I can't compete with this.

Part of the horror of how Trump revels in describing harm - “walking around without legs, without arms” re: the Iranian regime’s violence - is that he’s playing for audience effect. Dramatic or comedic, violence is entertainment material for him. You can tell here he’s setting up a punchline.

The APSA @interpretivemm.bsky.social Research Digest No. 2 is out! In addition to our usual 10 substantive articles, we highlight two state-of-the-discipline publications, including @jennpiscopo.bsky.social's excellent survey of LGBTQIA+ research. www.interpretivemethods.com/research-dig...

Have Vance and Trump said thank you?

Leqaa Kordia, in her own words, for @zeteo.com. Leqaa should be free. Her captors, and whichever outside organization collaborated with them, should be the ones in cages.

I read Kitchen Confidential while in cooking school, and probably watched every No Reservations episode at least twice. Bourdain's thoughtful amplification of cuisines and cultures was inspirational. I would give a lot to hear him respond to Trump's "I'm not learning your damn language." RIP

Incredibly moving piece on the tensions of Iranian diaspora. My colleague and friend Narges Bajoghli identifies an “anguished double consciousness”: deep loathing for the Iranian regime but unwillingness to celebrate the war’s deaths and destruction. nymag.com/intelligence...

Trying to tune out the creepy warmongering swirling around Turkey. A reality is that the daughter of urban planner and academic Tayfun Kahraman is growing up waiting for her father while he waits for justice. He’s one of those, including Osman Kavala, unjustly jailed in the “Gezi Park” trial

So according to the WSJ a US Senator conspired with another country to manipulate the US into starting a war, am I getting this right

Victims in our countries seldom get profiled and humanised in Western media. This is a portrait of a life cut short. What a tragedy. "Saleh Ahmed (55) lived in the UAE as an expat for 25 years, sending under £500 per month in earnings to Bangladesh for his wife and four children."

This week was dire. Very tough for scholars from MENA who are studying/working abroad. I am continually impressed by those who join our Zoom sessions despite so many challenges. This week a frequent participant defended her PhD dissertation! Next week we begin Week 150. Email me if interested

Scream this from the rooftops. Trump and bros are turning violence and even death into entertainment. Sometimes it’s masked ICE. Sometimes it’s a mashup of clips from Top Gun with real “kill” footage. They’re in the business of selling violence. They vilify care about civilian casualties as “woke”

My article for @brookings.edu with @hamzehhadad.bsky.social on the value of Iraqi stability for the region, and the cost of allowing it to descend into the regional war: www.brookings.edu/articles/ira...

In case anyone's unclear about the identity politics of the SecDef's vision of the US' war in the Middle East. Others in the US govt have different motivations, hence the cross-talk. But the civilizationalist Us v Them framing is clear from Hegseth. It's written all over him (literally).

A Turkish official's depiction of the Iranian missile shot down by NATO forces as "off course" - whether targeted at İncirlik air base or not - makes a lot of sense. It's in Turkey's interest, for many reasons, to signal they don't want a rupture with Iran. But that NATO's there if Iran pushes.

The mass murder of civilians in Gaza, the brazen attacks on hospitals and schools, without any accountability has created a new kind of warfare that should terrify and enrage all of us. Every child lost is someone’s whole world. Every life lost matters www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

If I had to imagine the most abominable agglomeration of autocratization, foreign policy, capital, and tech a year ago, there's no way I could have come up with this.

Trump admin briefing that Iran planned missile attacks on US positions in region which this attack preempted is the most insulting, laughable lie I’ve heard in my career, and I’ve heard a lot of them. It isn’t remotely credible and frankly reeks of desperation reaching for any justification.

NEW: X Is *drowning* in disinformation following US and Israel’s attack on Iran. WIRED has reviewed hundreds of posts on X that promote misleading claims about the locations and scale of the attack. read @davidgilbert.bsky.social:

From our team in the Middle East: As Israeli airstrikes hit Tehran this morning, millions of Iranians received mysterious push notifications saying that “help is on the way”, promising amnesty if they surrender. wrd.cm/4l0QScB

Adding our populist foreign policy take with @berkesen.bsky.social and Tudor Onea to the bevy of pieces on how Trump’s attack on Iran becomes possible Personalization, hyper-mediatization, anti-elitism, grandiose history, faux revisionism, extortion, self interest foreignpolicy.com/2026/02/19/t...

Good thread on how no one could stop Trump’s illegal, baseless war on Iran. A NATO ally might complicate things though. Turkey denies reports of providing airspace for strikes. Turkey’s diplomatic efforts at avoiding conflict failed, but it may still try to insert itself to mediate an outcome.

Yeah this spin by Summers is abominable. It means to cover a multitude of sins we're now aware of. It hopes the public will forget how he referred to someone he considered a mentee. AND it obscures who does his work in his absence. Hoping most decide not to listen to his forthcoming "commentary."

The many mid-career military personnel I taught at SAIS are some of the most diligent, talented students I've worked with. I learned from them just as they learned from me and their classmates.

First instinct is: if only US FP decision-makers knew more about signaling and deterrence. But the US doesn’t function by that logic now. Populist leaders deliberately provoke international crises to extract concessions and (try to) gain status at home + abroad foreignpolicy.com/2026/02/19/t...

I still remember the biggest pushback I got in drawing lessons from Turkey for the US was on media. It was an Oct 2024 event. People thought no way would US media get captured. But when we stop thinking "state takeover/closure" (although VOA/PBS...) and think crony capitalism, it's much clearer.

Deadline Sunday March 1st. Last year I saw first-hand how valuable these @apsamena.bsky.social RDG workshops are. I highly encourage PhD students and other early career researchers to apply. Feel free to reach out with any questions. Link to submit: apsa.wufoo.com/forms/zsyzjz...

🚨 Please share widely! 🚨 I'm hiring a postdoc (from Aug 1) to help build a new research program on politically sustainable immigration policies at Notre Dame. Looking for a social scientist with strong quant skills, familiarity with new computational tools, and interest in public-facing research.

Support local news! @51st.news is trying to expand amid massive layoffs at WaPo, but they need our help!

Thanks for sharing, @Turkeyrecap! Trump’s whims are unique but his foreign policy approach isn't. We identify 7 pillars of Populist FP: Personalization, hyper-mediatization, "grand" history, anti-elitism, revisionism, extortion, domestic dividends And we show their self-reinforcing cycle.

What authoritarianism researchers call everyday resistance. Small contention. Life as politics. Focusing too heavily on the revolution/autocrat’s ouster misses all the minor, everyday acts of humor, subversion, and resilience from Day 1 that make Day 1000 possible.

I wrote about the epidemic of collapsing buildings in Tripoli, north Lebanon. Locals fear their building could be next. www.aljazeera.com/features/202...

There's three votes for anything on the supreme court. If trump said "I'm the god-king of arrakis" he'd get three votes and a lengthy opinion about the long history and tradition of english common law with regards to the spice melange

Pressure on foreign media, too, is increasing in Turkey. Today, seasoned Deutsche Welle reporter Alican Uludağ was detained for "insulting" president Erdogan. He should be released immediately. #DW #JournalismIsNotACrime

The US' populist turn under Trump isn't just in domestic politics. Trump’s whims and grudges may be unique but his approach to foreign policy shares a lot with other populist-led states like Hungary, India, and Turkey. We identify seven pillars of foreign policy. foreignpolicy.com/2026/02/19/t...

Müthiş bir haber! Yolu (daha) açık olsun

My take on Trump’s foreign policy with @berkesen.bsky.social and Tudor Onea is out! Trump’s whims may be unique but his approach to FP isn’t. We identify seven pillars of populist FP, with examples from Hungary, India, Turkey, and Venezuela as well as the US. foreignpolicy.com/2026/02/19/t...

The @apsamena.bsky.social RDG was the most productive conference experience I've had in a while. As a discussant, I learned a ton and felt my academic batteries recharge. Highly recommend this for early career scholars of MENA (including Turkey!) Deadline March 1. web.apsanet.org/mena/wp-cont...

It’s an honor to have your film described as “fascinating.” Screen International’s review of Who Killed Alex Odeh? says we “diligently pull together the threads of a complex case in which one incident opens a window on to a wider picture of Arab-Israeli relations.” That is a perfect description!

Every other Friday or so I post the same news about the MENA solidarity writing group I run. I keep doing so because, often, at least one person joins. All levels are welcome. If you have grad students from/working on MENA who could use motivation, structure, and community, please reach out.

Dear friends on Bluesky, it's been an overwhelming week since the mass layoff at the Post. I'll be continuing the work and would be so grateful if you sign up here to keep up with my future journalism. docs.google.com/forms/d/1dlh...

At this point I don't really think of ICE's masks as being used for wearers' safety. I think of them as used for victims' fear. I get the logic that masks can boost anonymity, limit doxxing etc. But I tend to see "masked men" more as a victim-intimidation, wearer-emboldenment tactic.

Read an article using interpretive methods you found super valuable? Maybe you published one (congrats!)? As APSA IMM Research Digest coordinator, I'm compiling our 2nd issue. You can message or email me (self-)submissions. And check out our first issue! www.interpretivemethods.com/research-dig...

Removal proceedings against Turkish PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk FINALLY terminated. Trump officials, especially Rubio, said Öztürk was a security threat. They knew they had no evidence. They were testing the waters. Öztürk co-wrote an op-ed and was snatched off the street for it. Geçmiş olsun

Ask Davutoğlu how well "zero problems with neighbors" went down

A separate GoFundMe account was established for international employees who support Washington Post reporting but weren't covered by the same benefits of the Guild. Includes local researchers, translators, transportation personnel and more. www.gofundme.com/f/support-fo...

Today is 3 years since twin earthquakes in Turkey and Syria killed 53,000+ and left millions displaced. Faulty prep and response by the government compounded rage, grief, and frustration many felt. And still feel. To help, our Zoom writing solidarity group is still going. Email me for details

Knowing that a lot of fantastic, dedicated journalists in DC are looking for opportunities: JHU's Agora Institute has a call out for Visiting Fellows. The 2026-27 theme is Democracy and the Media. It's nonresident & carries a modest stipend (unfortunately no benefits). It's open to practitioners.

I highly encourage grad students + other early career scholars of MENA to apply for @apsamena.bsky.social RDG. Travel grants available for participants. I was a discussant last year, and the full-day workshop was really rich. A super productive set of discussions. Please share with students!

This travesty is what happens when you lay off all the arts and culture writers. Except those covering how Trump is targeting arts and culture.