Divided Government and Multilateral Assistance

In January of 2025, the Republican party gained “the trifecta,” controlling the Presidency and the Senate, and the House of Representatives. Since then, congressional Republicans have done little to assert the prerogatives of the legislative branch. “The wrath of Donald Trump,” as one reporter wrote in June of this year, “has kept congressional Republicans in line for much of his second term…” With a handful of exceptions, congressional Republicans have also given the administration a free hand in foreign policy, an area that the Executive Branch already enjoys substantial prerogatives.

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Episode 1: Gates of the West

We're baaack!In the inaugural episode of the second season of Whiskey and International Relations...

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Unmanageable ally? Ceasefire breakdown reveals deeper tensions in US-Israel relationship

On June 19, 2026, as American and Iranian negotiators were set to meet in Switzerland to work through the terms of a fragile memorandum of understanding, Israeli jets struck Hezbollah targets in Nabatiyeh and the Bekaa Valley. Iran responded by skipping the Switzerland talks and announcing it would close the Strait of Hormuz again, citing Israeli violations of the agreement, which had specified that fighting in Lebanon must end.

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Before you say it: the World Cup probably won’t increase US soft power

Like everyone else, I’m enjoying the World Cup. I’m not a fan of soccer/football, and honestly haven’t been watching the game. But I love how excited other people are for the tournament. It’s great seeing people gather for watch parties, and chat about the results afterwards. I’ve loved reading about the great interactions between Americans and international fans and players, like Boston’s love affair with Scottish fans, Norwegians’ Viking Row in New York, and Kansas rolling out the red carpet for the Algerian team.

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The Uncanny Effects of the UK Court of Appeal’s ruling on the Proscription of Palestine Action

In July 2025, the UK government designated Palestine Action as a proscribed terrorist under the Terrorism Act 2000, making it a criminal offence to be a member of, or provide support to, the group. The decision followed an incident in which members of the group entered RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and spray-painted two military aircraft; action that may fall within Section 1 of the Act as constituting ‘serious damage to property.’ …

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What Politics and IR can teach AI pedagogy

If Politics and IR urgently needs to discuss our approach to AI and pedagogy. The reverse is equally true. In 2025, the authors of this piece participated in a BISA-ISA joint Workshop on AI Pedagogies: Practice, Prompts and Problems in Contemporary Higher Education, sponsored by the ASPIRE (Academic Scholarship in Politics and International Relations Education) Network. This was prompted by several calls for…

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How Russian economic policy is gender

Every year I make my third year Bachelor students read Carol Cohn’s article “Sex and Death in the rational world of defense intellectuals” and they are genuinely surprised by the number of penile metaphors one can use to describe a missile. Except this year: current Secretary of Defense (War?) has prepared them for lots more virtual dick-measuing exhibits.  The need to appear masculine has often driven many militaries.

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How the Iran War harms U.S. deterrence

President Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran may weaken the U.S. ability to deter great power rivals. But not because the recent U.S.-Iranian memorandum of understanding (MOU) to end the conflict makes the United States look weak. The damage had already been done. Reactions in the United States largely panned the MOU even as disagreement persisted on the war itself. The MOU consensus points to a damaged U.S.

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6+1 Questions about Resilient Statehood

Why did some states successfully avoid conquest by European empires? Logan Cochrane's new, co-edited volume tackles this puzzle.

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On Indigenous Political Thought in Video Games

In something of a departure from my typical work, I recently published an article in International Political Sociology on Indigenous political thought in video games. As some of my prior blogging here suggests, I have been thinking about the place of video games in the study of popular culture in International Relations (IR) for a while. I make a couple contributions to that literature here.

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Rest Well, Raul Pacheco-Vega

Our community lost the inimitable Raúl Pacheco-Vega this week. Someone who knew him better than me should write a more definitive remembrance and maybe they have in some other corner of the internet. But, I haven’t seen a longer treatment yet (here is a terrific one!), so I thought I’d have a go at a remembrance. Raúl lived his life…

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Dugin, the Ultimate Tradwife

Alexander Dugin is one of those figures who hover permanently in the discussions about Russian ideology, Eurasianism, empire, conservatism, and whatever else people project onto modern Russia. Contrary to popular belief, he is not “Putin’s favorite philosopher” (that would be Ivan Il’in). But given that the Russian state has yet to articulate the vision of Russia’s future, I settled for the next best thing: an…

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I choose to celebrate Eurovision

There are two posts I could have written about the latest Eurovision song contest. One would focus on another controversy over Israel’s participation and high vote count. The other would focus on the first-time win for Bulgaria; a well-deserved win in my opinion. I choose the latter. Another Israel controversy Despite saying I wouldn’t write a post about Israel, I feel like I need to at least acknowledge the controversy.

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Whither Scottish progressivism?

Much of the discourse about the recent UK local elections had to do with the decline of Labour under Keir Starmer and the worrisome rise of the far-right Reform Party. This is obviously important, but the outcome in Scotland’s parliamentary elections may have just as much of an impact on the future of UK politics. Devolution and Scotland This is a different topic than what I normally write about, although I have a…

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Britain is experiencing wave of antisemitic terrorism: Whether organic or state-sponsored, it needs to be addressed

I’ve been meaning to write this for awhile, and unfortunately it hasn’t gone out of date. On April 29th, a man stabbed two Jewish people in London. Shortly before that someone threw a Molotov cocktail through the window of a synagogue. A string of attack preceded that, including the arson near the former offices of a Jewish charity, bricks being thrown at a synagogue, and the destruction of ambulances belonging to a Jewish organization.

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This Protestant feels confused: On moral authority and the Pope-Trump divide

As I have discussed here, I am a proud Protestant. I was raised Lutheran, and am now Episcopalian. While there is some variation among Episcopalians and Anglicans over whether they see themselves as Protestant, both my birth and adopted traditions are united in a rejection of the Pope’s—or as some call him, the Bishop of Rome’s—authority. And as a fan of medieval and early modern history, I always vicariously sided with the political leaders who stood up to the Roman Catholic church.

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What’s at Stake in the Indigenous Empire Debate

I have a new open-access article out in Global Studies Quarterly, “What’s at Stake in the Indigenous Empire Debate,” in which I argue against historian Pekka Hämäläinen’s claims that the Comanche and the Lakota constituted empires. Many others have provided reasons why we ought not to think of the Comanche or the Lakota polities as empires, but as I argue, this debate has been inconclusive because it has been lacking any clear definition of “empire” according to which we might assess Comanche or Lakota practices.

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The Gulf is a vital lynchpin of global stability, and it goes far beyond energy

The US and Israel’s war on Iran and regional instability threatens to disrupt critical global migration patterns. These serve as vital pressure release valves for overcrowded and socio-economically stagnant mega cities in the global south. Their disruption may cut off vital income for tens of millions and risk social unrest and instability far beyond the region. This precarious migration system operates at a massive scale.

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The Scripts We Perform: Militarized Masculinity and the Gendered Order

Over the past month, U.S. President Donald Trump has shifted from misogynistic jabs to full‑scale performances of militarized authority, an evolution entirely consistent his political brand of hegemonic, martial masculinity. In late 2025, U.S. Chief of Protocol Monica Crowley announced that the country had entered “an era of real masculinity thanks to the bold, muscular leadership of President Trump and our Secretary of War Pete Hegseth,” contrasting it with what she called the Biden administration’s “destructive, stupid era of toxic masculinity.”

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Religious nationalism makes the profane sacred: True faith uses the sacred to heal the world

For Western Christians, Holy Week—the most important time of the church calendar—just finished. Like many other Christians, it is a powerful and challenging time of the year. We are meant to reflect on how we are self-assured in our devotion to Jesus’ teachings one minute and turn on Him the next, seeing ourselves in the disciples who abandoned him. We are supposed to meditate on the simultaneous horrors and hope in His crucifixion.

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Watching Scientific Progress in Action

Reacting to a recent event on the study of religion, conflict and peace

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Was I wrong on the Gulf states and Iran? An exercise in academic humility

When I was in graduate school, my training included the methods and theories of international relations but also some of the epistemology and philosophy of science behind the sub-field. We discussed what makes a good research program and how can we tell if we’re making any progress in understanding the world. One of my advisors was a fan of Imre Lakatos’ approach, which looks at whether a research program is uncovering new novel facts or adjusting its initial claims to make up for discrepant observations.

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The Best and Worst of U.S. Foreign Policy(?)

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) recently published results of a survey of historians on the best and worst foreign policy decisions in U.S. history. There are few surprises—wars in Vietnam and Iraq fared poorly, and the post-WWII creation of the institutions we associate with the “liberal international order” receives high marks. Among the most striking results to me is the fact that two of the ten worst foreign policy decisions in this list are related to the Indian Removal Act (one is the act itself; one is the forcible removal of the Cherokee).

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6+1 Questions about Exit from International Organizations

What is the name of the book and what are its coordinates? The book is Exit from International Organizations: Costly Negotiation for Institutional Change. It was published in June 2025 by Cambridge University Press. What’s the argument? Governments leave international organizations — such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) or the World Health Organization (WHO) — in two ways.

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Iran and the shadow of the Kosovo intervention

When I was in grad school in the mid-aughts, one Professor was a die-hard supporter of George W. Bush’s foreign policy. When challenged over the legality of Iraq, he noted that it is inconsistent for any liberal to oppose the invasion of Iraq while supporting the NATO intervention in Kosovo. Both were ostensibly in support of humanitarian goals, and neither received UN Security Council authorization, rendering them illegal.

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Rubio’s civilizational appeals will backfire

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s speech at the Munich Security Conference demonstrated he is a better diplomat than Vice President J.D. Vance, although that’s not much of a hurdle to clear. Where Vance gave a bullying lecture, Rubio’s speech focused on emphasizing the importance of transatlantic ties and maintaining the US-European alliance. He argued the goal of this alliance, however, was to defend a common culture against the “threat” of immigration, raising concerns.

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“Fair Trade” and the revenge against the “Foreigner”: From Chamberlain to Trump

A century before Trump’s tariff threats, Joseph Chamberlain pitched the same idea: use duties as a “big revolver” to force rivals into “fair trade.” That history helps explain why “unfairness” rhetoric and coercive foreign policy keep returning when hegemonic powers decline.

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What’s with all the racism?

I’ve been wanting to write this post for some time. But every week just brings more bad news. More terrible examples. In November last year, the Dutch government almost collapsed over racist remarks made by one of the coalition government ministers. December was witness to the horrifying antisemitic attack at Bondi beach. President Donald Trump has called Somalis “garbage.”

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An Accidental Academic: 20 Years Later

This is my 20th year at the University of Texas. Although my dad was a university professor, I'm something of an accidental academic. I sought to get my PhD with the hopes of doing something more in terms of public service. I started off my PhD at Georgetown inauspiciously. In the first week of school, I sat down with the legendary comparativist…

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