Happy to share that I’ll be spending next year at the IAS in Princeton as a member of the school of social science (with fearless leader @benbraun.bsky.social). Luckily for me, their standards seem to have been lowered somewhat since the days of Einstein, Oppenheimer, and Hirschman.

The world is a less interesting place with the passing of Kimuli Kasara. She was brilliant, funny, and caring. And was loved by many. She was a great friend and confidante. We will all miss her terribly. Rest in peace. fas.columbia.edu/news/memoria...

Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs is hiring to fill the Arnold Saltzman Professor of War and Peace Studies—a full professor (/of practice) level position that comes with directorship of the Saltzman Institute. Please apply!

Something political science would benefit bigly from: World Politics style multi-book review articles where none of the books are written by political scientists. For example: one on “zones” featuring @atossaaraxia.bsky.social, Slobodian, etc. Let’s bring new stuff into the field!

Academic job alert: The International Relations department at LSE is looking to hire two assistant professors, in international security and in IPE (climate, environment, global business). App deadline: 7th Sep 2025. Details👇 jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/I/... jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/I/...

So, Columbia paid out $221M so that the Trump administration would resume payments on $400M in existing grants (i.e., signed work contracts) and so that Columbia could compete for future HHS/NIH awards. Lucy didn't even wait a week before pulling up the football.

A very worthwhile read from my colleague, Suresh Naidu. We are between a rock and a hard place, and it’s not particularly helpful to pretend that contracting with Trump settles anything. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/o...

My vacation rental has Why Nations Fail on the bookshelf, cementing its status as beach reading.

the single image every genuinely freedom-loving american has been waiting for

New working paper! with @calvin-thrall.bsky.social and David Lindsey, we collect the largest existing dataset on diplomatic personnel, and use it to analyze gender disparities in U.S. Foreign Service assignments draft here: mattmalis.github.io/files/pdf/LM... 🧵 below

🚨 New working paper 🚨 In an era of political nationalization, here’s something interesting: locally organized business interest groups—eg “chambers of commerce”—are more popular than ever. Why is that?

🚨 WP w/ @acalacino.bsky.social & @hayleypring.bsky.social It’s been a turbulent decade of globalization backlash. Populist projects wanna take back control everywhere. Focusing on the case of oil and Brexit, we offer a story of the danger of this narrative and concrete merits of multilateralism: 🧵

📢 [New Research] 📢 We tracked EVERY S&P 500 company's reaction to Fed announcements for 20 years The Paris Climate Agreement didn't just change environmental policy—it completely flipped how Wall Street prices sustainability during rate hikes. From -28.5bp penalty to +64.5bp protection 📈🧵

My ambassador paper with Shu Fu is out in @worldpolitics.bsky.social! Ambassadors promote domestic exports to a host country and represent the interests of their home country at large. However, are trade benefits equally distributed domestically? 🧵 muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

At this point, the primary value of interviewing Trump appointees seems to be documenting the administration’s lies for posterity.

A real IPE legend—Ted was one of the first to really grok the political implications of the rise of the multinational firm, and we are all richer for it. May he rest in peace.

Happy to circulate a revised version of our paper, "Exiting Russia" - on what did (not) happen with MNCs leaving Russia in the first 18 months post-invasion. Outcomes both reinforce and challenge key theories in international political economy. www.rwellhausen.com/uploads/6/9/...

The world is bad! Might as well read some cool work on scientific interdependence and CRISPR! Now out in @isq-jrnl.bsky.social Innovation and Interdependence: Evidence from Gene-Editing Technology (with Tyler Pratt) academic.oup.com/isq/article/... 🧬⬇️

1/ Excited to share our new paper on measuring workforce politics with @reubenhurst.bsky.social and Justin Frake, where we measure the partisan composition (Democrats and Republicans) for over 3.5 million companies and nearly 28 million workers.

I can't emphasize enough that the most important thing journalists can do right now is publish exactly this kind of article

“For the Duration”: A poem by Katie Ford

Plan to destroy US academia: 1. Create moral panic 2. Withdraw funding 3. Use ICE to deter international students 4. Make university president a job that nobody wants (👇) 5 will be syllabus moderation and post-tenure review, as some red states are already doing. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/n...

The 🙏 doctrine

Earlier this week five of my senior colleagues wrote a response to the demands placed on Columbia. The link is here. I also post a short note from Senior Faculty in the Department of Political Science who endorse their response. open.substack.com/pub/danieldr...

This attack, like the one against Columbia, is being conducted in bad faith on false pretenses. This model will be used elsewhere. Universities have to understand the game that is being played here and respond accordingly. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/u...

Modi at 0,0 is totally fascinating.

This morning, Joe Goldstein has an exclusive look at what research was cut when the Trump administration canceled $400M in federal funding to Columbia. It's not an exhaustive list because the folks at Columbia are still trying to figure out what was cut and what survived. But it's a start. 🧵

Proud of my colleagues. Could not agree more.

“Small pigs bleed out faster than big ones” is a great line in case you ever need to explain Stigler (1971) to a farmer.

“There are 13 million legal foreign residents (green card holders) in the US. If the administration can deport Khalil, it means those 13 million people must live in fear if they dare speak up or publish something that runs afoul of government views.” journalism.columbia.edu/news/cjs-fac...

Perhaps the clearest messaging I’ve received on the effect of tariffs in a world of supply chains. Courtesy of a US company that makes…. pet hair cleaning products.

Good morning S&P 500

The Moynihan Train Hall boldly asks the question: what if there was a train station that cost $1.6b yet had absolutely none of the amenities that one might expect a train station to have?

Histories wanted! Are you a recently terminated federal employee? Historians want to record your story! There's so much you know; let's get it on the record. You may record anonymously if you wish. www.oah.org/2025/03/04/f...

In the NYC area next Friday, March 7? Join us at Columbia Law School for a one-day conference, “Bylaws, Bills, and Ballots: Understanding the Nexus Between Business, Law, and Politics in the 21st Century.” Registration details at the link: web.cvent.com/event/674ed3...

Dean Karlan, Chief Economist at USAID, has resigned www.npr.org/sections/goa...

Gordon Hanson, @drodrik.bsky.social, & my chapter for @nber.org's upcoming volume on place-based policy. We discuss the history of innovations in place-based policies in the US & unpack the "supply chains" through which these policies are implemented in different domains | www.nber.org/papers/w33511

Right on the money, from my esteemed colleague. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

A question to be reckoned with long after Trump leaves office: now that we all know this *can* happen, how will we possibly convince competent people to work for the federal government?

After witnessing what happened with the J6 insurrectionists, not shocking that Trump apparatchiks aren’t worried about things like “the legality of their actions.”

Niche question: I used to use an app called Researcher, which gave you an RSS-style feed of newly published articles from whichever journals you wanted. It shut down. Any suggestions for a replacement?

It probably goes without saying that the end result of a return to the patronage system would not, in fact, be “efficiency.”

Global War On Terroir

Apropos of nothing, thinking of Eisenhower’s assessment of conservatives who want to deregulate and cut social services.