Appears that a US submarine may have sunk an Iranian destroyer off Sri Lanka. That wasn’t on my bingo card.

An extremely timely project!!!!

Yet again:

Yet again:

I roll this perpetually-relevant meme out every once in awhile:

Reminiscent of Stalin telling a group of visiting Indian communists to advocate the unification of India, Pakistan, and Ceylon (digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/rec...):

Chairman Mao dispensed some wildly unhelpful advice over the years; this nugget was to Nasser after the 1967 war (from Lorenz Luthi's "Cold Wars"):

China set to widen footprint in Bangladesh as India's ties decline en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/b...

an administration staffed to the top with degenerate liars

The Pentagon struck a conciliatory tone toward Beijing in its new defense strategy, stating that its overarching goal is to establish “strategic stability” in the Indo-Pacific region www.wsj.com/politics/nat... via @WSJ

Happy to announce the 1st ever @isanet.bsky.social conference in South Asia in August 2026. Hosted in Colombo, Sri Lanka, we welcome proposals from scholars based in and/or studying South Asian politics & international relations, but also broader global themes ofc www.isanet.org/Conferences/...

Hyde Park is hip and cool: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

winter Chicago

I use class presentations and an oral exam alongside papers now in my undergrad seminar (and blue book final all by side papers in my UG lecture): “Professors are turning to this old-school method to stop AI use on exams” wapo.st/4pU5mNf

Sushila Karki government beset by court decisions kathmandupost.com/politics/202... via @kathmandupost

My thoughts on US-India relations in the Trump era for Chicago Council on Global Affairs: - US deeply unreliable & mercurial - Unclear if even a weakened Trump would lead to a rapid shift back toward pro-India policies - India needs to engage more broadly in US, especially beyond the coasts (1/2)

Illinois & Chicago stuck in "high tax, massive debt, comparatively unremarkable public services" equilibrium that will take either crisis or real political creativity to change: www.statecraft.pub/p/should-the...

"Casinos, high-rises and fraud: The BBC visits a bizarre city built on scams" bbc.com/news/article...

huge sale on Cornell University Press books:

I could spend my life just watching camera release videos: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMXV...

Really important survey from @ChicagoCouncil: “the bipartisan embrace of US-China competition no longer holds among the public, with partisan differences in perceived threats from China and disagreements on current US-China trade policy” globalaffairs.org/research/pub...

From Brooklyn Heights

Pakistani general's Dhaka visit explores stronger defence ties www.thedailystar.net/news/banglad...

Border patrol agents deployed tear gas on the 3700 block of North Kildare where residents say a landscape worker, a resident, and a woman on a bike were detained. Video from a resident.

Chicago's SkyDeck is pretty awesome (first time I've been here despite living in Chicago 19 of the past 25 years):

Afghanistan-Pakistan clashes: www.dawn.com/news/1948219...

Can't say I am loving the "Donald Trump sends combat forces to Chicago on an obvious pretext" experience.

Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

Based on his track record at UChicago, there is truly no one I would less want to be in a foxhole with than Daniel Diermeier, so very unsurprising news here: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

current draft syllabus for my Political Violence lecture class: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8swsa...

current draft syllabus for my Political Violence lecture class: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8swsa...

Fun video on assessing US cities' "Majorness": www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrj-...

vintage Canon FD 50/1.4: surprisingly sharp in the middle, weird, fun bokeh in the background

A cool find for the 6 people on earth (including me) with overlapping interests in photography and Chicago politics:

Molten water

South Asia has seen 3 governments fall due to mass protests in as many years. But returning to the status quo or simply holding elections isn't enough, real change is needed, @pstaniland.bsky.social on the current wave of protests impacting the region. www.journalofdemocracy.org/online-exclu...

Plus more info from university yesterday suggests a lot of the internet coverage of this stuff - "UChicago goes bankrupt in MAGA-inspired self-immolation aimed at annihilating human knowledge while becoming nothing more than a start-up incubator" - was not correct

A key takeaway, including from the budget town hall today, is that the UChicago debt situation is getting better rather than worse, plus some of the spicier internet claims appear to be hyperbolic/inaccurate. Still challenges, but not a cataclysm (i.e. my dept is hiring 2 lines):

I have a new article out in the Journal of Democracy comparing mass protests and government collapse in 2025 Nepal, 2024 Bangladesh, and 2022 Sri Lanka: www.journalofdemocracy.org/online-exclu...

Some clarification from UChicago admin about finances; the most amusing bullet point is the "No, the University has not lost money on cryptocurrency" one: provost.uchicago.edu/announcement...

I have a new article out in the Journal of Democracy comparing mass protests and government collapse in 2025 Nepal, 2024 Bangladesh, and 2022 Sri Lanka: www.journalofdemocracy.org/online-exclu...

An H-Diplo/ISSF Jervis Forum Roundtable on Roger Petersen's "Death, Dominance, and State-Building" (I wrote the introduction): issforum.org/roundtables/...

Excited to be joining the @global-affairs.bsky.social as a nonresident senior fellow in Asia Studies:

President Trump’s recent levying of tariffs has prompted India to reassess its relationship with the US. The Council was pleased to host a roundtable discussion led by @pstaniland.bsky.social and @kfriedhoff.bsky.social on what shifting US-India relations mean for the US, China, and the region.

Nepal's government steps down in face of spiraling protests and police violence, unclear who is running the show and what comes next.