Erasmus Kersting is a professor of economics and the acting chair of the Department of Economics at the Villanova School of Business. His research is in the fields of development and international economics, international relations, as well as macroeconomics. Kersting's latest projects explore how American politics determine the degree of U.S. influence in international financial institutions and the impact of World Bank lending on financial...
We’re baaack!In the inaugural episode of the second season of Whiskey and International Relations…
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.
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...
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 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...
[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...
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...
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 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...
Why did some states successfully avoid conquest by European empires? Logan Cochrane’s new, co-edited volume tackles this puzzle.
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...