For years, but especially for the past year, Democrats have been in thrall to the idea that they need to chase an imagined median voter, and adopt that voter’s positions. Mamdani’s victory shows another way: hold principles, and persuade people to share them.

❤️❤️❤️❤️

Did Zohran win president yet?

Excited that The Role of Networks in Advancing Human Rights is now out! Francesca Parente and I wrote chapter six, on how cross-institutional collaborations can advance research, teaching, mentorship, and service in human rights. More info and purchase options here: www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/the...

This story is extraordinary even by 2025 standards. Marco Rubio, the nation's top diplomat, made a deal with Bukele and agreed to renege on informant agreements in a years-long DOJ investigation into MS-13, totally undercutting credibility of such agreements. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

I mean if you’re the guy who DOGE-ed the U.S. Institute of Peace, you don’t get the Prize.

Preregistering: 1. The shutdown will break the record for longest shutdown (35 days). 2. Attitudes about the shutdown, and who's to blame, will be polarized along partisan lines; there will be no coherent or consistent narrative about its cause. 3. The shutdown will persist until context changes.

Excited to receive page proofs for GOVERNING TRUTH today! It’ll be out early next year, with the paperback priced at $29.95 – run, don’t walk, to get your copy! You can pre-order here: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

William & Mary’s government department is hiring in comparative politics (Europe focus). I’m on the search committee and attending APSA next week. Feel free to reach out to set up an informational meeting. Apply here: williammary.wd12.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/WM/job...

Simple Plan is on their 25th anniversary tour and they’re in Richmond tonight! Excited to see them and my beloved Bowling for Soup to say my final goodbye to sabbatical and summer! #blessed

One thing about me is I’m gonna log into ScholarOne to track an r&r even though journals will communicate any news via email. 🥲

New at Tusk: The Democrats also doing mid-decade redistricting would be chaos. It's also the only way out of this situation.

⭐NEWLY published: "Challenges and Opportunities for Transnational Advocacy" in ISR #openaccess Fantastic collaboration w/ @ninareiners.bsky.social @kellyzvobgo.bsky.social @andreavilan.bsky.social @lisasundstrom.bsky.social @peacemedie.bsky.social @sch-ir.bsky.social Laura Henry & Soumita Basu 🙏

✨ Our forum “Challenges and Opportunities for Transnational Advocacy” is out #openaccess in International Studies Review ✨ 👓: academic.oup.com/isr/article/... @ninahall.bsky.social

I don’t know how fellow academics working on issues of human rights, migration, and international justice can call migrants “stock” even after being urged by colleagues (including me) not to do so because it is dehumanizing and seems at cross purposes with the work they’re doing. It’s appalling.

Ten years since the murder of Black Bible study worshippers by a white power activist in Charleston

📄 New publication: Stephen Chaudoin and I have a new article in @thejop.bsky.social, featuring the largest-ever survey experiment on public opinion on the ICC (N > 10,000 ppl across Georgia, Israel, Philippines, South Africa, and the US)! doi.org/10.1086/732982

I didn’t follow the entire conversation, but when I was crossing the border in March, ISA attendees at the border were asked to open their laptops, show the invitation letter, and sometimes the titles of their papers. It did not feel safe and it’s a legitimate concern

💯

Don’t forget the drink tickets!!!

I’ll add that yeah, sometimes we need to call in favors, make big asks. By all means, we can ask; but we must show respect if folks say, “No.” Being “on the same team” means mutual respect, loyalty and support. I know about taking one for the team—it’s what I do—but I gotta aka now, is this my team?

My only contribution to The Discourse is that no conference is “a vital part” of my professional life and I don’t see participation as an act of “global solidarity.” If I participate, I do so for myself. We shouldn’t browbeat colleagues who decide to not attend – whatever their reasons.

Further, I thought we were teaching folks how to think logically and critically, how to use evidence to understand the world, and how to separate evidence from misinformation. That means some arguments are bad and wrong. We should be teaching folks to be uncomfortable making bad arguments. 3/3

The same goes for "conservatives don't feel comfortable discussing everything openly without censoring themselves." Do you know how frequently people from marginalized groups and progressives have to self-censor at the vast majority of institutions of higher ed? 2/3

I keep seeing people saying things like, "It is difficult to be a conservative at a University." If you think this is true, I beg you to spend some time at a public university in a red or purple state. Stop making generalizations based on private and/or elitist schools in the Northeast. 1/3

Let me say this again: If a president can illegally deport someone, conspire with that country’s leader to abandon them to human rights abuses, and face no consequences, we are in a hellish authoritarian moment. What a fucking evil, illiberal government this is.

🎙️ Delighted to be featured in the latest installment of the @newstatesman.com’s Insight podcast with host @katiestallard.bsky.social, discussing former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte’s history-making arrest and transfer to the ICC. www.newstatesman.com/podcasts/ins...

Class, this is how you achieve the Pareto optimal outcome of the prisoners’ dilemma, rather than the collectively worse equilibrium outcome.

🔟 Last but not least, Cath Collins and Selbi Durdiyeva reviewed three recent books that, like our field, are epistemologically and methodologically rich and diverse, to say nothing of the empirical cases they analyze in new light. Link: doi.org/10.1093/ijtj...

9️⃣ In “Listening and Preparing the Society to Engage,” María Paula Prada Ramírez and Leslie Wingender reflect on their experience working with the Commission for Truth, Coexistence and Non-Recurrence in Colombia, incl. re: outreach, communication, and legacy. Link: doi.org/10.1093/ijtj...

🎉 Congratulations @crawfordforwi.bsky.social on a hard-won victory!

8️⃣ In “The (Many) Afterlives of Transitional Justice,” Tine Destrooper and Elke Evrard conduct an important study of practitioner views of the field’s evolution. With 69 participants from 7 countries, this isn’t one to miss! Link: doi.org/10.1093/ijtj...

⚖️ Last month, the ICC authorized an arrest warrant for former Philippines President Duterte, who is accused of the crime against humanity of murder in relation to the “war on drugs.” My just-published @brookings.edu commentary discusses this dramatic development. www.brookings.edu/articles/why...

7️⃣ In “Breaking the Echo Chambers,” Noha Aboueldahab invites an intellectual exchange between the field of transitional justice and Third World Approaches to International Law, with the goal of blending their respective foci on policy prescription and scholarly praxis. Link: doi.org/10.1093/ijtj...

Let’s be clear: If the government can arrest, detain, and disappear peaceful protestors, none of us are free. That’s not law and order. It’s fascism. And we should all be outraged that this is being done in our name.

6️⃣ In “Difficult Stories that Haunt,” Ulrike Lühe and @erinbaines.bsky.social challenge Western empirical social science approaches that transform narratives of harm and abuse into “clean” and “manageable” data for research analysis. Link: doi.org/10.1093/ijtj...

5️⃣ In “The State of Repair,” Michal Ben-Josef Hirsch and Jennifer Dixon conduct an extensive text analysis of NGO and IGO reports, notably by @amnesty.org and the @un.org, since 1945, to map evolution in the norm of reparations. Link: doi.org/10.1093/ijtj...

A warm welcome to the great Commonwealth of Virginia to my wonderful coauthor and friend!

4️⃣ In “Divisive Documents,” Sofie Budhoo draws on her fieldwork in Odek, Uganda around the time of the International Criminal Court’s trial of Dominic Ongwen to reveal many unintended consequences of legal documentation practices. Link: doi.org/10.1093/ijtj...

3️⃣ Cynthia Horne analyzes data from an original survey and finds that members of the public in Latvia prefer that the government focus on current issues rather than past ones. Yet political polarization along ethnic lines suggests transitional justice is still needed. Link: doi.org/10.1093/ijtj...

Pete Buttigieg breaks down DEI for everyday folks… “The opposite of diversity is uniformity. The opposite of equity is inequity. The opposite of inclusion is exclusion.” @petebuttigieg.bsky.social Our problem: too many value uniformity over inclusion and they’re the ones running the government. 🧵

2️⃣ @geoffdancy.bsky.social and Oskar Timo Thoms bring new evidence to the long-theorized relationship between transitional justice and democracy. They find that transitional justice decreases the likelihood of democratic reversal but not gradual democratic erosion. Link: doi.org/10.1093/ijtj...

It was such a pleasure contributing to this special issue. I really hope the articles in the issue get the readership they deserve.

Get out this week/end for: • Cherry blossom events • Environmental Film Fest • Witchy Equinox events • Wine and cocktails for Women’s History Month • Maryland Day! • AYA’s 3rd birthday • Bar Americano returns • $1 beers • An outdoor DJ party Gift link: wapo.st/4iDDXee

1️⃣ In “‘The Strength to Comprehend the Incomprehensible,’” @bakiner.bsky.social reads Adorno for today and challenges us to ponder whether resurgent authoritarianism is due to the world’s failure to comprehensively and continuously confront the violent past. Link: academic.oup.com/ijtj/article...

@djpressman.bsky.social, Soha Hammam, and I draw on our research through the Crowd Counting Consortium to show that there is far more protest happening in the US than is commonly understood, and that the shift to economic noncooperation shows powerful potential for future collective action.