thoughts coming soon at the @duckofminerva.bsky.social.

Academic friends, the calculation is simple: if you demonstrate to your administrators that they can automate your job away, they will then automate your job away

The Vatican’s Quiet Intelligence Legacy and Why It Matters Now On Easter Monday, Pope Francis died at the age of 88. His passing marked the end of a 12-year papacy characterized by a commitment to the poor, an insistence on peace over posturing, and an often-controversial emphasis on mercy over…

Sad news: Joe Nye has passed away. www.belfercenter.org/collection/r...

I reviewed Claudia Junghyun Kim’s very interesting book on the subnational politics of military basing for E-IR:

One of the things Brandon Valeriano @drbvaler.bsky.social and I bonded over was our shared blogging so I wrote a bit about him. Gone way too soon. saideman.blogspot.com/2025/03/big-...

My forthcoming Global Studies Quarterly paper with @adamblerner.bsky.social and @jarrodhayes.bsky.social is now available in pre-print! In this paper, we introduce the concept of dual vulnerability to climate change and discuss its applications in climate justice osf.io/preprints/so...

If you are at ISA, consider joining us on Sunday at 10:30am to discuss "The Gamer's Guide to International Relations." Andrew Szarejko (@szarejko.bsky.social) chairs with great discussants including...

Profiles in the Courage of University Administration

Currently reading: Nick Anderson’s new @cornellupress.bsky.social book, a fascinating project on bottom-up territorial expansion that I’ve been privileged to see evolve from conference papers to the book:

Fukuyama: “The truth of the matter is that implementation is part of policymaking; if a policy can’t be properly implemented, it shouldn’t be rolled out in the first place since it will simply contribute to the narrative of ineffective and incompetent government.” open.substack.com/pub/persuasi...

Coming fall 2025. We have a book cover:

Some end-of-year thoughts via @duckofminerva.bsky.social on the readings that inspired the best classroom discussions I oversaw this past year (with shout-outs to @carsonaust.bsky.social, @djmallinson.bsky.social, @leehannahwsu.bsky.social, and others):

New article with @briantfinch.bsky.social is now available online with OA at @risjnl.bsky.social We argue for broadening the scope of audience agency theorized in securitization by bringing in the ontological security lens, centering the importance of routines. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

I wrote about my recent book chapter, its detour into Game Studies, and the volume @michaelpamurphy.bsky.social and @misbah-hyder.bsky.social put together at the @duckofminerva.bsky.social:

I'm on the committee of APSA International Relations Theory section Nuno P. Monteiro Best Dissertation Award. Dissertations submitted in the last 2 calendar years are eligible. Nominations due 3/31/25. More information here: www.apsanet.org/section53 Submit away!

I’m happy to have a chapter alongside so many quality contributions in this volume:

Call for submissions to the Political Science Educator now fully open! Please send reflections, reviews, etc. by Dec. 15! We will try to work with all authors to ensure every submission is published. You do not need to be a section member to submit to the newsletter! (only to post announcements)

finally - it has been a *journey* - published @zachsdorfman.bsky.social's dive into how U.S. intelligence convinced itself that Pokemon Go might be a Chinese trap. foreignpolicy.com/2024/11/29/p...

I finally updated my website with the most recent version of my Politics and Video Games syllabus. tinyurl.com/3bvhbdd5 I also posted my latest syllabi for Media, Culture, and Politics (tinyurl.com/2p9mu9db) and Politics of the Undead (tinyurl.com/544dfbpd).

I just looked at my syllabus and realized that, by absolute chance, I have to teach about tariffs tomorrow

More on the mass resignation of editors of 𝘗𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘺 & 𝘗𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘈𝘧𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘴: an op-ed by yrs truly in The Guardian, about the commercial academic publishing scam #PolTheory #philsky #polisky #academicsky

I have a new post at the @duckofminerva.bsky.social on the frontier politics of Horizon (and my book project):

The debut episode of To Save Us from Hell is up! @marklgoldberg.bsky.social and I discuss what the Russia-North Korea deal means for UN (nothing good, alas), recent work on conflict in Gaza and Sudan, and who the next UN humanitarian relief chief should be www.globaldispatches.org/p/what-russi...

The 1992 election has some lessons for 2024 - but maybe not the ones you think. open.substack.com/pub/goodpoli...

From your lips to R2s ears. "Authors should not feel obliged to be innovative in all respects. In particular, they should not feel obliged to present a novel theory complete with new concepts for a set of findings that is adequately explained by an extant theory." www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Currently reading: @mevers90.bsky.social and Eric Grynaviski’s new book on the origins of “America’s Pacific Empire”. Summary here 👇

In which I make a lot of mouth noises and wild gesticulations about FALLOUT on TV, but also about other things (books, songs, comedy) that I'm digging right now.

Coming soon via my book project:

Coming up in the next slot at ISA: me and a bunch of other folks talking about Phil Cerny’s edited volume on “heterarchy”. www.routledge.com/Heterarchy-i...

Besides my own #ISA2024 panels, I think I’m most excited for an upcoming panel with papers on topics ranging from wargaming to Disco Elysium.