How can we understand Tump 2.0 foreign policy? It’s the product of the fusion of two different forces: Christian Nationalism and Personalist Rent-Extraction.
Trump’s Foreign Policy and the Purpose of the MAGA State
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Recent Posts
Big Man, Big Heart
This a crosspost from Saideman's Semi-Spew. This week, we found out that Brandon Valeriano died. It is quite gutting as he had such a terrific spirit, and he was too damned...
The Folly of Trying to Trade Russia for “Europe”
I published an article yesterday in Real Clear Defense. The title is “The Road to Securing European Cooperation on China Runs Through Ukraine”, but I suppose I could have called this piece, “How to...
So much for “Great Power Competition”
The buzzword of the first Trump administration was “Great Power Competition.” That was also a lie.
More Recent Posts
Some just want to watch the world burn
During a pivotal scene in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne talks with his butler/confidante Alfred about The Joker. Wayne suggests he can make sense of The Joker's motivation as a first step towards stopping his rampage. Alfred tells a story about an operation from his paramilitary...
What to expect at the upcoming climate negotiations?
A reporter asked me what we should expect from the upcoming climate negotiations, known as COP28, which will be held in the United Arab Emirates starting the end of November. This is my fairly off-the-cuff answer which may be somewhat pessimistic. I am more broadly optimistic that the clean energy...
Judging a book by its cover II
Part I here if you are interested On the day of German reunification anniversary I bring you the sequel to the post on the new Russian history book. Only, if you read this history book, you will not find the term "reunification" - it's reserved for Crimea and Donbas - instead, you will find a...
Jarrod Hayes
Professor Jarrod Hayes joins the Hayseed Scholar podcast. Jarrod was born in Colorado, but moved to Utah at a young age and grew up there for a bit before relocating with his mother to just outside of Atlanta, Georgia. In high school, he found he enjoyed doing research especially with science and...
What If Trump was President When Russia Invaded Ukraine?
If Donald Trump was President of the United States when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, instead of Joe Biden, Trump’s personality would have led to a very different U.S. response. Trump would not have swiftly and strongly condemned Russia or clearly sided with Ukraine in the initial stages of the invasion, and he would not have brought together a multilateral front against Russia – as Biden did.
So You’ve Seen Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer is the first blockbuster about nuclear weapons in a generation. Framing his film’s namesake with kinetic edits, fractured timelines, quantum imagery, and a pulsing score, director Christopher Nolan has crafted a stylistic triumph. But...
Bridging the Policy-Academic Gap: Lessons from Australia
The benefits of bridging the gap between academics and policymakers are well-known, but much of the research and practice is based on experiences in the United States. How well does it translate to other countries? A recent collaboration between Bridging the Gap (BtG) and Monash University in...
Go Green Fast: Are the Industrial Policies of the Biden Administration Working?
Typical energy transitions unfold over 50 to 100 years. The urgency of the climate challenge means that humanity doesn’t have that kind of time. While market developments in renewables and electric vehicles are favorable, even those developments will not transform the energy landscape without...
Strategic Service on the Tenure Track
Alongside research and teaching, most tenure-track jobs come with some expectation of service.
Selection Processes in Academia: Time for a Revamp
Current trends in the academic job market paint a bleak picture. Data from U.S. universities reveal a drop in job postings in the Politics field over the past three years and a decline in tenure-track positions over the last decade. For 2021-22, APSA reported that 53.12% of job listings were...
Patriarchy and the Cult of Coercion: Pale, Male, and Stale Will Make Deterrence Fail
Carol Cohn is the G.O.A.T. Back in 1987, she wrote what is still the best gendered take on the pathologies of deterrence in a piece called, “Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals.” It absolutely demolishes the cult of the missile bro. And every deterrence scholar I know...
Episode 32: Social Forces, States, and Clydeside Whisky
Robert Cox’s landmark article, “Social Forces, States and World Orders: Beyond International Rela…