Coming from @stanfordpress.bsky.social in the summer of 2026! @lisablaydes.bsky.social and I edited a book "Ba'thist Iraq through Archives" with a star studded list of contributors!

September 29 is the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Babyn Yar. On this day in 1941, the occupying Nazi forces began mass executions of civilians in Kyiv. This horrific tragedy took over 100,000 innocent lives. Never forget. Never again.🕯️🧵

Thrilled to share our latest article in the TPV special issue on motivations! We explore how gendered narratives and misogyny act as a powerful shared language—connecting identity factors across far-right movements in Australia and the UK 👇🏼 doi.org/10.1080/0954...

Retired firefighter Benjamin Broadwell Hagans, 96, has emerged as an eyewitness to the savage executions of three soldiers in 1942, The War Horse reports.

The Pentagon has finally gotten around to announcing Jonathan Braga as the next commander of JSOC, succeeding Mitch Bradley who is taking over SOCOM. Braga joined Delta Force in 2002, was a squadron commander there in the surge era, then commanded Delta 2015-17 when it was running the war in Syria.

I’m so gratified that some of the people I learn most from on this subject — Jim Mattis, Peter Feaver, @eliotacohen.bsky.social, @heidiurben.bsky.social, and Richard Kohn found my book worthwhile.

Per AFRICOM there have been 68 US airstrikes in Somalia this year. Plus there’s one declared ground operation. By our tally that makes this year the new overall peak of strikes in Somalia www.newamerica.org/future-secur...

A U.S.-led coalition captured a senior member of the Islamic State group in northwest Syria, state media and a war monitor reported. It was not immediately clear if the man is the IS supreme leader.

Shot (2019) direct.mit.edu/isec/article... . Chaser (2025)

Got our first book review for Non-State Special Operations: Capabilities and Effects in @terpolv.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

New at CBS News – (a story that I’ve been invested in since covering the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida) — West Point Cadets honor Junior ROTC cadet killed in Parkland shooting who helped others escape. www.cbsnews.com/news/west-po...

#RIP naval aviator and astronaut Jim Lovell who passed away on Thursday at the age of 97. A 1952 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Lovell flew F2H Banshee fighters before being selected for NASA’s Gemini program. In 1970, he commanded the near-tragic Apollo 13 mission.

1/2 According to Yicai, China's ten biggest automobile export markets are, in order, Mexico, the UAE, Russia, Brazil, Belgium, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Australia, the Philippines, and Kazakhstan. www.yicaiglobal.com/news/chinas-...

The U.S. military has launched its most intensive Somalia bombing campaign on record, carrying out more than 50 airstrikes in the country since the start of the year as it targets the militant groups al-Shabab and ISIS.

A Clash Over a Promotion Puts Hegseth at Odds With His Generals www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/u...

BYD Launches Its 7th Ship cleantechnica.com/2025/07/17/b...

Lots packed into @adambonica.bsky.social's new On Data and Democracy post, but I haven't seen this chart getting the attention I think it deserves. US lawmakers are remarkably old, and the gap here between population age and lawmaker age is exceptional. data4democracy.substack.com/p/on-data-an...

An Israeli strike hit the compound of the only Catholic church in Gaza, where hundreds have been sheltering from the Israel-Hamas war, killing three and wounding 10 others, including the parish priest. Israel expressed regret over what it described as an accident and said it was investigating.

I’m former CIA so it pains me greatly to say this: INR analysts are some of the best in the IC and America will feel this loss deeply.

Bold move by Texas to say that the First Amendment only applies during daylight hours.

Remarkable article

China’s first domestically built aircraft carrier sailed into Hong Kong on Thursday, just days after the city marked 28 years under Chinese rule.

Our latest in @usniproceedings.bsky.social! In "The #MLR =/= the Stand-in Force," we explain the troubling misconceptions that surround the Marine Littoral Regiment, the Stand-in Force, and the #authorities bound up within their capabilities. www.usni.org/magazines/pr...

My first paper for @cja-news.bsky.social was a collaboration with my long-term partner in crime @craigwhiteside.bsky.social. In "From Allies to Foes", we trace the evolution of the Islamic State movement's relations to other Sunni Islamist insurgents in Syria up to the insurgent infighting of 2014.

On Obedience www.usni.org/press/books/...

Youth involvement in terrorism is one of the most stable trends in recent decades.

We're back! (w/an editor!) @sirenspod.bsky.social episode two brings you all the goods: Silicon Valley colonels (do they need braided belts?); posse comitatus; public sector AI, Iran of course Iran, and a weird card game about submarines? Also also, Muppets. sites.libsyn.com/92063/tech-c...

Seven years ago, Pauline Shanks Kaurin left a good job as a tenured professor, uprooted her family, and moved to teach military ethics at the Naval War College. Now she's leaving in protest of policies she can't support and that make her job impossible. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

We can only make our Union stronger by learning about our history, acknowledging our mistakes, and applying the lessons of our past to our present.

US Sends Third Aircraft Carrier Towards Mideast as Iran Tensions Rise maritime-executive.com/article/us-s...

2024 was another record year from global conflicts. Six months in, 2025 isn't likely to end that streak.

A herring is a fish. When a herring is preserved by salting and smoking, it turns red and smells. It's so pungent that it's a great diversion to distract hunting dogs from their trail. Now, a ‘red herring’ refers to anything that diverts attention from the issue at hand.

Constantinople, the mosque of Tophane, by Ivan Aivazovsky (1884) #oilpainting #traditionalart #painting #classicalart #art

The plot thickens... Great reporting from @AshleyRParker and @missy_ryan: www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

American-aided efforts to ward off an Islamic State group resurgence in Iraq and Syria saw a flurry of recent successes with the capture of an ISIS leader and the killings of two militants, U.S. Central Command said.

2 days to go! This Friday 6 June is the deadline for registration for the upcoming @socterres.bsky.social Conference @royalholloway.bsky.social .. sign up to join us for the latest terrorism research, fabulous keynotes, networking & a great location. 7 8 July in London (Egham) 🔜🗓️

The Relationship between Islamic State and other Sunni Islamist Insurgents in Syria: a comparative study with Iraq theisisreader.substack.com/p/the-relati...

33. That’s AFRICOM’s count of declared strikes in Somalia in 2025 as of this morning per a reply to my query. www.newamerica.org/future-secur...

New article out in New Media & Society: Dror Walter @drorwalter.bsky.social, Yotam Ophir @ophiryotam.bsky.social , Edu Fabregas, and I examine how the Wayfair conspiracy theory moved across platforms. We find Twitter and Reddit played very different roles. journals.sagepub.com/eprint/KUIFU...

The same guys trying to demonize government workers as useless bureaucrats who just lounge around all day on the taxpayer dime are complaining on television about how hard it is to work in the government

Just finished Marie von Clausewitz by Bellinger - it's phenomenal.

Good story, with a detail I’d missed elsewhere: the US government has recently ceased paying stipends to the Somali Danab commando brigade, which US SOF have trained and advised for years, effectively halving their salaries. (Unclear to me whether this was 127e money or State Dept money.)

New paper out with with @CJA_News on ISIS conflict with other Sunni Islamist militants along with some great paper by some of my favorite authors on the project: "Promoting ISIL Accountability for Atrocity Crimes" cja.org/what-we-do/t...

current read by Phil Haun

In “From Allies to Foes,” @neaskhan.bsky.social and @craigwhiteside.bsky.social trace how ISIL relations with other Sunni Islamist insurgents shifted from cooperation through competition to coercion: cja.org/wp-content/u...

Robert “Ed” Smylie, the NASA official who saved the Apollo 13 crew in 1970, has died at 95. He cobbled together an apparatus made of cardboard, plastic bags and duct tape after an explosion crippled the spacecraft as it sped toward the moon. nyti.ms/3Sbusb3

The rules of war are being rewritten in real time, not by generals, but by small squads. warontherocks.com/20...