4/4 So when someone puts forward a normative argument about why something ought not to be permitted within our constitutional order, replying with "haha you fool constraints don't matter anymore lol" is not only tedious; it's also political unsophistication masquerading as wisdom.

Only 27% of Gazans viewed Hamas as their preferred party prior to the war. If presidential elections were held, more would vote for Fatah's Marwan Barghouti (32%) than Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh (24%). Survey of 399 Gazans, Sep 28-Oct 6, 2023 by the Arab Barometer www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/what-...

What Palestinians Really Think of Hamas

Before the war, Gaza’s leaders were deeply unpopular—but an Israeli crackdown could change that.

foreignaffairs.com

2 examples from yesterday's newspaper of contemporary major power competition filtering into the domestic politics of smaller states: 1. Maldives: www.nytimes.com/2023/09/30/w... 2. Niger: www.nytimes.com/2023/10/01/w...

Maldives Votes in Presidential Runoff Overshadowed by India and China

The election has become a referendum on the two Asian giants’ influence on the small nation’s direction.

nytimes.com

Inya Institute announces 2024 CAORC-INYA Scholars Fellowship for post-PhD Myanmar / Burma scholars. $4,000-4,400, application 5 January 2024. Polisky // SEAsiaSky

Via @novosad.bsky.social on Twitter: Zoom school is worse than real school. I'm surprised that these effects aren't bigger: 0.2 SD is only ~half a semester of learning in a typical rich country. docs.iza.org/dp14356.pdf #econsky 📉📈

Good to see some coverage of the use of 112 in Thailand from a non Thai outlet. It rarely gets covered. Another activist jailed though. 4 years for questioning the monarchies role in politics in 2020.

Thailand: Leading activist Arnon Nampa jailed over calls for royal reform

Arnon Nampa is sentenced to four years for calling for a conversation on the role of Thailand's monarchy.

bbc.com

Created a Southeast Asia social science thread -- @profruback.bsky.social and @maaikeverbruggen.bsky.social, please add as a PoliSky sub-feed :)

Excellent to see careful survey work (n=1113), explicitly designed to understand legitimacy for a future, ethnically inclusive government in Myanmar even as the country is in the midst of civil war. It seems that engaging EAOs will remain key to this. By Jiwon Kim SEAsiaSky

Navigating political upheaval: Rebel governance and trust dynamics in post-coup Myanmar

Findings from an online survey suggest establishing direct cooperation with Ethnic Armed Organisations can potentially foster trust towards the National Unity Government, and contribute to a more incl...

theigc.org

Very interesting report on changing patterns of control and governance in southeast Burma/Myanmar by the Karen Peace Support Network (shared with all appropriate caveats about how hard this stuff is to measure): www.karenpeace.org/wp-content/u... polisky southasiasky

PSA: stata2r.github.io is a *fantastic* website for getting going in R (w data.table & fixest) if coming from Stata. Recently had to do large project fully in R, used data.table because of this website, loved it. Thanks @kylefbutts.bsky.social @gmcd.bsky.social @nickchk.bsky.social!

Easy to miss good news when it happens in slow motion. City of Philadelphia employment up over 100k in just 10 years, after 40 years of decline.

Duke Sanford School of Public Policy is hiring 3(!!) TT junior faculty and we are looking for a broad range of specialties/research areas. Please apply! polisky academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/25832