The Duck of Minerva

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Peter Henne is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Global and Regional Studies Program at the University of Vermont. His research focuses on global religious politics and the Middle East. His first book, Islamic Politics, Muslim States and Counterterrorism Tensions, was published in 2017 by Cambridge University Press and he is currently working on a book analyzing how states try to use religion in foreign policy. His scholarly research has been published in International Journal of Religion, International Studies Perspectives, Journal of Church and State, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Research, Politics and Religion, Religions, States and Societies, and Terrorism and Political Violence. In addition to the Duck, he has written for the Washington Post's Monkeycage, Political Violence at a Glance and The Huffington Post.

Recent Posts

Huntington wasn’t wrong. He just wasn’t right

Huntington wasn’t wrong. He just wasn’t right

by | 21 October, 2026 |

Big ideas often get watered down when tested empirically. Scott Appleby’s masterful Ambivalence of the Sacred—which includes deep, rich discussions of religious peacebuilding—is usually reduced to “sometimes religion leads to conflict, sometimes it leads to peace.” Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” is the same way, with most testing it by looking at whether Muslims tend to fight Christians. But his ideas, especially in the book, are much richer than that, and also more dangerous. Huntington saw his work as a restorative project for the West, something that is now being taken up by...

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Middle East Studies: Still beating that strawman?

Middle East Studies: Still beating that strawman?

by | 17 September, 2026 | ,

Or, who is the strawman here? This is my second post reflecting on the recent American Political Science Association annual meeting. The last one expressed concern about a new trend in the study of international politics. This one will focus on a long-standing issue that just doesn’t seem to go away: the refusal of certain research areas to actually engage with the literature they see as insufficient. The attack This incident occurred at an otherwise interesting panel. The papers, mostly by junior scholars, discussed different manifestations of public religion. Then a senior scholar who...

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The hypothetical science

The hypothetical science

by | 8 September, 2026 |

Are we reaching the limits of experimental approaches to international politics? I just returned from the American Political Science Association (APSA) annual meeting in Boston. I met up with some friends, connected with new people, provided some thoughts on academia to a grad student who reached out to me. My co-authors and I presented a paper from our new project on the role of religion in the UN. And I actually went to panels that weren’t mine. As anyone who attends conferences knows, there is a temptation to just show up for your panel and then socialize or play tourist the rest of the...

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On religious dialogue and “stochastic terrorism”

On religious dialogue and “stochastic terrorism”

by | 17 August, 2026 |

Potentially inflammatory rhetoric should be addressed with dialogue, not bans Recent antisemitic attacks have rightly led to concern among the US Jewish population. Over the weekend a man assaulted worshippers at a New York synagogue in an antisemitic attack. A man stabbed a Jewish man outside another New York synagogue that was displaying the Israeli flag. In separate incident, a man threw a brick through a Florida Chabad House. We’ve also seen incidents here in Vermont, with a synagogue vandalized with “Free Palestine” last year. Jewish groups are also rightly debating who is responsible...

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

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

by | 7 July, 2026 |

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. As others have said, this comes at a great time. Donald Trump turned what...

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What Politics and IR can teach AI pedagogy

What Politics and IR can teach AI pedagogy

by | 30 June, 2026 |

[Editor’s Note: This is a write-up of a workshop proceedings. It is posted under my name, but the participants wrote the piece; they are listed at the end.] 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 Politics and International...

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I choose to celebrate Eurovision

I choose to celebrate Eurovision

by | 19 May, 2026 |

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. As I’ve written in previous Eurovision posts, there have been overlapping attacks on Israel’s role in the song contest. One has to do with Israel’s participation in the...

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Whither Scottish progressivism?

Whither Scottish progressivism?

by | 13 May, 2026 |

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 few pieces on Scottish politics. My interest came from my sabbatical a few years ago, which I spent at the University of Edinburgh’s Institute for Advanced Studies in the...

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

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

by | 8 May, 2026 |

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. These attacks are obviously antisemitic, but I think they also constitute terrorism. What we need to figure out, however, is what type of terrorism we’re...

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

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

by | 24 April, 2026 | ,

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. I even named one of my first articles after an argument attributed to Frederick II on the need to separate...

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