Jacob Shively

Jacob Shively

@jacobshively.bsky.social

Foreign policy & grand strategy. I also teach tech & nt'l security, religion & int'l politics, int'l law, causes of war. Failure my own, success coincidental.

145 Followers 235 Following 76 Posts Joined Nov 2023
10 months ago

Here is the chart (even from the NYT!) that illustrates the abject poverty of this op-ed. We need to stop writing about "What Higher Education Institutions Must Do" by ignoring the large, fat end of this distribution of institutions/students & pretending the small, thin end is the entire system.

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1 year ago

The schadenfreude folks igore the obvious: This has been happening in FL for several years.

People are getting abrupt notices that their coverage will be dropped. Last year, we had to suddenly pay for a new roof and scramble to find new coverage. Plus, rates change wildly from year-to-year.

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1 year ago

Accidentally activated a new anxiety for my wife when, without prompting, I told her about P(doom).

Knowledge is power!

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1 year ago

Seems like there is a point in democratic liefcycles at which militaries--maybe thanks to professional socialization--transition to being more reliably committed to democracy/constiututionalism than any given president.

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1 year ago
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Have been adding ingredients to this mix as it is eaten. You could say it's a... Snack of Theseus!

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1 year ago

Americans can't seem to bring themselves to apply ethnic politics frameworks to their own system. It's pretty simple, and the models are a tight fit.

Perhaps b/c the identities are asymmetric: Dems are a coaltion of identities, but Republicans are a coalition with a "conservative" identity.

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1 year ago
COVID Home Tests | USPS COVID Home Tests | USPS

Hey y'all,

The USPS is shipping out free Covid tests again. We are in the midst of a Covid surge, so get yours today!

special.usps.com/testkits

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1 year ago
Preview
Vintage Boston Champion Desktop Chrome Gray Pencil Sharpener Very Good - Item may or may not come in original packaging. Item has been tested and is in full working condition. Thank you for stopping by and please check out my other vintage items

I think they don't make 'em like they used to: we have one of these, and it is truly the pinnacle of this tech, I think because they used top-tier materials. bridgettsgadgets.com/products/vin...

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1 year ago

Another useful term here is "nationalist."

One argument in my last book is that Trump's foreign policy wasn't conservative, realist, hawkish, or whatever. It was nationalist, as he himself stated.

Americans seem cagy about using the word, but it is both accurate and his own language.

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1 year ago

(2/2) In that case, I think he was skeptical of the empirical turn of midcentury poli sci. Plus Strauss was controversial in his own right, which underscores the basic problem of shared values unis are confronting.

BUT the question should spur academic professionals.

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1 year ago

I think a lot about a line I read in grad school by a political philosopher (Leo Strauss?). In effect:

What good is a science or study of politics if it can't, like a physician diagnosing cancer, identify political evils? (1/2)

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1 year ago

3/3 Down the shelf, I also have Kissinger's memoirs. I pulled it for comparison.

Impenetrably long, make no mistake, but readers can jump right into flow of his prose and get pulled along. Do I trust all of it? No, but I'm also more likely to read it.

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1 year ago

2/
This morning, I grabbed "Political Leadership: A Sourcebook" from 1986. It's got some well-known names from the period.

Dipping into a few chapters was exhausting: long sentences, precise jargon, etc. Good insights, maybe, but I gave up.

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1 year ago

The outsized influence of some scholars is absolutely tied to their ability and willingness to write so that we can assign it to students and smart practitioners can read it.

For example, I'll sometimes pull old books from my shelf when I'm writing just to refresh on how someone else wrote…. 1/

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1 year ago

I've been thinking the idea that Dems "haven't felt this excited since 2008" was exaggerated and, anyway, impossible to measure, but there it is.

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1 year ago
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I wonder if it's a COVID stimulus effect: a LOT of US households felt like they had breathing room on their budgets, could achieve some long-desired purchases, etc. People paid down credit cards. Child poverty dropped.

The rush out of that support feels bad even w/decent wages.

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1 year ago

A truth I hold to be self-evident is that the Department Secretary is the most vital member of every department in academia. However, the amount schools actually pay that position and the resulting turnover rate is low-key devastating to every facet of institutional functionality.

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1 year ago

Once when we mentioned something about the 1990s, my daughter hunched over, pretended to be wobbly with a cane, and used an extreme granny voice to say, "I was born in the 1900s."

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1 year ago
YouTube
Alien [1979] movie opening interview with moviegoers YouTube video by Vampire Robot

I'm hoping this is what the dad at 0:39 here meant when he said, "Things like that could happen in life."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zrx...

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1 year ago
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See also:

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1 year ago

Good summary. Seems like along w/age, Biden also got tagged inflation & int'l wars despite effectively keeping the latter contained. Plus, his approval cratered after Afghanistan.

I think he may come out a like Truman, who was unpopular when he left but is now seen as a good president.

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1 year ago

I bet it's the former. There is no policy to evaluate, so this thread jumps the gun on "price controls."

As you say, price gouging IS illegal under given conditions, so it's perfect to play up for campaigning to show voters that Harris sees their concern on prices w/minimal backend commitments.

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1 year ago

Seeing this w/my own kids: seems the history and maybe civics curricula really haven't changed in terms of coverage since they were updated in the 1980s or 90s.

Most of my students know all about the "Jazz Age," WWII & civil rights but have never heard of the Gulf War and know 9/11 from YouTube.

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1 year ago
Preview
Kursk's Next Operational Phase Ukraine's Big Swing and its Future Strategic Options in Kursk

The Ukrainian operation in Kursk is almost one week into execution. My latest piece explores the options now available to Ukraine as it moves into the second week operations in Kursk, and the considerations and risks involved with each option. mickryan.substack.com/p/kursks-nex...

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1 year ago

You can gauge an academic's generational cohort by whether their textbook mentions "fax machines" as an engine of modern globalization.

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1 year ago

Online matters, but the influence of a guy talking into a microphone for three hours on local radio or a podcast is wildly underrated.

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1 year ago

Re-upping an earlier post: 21st century digital networking is a step change in information.

...BUT ALSO the future may inherit a spotty record equivalent to early or pre-modern archives. A random collection of print material is preserved and references other stuff that just vanished.

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1 year ago
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