idk if academic bsky works like this, but does anyone have a shortish reading they like about the why of reading critical theory? this would be for an M.A. class

Is the administration trying to seize the US Institute for Peace building to use it to house Trump's new Board of Peace, despite a lack of any congressional authorization and in violation of a court order? www.wired.com/story/trump-...

Semester starts Monday. I've gotten 20+ hours of online instruction training and completed a 4hr active shooter course. You know what I don't have yet? A complete syllabus, a complete Canvas course page, lecture slides/videos 🤷🏻‍♂️ "Teaching"

I think we took a wrong turn somewhere in the instructional design mania.

Amazing how many international relations "realists" who've spent decades arguing that material power not ideas matter in international affairs, are suddenly recognizing that destroying trust (an idea) and perceptions of the US (more ideas) may be materially damaging to the US.

We did predict it. And we were called alarmist.

You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.

This can have consequences for how agents see themselves. If they put on clothes designed for war, they are more likely to see cities as hostile terrain and citizens as enemy combatants, which can increase the chance of violence. Link to the story here: www.politico.com/news/magazin...

I have colleagues who went to Florida in good faith. I have colleagues who have pending Florida hires. Hell, I interviewed in Florida. We will remember to steer well clear going forward.

Hi everyone -- there is a general strike in Minnesota tomorrow to protest what the Trump administration and DHS are doing to our community. In solidarity with the action, I am going to donate my revenue from tmrw's newsletter to People over Papers, the Midway-Hamline Diaper Bank, & Every Meal. (1/2)

If not gestapo, why gestapo shaped?

Girl dad x2 ❤️❤️ Also, in case it wasn't clear, care workers, nurses, etc are heroes. The care baby and mommy are receiving is phenomenal. 🙏

History's rhyme scheme is irrepressible. Fucking hell.

Is this the fastest "this person should not have gotten the prize" in Nobel Prize history? Genuinely interested in other examples

Ah, world order, something famously created by a single person

Dann vielleicht gleich noch an Russland, China und den Iran weitergeben? Europa und seine Mitgliedsstaaten müssen endlich realisieren, dass die USA kein verlässlicher, demokratischer Staat mehr mehr sind und ganz sicher keine sensiblen Daten über Europäer bekommen dürfen

This. Greenland defense is a tripwire—putting various European countries’ personnel in harms way in an attempt to deter attack—not an effort to win a war with the US. A real Europe-US war would destroy the world. The goal is to not have one. Which was more than accomplished by a robust NATO. Alas.

Imagine the view from Beijing and Moscow right now

There is nothing complex or subtle or hard to understand about what is happening here.

It’s rather mind boggling how exactly what experts said would happen before Brexit, is now happening. We KNEW all of this.

In addition to illegality of strikes, a clear-cut war crime, if true: “The laws of armed conflict prohibit combatants from feigning civilian status to fool adversaries into dropping their guard, then attacking and killing them. That is a war crime called ‘perfidy.’” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/u...

You may not know how to fight XYZ specific horror but you know how to say hi to your neighbors regularly and use a group chat and that's half of the work for fighting every horror, folks.

Should I just teach... from my Bluesky feed? Does it count as a living syllabus?

liz they are shooting people in the streets

Here's my piece for @goodauth.bsky.social on why Iran's polycrisis may be at a tipping point goodauthority.org/news/why-the...

📊Those 🇩🇪numbers are even more dramatic when looking at responses according to party preference, laying bare how much of an outlier AfD is. Excluding AfD voters, we get: 🇫🇷 93.5% trust in France 🇬🇧 89.75% trust in UK 🇺🇦 62.5% trust in Ukraine 🇺🇸 8.5% trust in USA ‼️ 🇷🇺 3% trust in Russia. Short 🧵

Reminder to those (like me) who are trying to figure out how to teach international relations this spring. @iojournal.bsky.social special issue- The Future of Global Governance and World Order- includes 16 non-technical ~4000 word essays by experts. #IOFoGG www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

I am looking for a brief article or video providing a recent overview of political science as a discipline. Ideally, it would identify the subfields and some of the major questions/topics examined therein. If you know of something that may be appropriate for an undergraduate audience, let me know 🙏

some people love quoting "the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must." That was Athens saying that at the height of its empire. Few of those people seem to remember what happened to Athens the very next year.

Straight to the Intro to IR syllabus

it is true that it *should not* matter that the murder victim was a white, middle-class, U.S. citizen mother, but it is also true that it *does* matter and that the story reaches people who might not otherwise be reached as a result.

Most days, it doesn’t really feel like this country is gonna make it. Today it doesn’t feel like it deserves to.

one net effect of this will just be to make life a little harder for Americans in ways, they can’t quite put their finger on, because some of these organizations do the invisible work of multilateralism that enables contemporary life; another will be to hold up progress on most shared global goal…

"for those who view America’s allies as its greatest asset in an era of rising geopolitical tension, spiking that alliance system—all for an island in which American military power is already assured—would be a suicidal maneuver, without modern compare." foreignpolicy.com/2026/01/06/g...

It will be very interesting to see how the majority of countries respond. Just because the US is throwing a tantrum doesn't mean that other states do not benefit from working through international organizations.

The Vanderbilt Dept of Political Science is looking for two post-doctoral scholars in national security for 2026-27. Please apply or encourage others to apply! apply.interfolio.com/179844

Lmao 🤣 how can you be so completely disconnected from reality?

The Trump administration will withdraw from dozens of international organizations, including the U.N.'s population agency and the U.N. treaty that establishes international climate negotiations, as the U.S. further retreats from global cooperation.

To use @sbmitche.bsky.social's words: hegemonic suicide

The “prosecute the former regime at every level” candidate has my vote in 2028.

In functioning democracies, ministers resign all the time, under threat of a no confidence vote in the parliament. We have a system where legislative confirmation totally fails ex ante to screen out wildly unqualified people, & ex post accountability depends on a toothless extraordinary measure.

“The decision to use military force to topple a disfavored government will not stop with the United States,” writes @oonahathaway.bsky.social. “We can count on others to follow our example.” More in @nytimes.com: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/o...

👇🎯

Maybe I'm not following the right accounts here, but it'd be REALLY good to know what is happening in European capitals right fucking now

NPR built a visual archive of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, showing exactly what happened through the lenses of the people who were there. In Chapter 3, we lay out a timeline of key moments throughout the day as the assault on the Capitol unfolded.

Ok, das wird .... interessant www.tagesschau.de/eilmeldung/e...

WSJ editorial scoffing at international law: "Democrats and foreign leaders are claiming that President Trump’s arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro is illegal—at least as international law is interpreted by the reigning complex of professors, NGOs and multilateral bureaucrats." 1/3

www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/sich... „Ein klares 8:1 gegen Trump“ / „A clear 8:1 against Trump“ #DeepContestation & #disruptiveeffects