We’re baaack!In the inaugural episode of the second season of Whiskey and International Relations…
Displaying Results for ""
Soumyadeep Bidyanta
The author is a doctoral student at the School of Public and International Affairs, University of Cincinnati. Their research interests lie in nuclear proliferation and cyber competition.
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. The ceasefire...
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...
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...
What Politics and IR can teach AI pedagogy
[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...
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. But what happens if...
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 has 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. reputation...
Paul Avey
Paul C. Avey is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Virginia Tech. His research and teaching interests include nuclear politics, alliances, U.S. foreign policy, and academic-policy engagement. Avey is the author of Tempting Fate: Why Nonnuclear States Confront Nuclear Opponents (Cornell University Press, 2019). He is also the author or co-author of articles in Foreign Policy Analysis, International Security, International Studies...
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.
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. First, I argue that video games merit equal...
Logan Cochrane
Logan Cochrane is a Professor at HBKU in the College of Public Policy. He is an Associate Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and an Adjunct Professor at Hawassa University (Institute for Policy and Development Research). Over the last twenty years, he has worked in Afghanistan, Benin, Burundi, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Logan works...