Our community lost the inimitable Raúl Pacheco-Vega this week. Someone who knew him better than me should write a more definitive remembrance and maybe they have in some other corner of the internet. But, I haven’t seen a longer treatment yet (here is a terrific one!), so I thought I’d have a go at a remembrance. Raúl lived his life on-line, as many of us these days tend to do, myself included, with much of our personal and professional life...
Alexander Dugin is one of those figures who hover permanently in the discussions about Russian ideology, Eurasianism, empire, conservatism, and whatever else people project onto modern Russia. Contrary to popular belief, he is not “Putin’s favorite philosopher” (that would be Ivan Il’in). But given that the Russian state has yet to articulate a vision of Russia’s future, I settled for the next best thing: an interview that Dugin gave to Xenia...
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...
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...
I’ve been meaning to write this for awhile, and unfortunately it hasn’t gone out of date.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...
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...
I have a new open-access article out in Global Studies Quarterly, “What’s at Stake in the Indigenous Empire Debate,” in which I argue against historian Pekka Hämäläinen’s claims that the Comanche and the Lakota constituted empires. Many others have provided reasons why we ought not to think of the Comanche or the Lakota polities as empires, but as I argue, this debate has been inconclusive because it has been lacking any clear definition of...
The US and Israel’s war on Iran and regional instability threatens to disrupt critical global migration patterns. These serve as vital pressure release valves for overcrowded and socio-economically stagnant mega cities in the global south. Their disruption may cut off vital income for tens of millions and risk social unrest and instability far beyond the region. This precarious migration system operates at a massive scale. Roughly 35 million...
Thomas Hinkel is a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London and holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of St Andrews. His research examines the political economy of conflict, with a particular focus on how illicit economies, migration systems, and transnational networks shape governance, authority, and instability across the Sahara–Sahel and the wider Middle East and North Africa. He...
Over the past month, U.S. President Donald Trump has shifted from misogynistic jabs to full‑scale performances of militarized authority, an evolution entirely consistent his political brand of hegemonic, martial masculinity. In late 2025, U.S. Chief of Protocol Monica Crowley announced that the country had entered “an era of real masculinity thanks to the bold, muscular leadership of...
Avantika Singh is a PhD student in Political Science at the University of Minnesota, where her research examines the spatial and structural dimensions of violence through mixed‑method approaches. Beginning Fall 2026, she will continue her doctoral studies at the University of Michigan. Born and raised in India, she brings a global perspective to her work, shaped by academic and professional experiences across the United States, Papua New...
For Western Christians, Holy Week—the most important time of the church calendar—just finished. Like many other Christians, it is a powerful and challenging time of the year. We are meant to reflect on how we are self-assured in our devotion to Jesus’ teachings one minute and turn on Him the next, seeing ourselves in the disciples who abandoned him. We are supposed to meditate on the simultaneous horrors and hope in His crucifixion. And we...