Realising belatedly it's a similar problem to long-term storage of nuclear waste in the absence of historical continuity. Besides the famous "This place is not a place of honor" meme, people tasked with studying the problem in the 80s also considered the possibility of an "Atomic Priesthood"

forget "hybrid warfare", "covert action", or "secret statecraft". the correct term for the irregular use of military ways & means is WARCRAFT, but we won't call it that because we're cowards

There's a cool chapter in the book 'Terrorism and Affordance' (2012) arguing that US/UK manufacture and export of 'civilianized' revolvers to Russia made possible the emergence of modern revolutionary terrorism

Thrilled this is out! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 🧵 Do we have 2 kinds of beliefs? Some beliefs seem insensitive to evidence and rarely guide behavior, etc. To explain this, several theories divide belief into 2 types. I argue the explanation isn't in the *mind* but in the *world*

A generation ship is the only form of interstellar travel viable without FTL. One of the main challenges in this would be making sure that successive generations maintain the mission they did not opt into, making political scientists the most important scientists for space exploration.

Why European leaders should oppose the attacks on Iran and affirm the limits on the use of force established by the UN Charter: in the latest #PRIFblog post, Sidney Michelini offers political, strategic, and moral reasons. blog.prif.org/2026/03/03/a...

eLearning 2.0: our fully revised course on Arms Control, Disarmament, and Non-Proliferation is now online! The new version features fresh content, more expert diversity, a new user-friendly design, and flexible learning. Find the course here: nonproliferation-elearning.eu @eunpdc.bsky.social

LMMs may be hastening the epistemic poisoning of an already denuded social niche but i'm getting a kick out of the new genre of crank essay swamping google scholar: Retired Civil Engineer Dad Develops Mathematical-Political-Theological Proof That He is the Only True Republican

[foreign mercenaries making up ~40% of UAEs armed forces]: lol. lmao

"It's not a war. It's a Special Military Operation. And... [staffer cuts in to whisper something]... ok apparently that name is taken. It's a Major Combat Operation now. Which is different, and also not a war"

I don't think 20th century IR theory designed around a post-1945 order is going to help much in a 21st century world without order

Clear arguments from my @prif.org colleague, Sidney Michelini. Insane that one has to argue publically for what is obviously the only morally, politically, and strategically sound position.

at work hiding out in the Sensitive Compartmented Introversion Facility

JOB Assistant Professor of Political Theory University of Cambridge @thecambridgeschool.bsky.social www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/univers...

no one needs, or asked, for this, and yet...

This sounds like a shitpost but I am being serious for once. What are the best IR/FPA works on stupidity? Because from a theoretical standpoint, the ability to signal clearly and interpret the signals being sent correctly is nontrivially important in the bargaining process.

Oldie: The Psychology of Military Incompetence by Dixon Critique: Pois and Langer’s Command Failure in War. Carl was already there. The primary fault of the commander is Eigensinn — lit. “own sense,” aka unresponsive to the actuality of the world; “authoritarianism” (D) or ”inflexibility“ (P&L)

i honestly never thought we'd half-ass a war with iran. it seemed like the end goal of a certain strain of powerful foreign policy interest such that if it ever happened it would be the culmination of decades of careful plotting and maneuvering. but nope, they got there and they're just YOLO'ing it

US gov has a habit of dissolving counter-deception functions the moment they become politically relevant. 2016 Obama-Clapper end NIC Foreign Denial & Deception Committee; 2024 Trump-Blinken close StateDept Global Engagement Centre; 2025 Trump-Rubio kill ODNI Foreign Malign Influence Center. 2026:

*I don't think LLMs are very "cyber" *Actual "cyber" ideas and approaches and people, they're so old now that they've become historically exotic, even humanly tragic youtu.be/Qi6jaKaaaEs?...

"From trust to trusting: Bringing a practice perspective to bear on trust research in IR" Just out with @coco-journal.bsky.social! The article explores how ideas from practice theory can improve our understanding of trust in IR. @normativeorders.bsky.social @prif.org @trust-ir.bsky.social 1/3

When the magazine asks me how the 2 pieces I promised them are progressing

Trump is ready to accept the $50 million reward for capturing Maduro.

I’m going to call it. Today is the day we’ll look back on and say was the end of de facto US hegemony. The Trump regime have been dismantling US soft power, but this is full abdication in favour of Trump-Putin spheres of influence international relations as competing petrostates.

YIKES: NSO floats Pegasus spyware used in hypothetical "time of domestic crisis" in 🇺🇸America. I believe they won't stop lobbying until they get Pegasus into USA. To hack Americans. 1/

Today is the official UK publication day for Silicon Empires! I'm excited to have it out and hear what people think. There's an enormous amount happening every day in AI, and it's difficult to gain a stable perspective. I wrote the book to try and get some secure hold on that constant flux. 🧵

terrifying myself by imagining that, somewhere out there, someone with more security clearance than brain cells is planning covert operations using chat gpt

religiondispatches.org/latest-ice-r... there it is. it is really out in the open

This is wild but I went on my fav podcast QAA Pod to harp on about the phoney baloney NatSec social science of Disinfo Studies. Big thanks to @travisview.bsky.social and Julian! www.patreon.com/posts/135278...

*The "Ljublen Set" Ancient Roman Multitool was unearthed from a dual grave with a married woman in it, while the "Ventimiglia Set" Ancient Roman Multitool came from a grave with an alleged woman's hairpin in it

starting to think we might need an Ingrate Man Theory of History

Surprisingly, we find that users who share unreliable URLs are more likely to share science. Moreover, this is particularly concentrated in more untrustworthy domains classified as fake/hoax or conspiracy theory. (3/10)

Just arrived in Kraków for the 2025 'EISA European Workshops in International Studies Conference'. Any friends fancy some pierogi? #EWIS2025

Do you think Trump’s insistence that it be called the “12 Day War” is because someone briefed him on the Six-Day War and he wants ‘his’ war to be bigger?

Another short piece from me (apologies) on the pitfalls of military tech and VC logics and their fraught relationship to the realities of war. In this piece, I bring back Norbert Wiener to illustrate that technological progress should have ethical limits. untoldmag.org/when-war-bec...

I’m halfway into this amazing work by Erik Rechborn-Kjennerud that just dropped. I assume it will quickly become a go-to book in the genre. If you are interested in how and with what consequences militaries wage war, do yourself a favor and grab a copy. direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon...

This is one of the worst violations of research ethics I've ever seen. Manipulating people in online communities using deception, without consent, is not "low risk" and, as evidenced by the discourse in this Reddit post, resulted in harm. Great thread from Sarah, and I have additional thoughts. 🧵

excellent thread on our present political economy from my pal the Wolf

@thelastinstance.bsky.social weighing in on LLMs as symbolic prostheses: codepoetics.substack.com/p/ai-as-symb...

it's strange to read a scientific or scholarly paper and not find a single question mark. i can understand wanting to avoid a rhetorical style, but isn't addressing doubt the point of any inquiry?

All eyes on Serbia today. Time for the EU to end its cynical & anti-democratic cooperation with Vučić—a man who was Milošević’s actual propaganda minister. No deal with Vučić & Rio Tinto for lithium (DE); no sale of fighter jets (FR); no cooperation with repressive Serbian intelligence. #pumpaj

Standing with #belgrade - at least live on TV. The estimated number of 800,000 participants has just been announced on N1 - that was compared in percentage terms to 4,000,000 people taking part in a demonstration in Germany. #pumpaj

Extraordinary scenes in Serbia’s capital Belgrade right now. Around 500,000 people are on the streets in what may be the biggest protest in Serbian history. All demanding the resignation of President Vučić & his government. What began as a student protest is now a full democratic uprising. 🇷🇸

A digital ‘withdrawal’ from Europe? The U.S. halted all cyber operations – marking a stark shift from the previous administration’s cybersecurity strategy. On #PRIFblog, @cyberpeace1.bsky.social takes a close look at the consequences and why this policy shift matters. blog.prif.org/2025/03/13/u...

the only thing that can stop a Bad State with a weaponized security apparatus is a Good State with a weaponized security apparatus