Jessica Weeks

Applications for the 2026 Journeys in World Politics workshop (10/1-10/3) in San Diego are being accepted (due 6/1). The workshop features Kathleen Cunningham & Leah Windsor as senior mentors. Christina Schneider is our local host! Visit the site below to apply.

www.saramitchell.org/journeys.html

Scenes from a personalist regime

One of the most blatantly authoritarian threats in a Trump term full of them

"Every dollar you earn climbing from $40,000 to $100,000 triggers benefit losses that exceed your income gains. You are literally poorer for working harder." And then, importantly, you observe people below the official "poverty line" getting those benefits you are working for.

Part 1: My Life Is a Lie How a Broken Benchmark Quietly Broke America

A must-read. Argues that once we take into account how much life as a family of 4 actually costs (health + child care, housing), the source of public economic rage is clear. "As income rises from $40,000 to $100,000, benefits disappear faster than wages increase"- working literally does not pay off.

Our online special issue, The Future of Global Governance and World Order, is out!

It features 15 short essays plus the editors' introduction, all #OpenAccess.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

#IOFoGG

Step 1: Use the attached imagery to recruit a certain kind of ICE officer. Step 2: Unleash them on US cities w/few restrictions. Step 3: Call in the national guard to "protect" them from the resulting "insurrections". Having read some things about dictatorships, pretty sure I know what Steps 4+ are.

Journeys in World Politics NSF Grant Revocation Appeal The purpose of this form is to collect signatures for the Journeys in World Politics NSF grant revocation appeal letter. By sharing your contact information below, you indicate that you wish to be inc...

Sign here!: forms.gle/pwB8bG7AjgJ8...

Alumnae: help us appeal! bsky.app/profile/did:...

Alumae: please help us appeal the Journeys termination! Thank you @christinaboyes.bsky.social @sbmitche.bsky.social

Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones US science funder also plans to screen grant applications for compliance with ‘agency priorities’.

BREAKING: NSF has frozen all grant funding, as of yesterday. It's unclear when they will resume funding awards, or why the pause has been put in place. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Finally, they’re getting rid of the woke scholars that populate the field of … diplomatic history?

Bonus: fascinating and vivid description of backsliding in Hungary

Excellent article, w/ cause for both fear and hope. Fear: Things "may feel basically normal...but...this is the way it often feels, even after things have already spun out of control." Hope: Under competitive authoritarianism, "an autocrat, even one who has already stacked the deck, can still lose."

An Attack on America’s Universities Is an Attack on American Power How academia bolsters national security.

Research universities have propelled innovation and bolstered American power since World War II, writes Sarah Kreps. The Trump administration’s assault on academia is not a principled move—it is a self-defeating one.

See also Erica et al's excellent new book showing how personalism can infect democratic politics global.oup.com/academic/pro... (with Joe Wright and Andrea Kendall-Taylor)

Dictators at War and Peace by Jessica L. P. Weeks | Paperback | Cornell University Press The first book to focus systematically on the foreign policy of different types of authoritarian regimes, Dictators at War and Peace breaks new ground in our understanding of the international behavio...

Research (incl mine) shows that making decisions in a bubble based on loyalty rather than competence can be disastrous for foreign & economic policy (never thought my research on dictatorships would be relevant to the US rather than its adversaries) www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801...

Opinion | Trump 2.0 and the Return of ‘Court Politics’ The political scientist Erica Frantz describes the regime change the second Trump administration represents.

I highly recommend revisiting Erica Frantz's excellent interview with @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social that goes into a lot of detail about how Trump is personalizing decisionmaking at the top www.nytimes.com/2025/01/10/o...

I tend not to be too alarmist - but it is *extremely* alarming that decisions about U.S. national security are being made in a decisionmaking structure that is starting to look more like a personalist dictatorship than a democracy.

I’m so, so sorry. Just gutting.

I am so sorry Sabrina. That is devastating to hear. What a loss and waste.

@bashleyleeds.bsky.social @mattesmc.bsky.social @adelineylo.bsky.social @tanishafazal.bsky.social @burcusavun.bsky.social

Apparently Journeys "no longer effectuate[s] the program goals or agency priorities." I know we'll fight hard to find a way to keep Journeys alive, and help women find their place in IR. But for now - it's crushing.

The workshop had been held for more than 2 decades (pioneered by @sbmitche.bsky.social and Kelly Kadera). In 2024, we received NSF funding to hold four future workshops at Iowa, UW-Madison, and USCD (with Christina Schneider). www.saramitchell.org/journeys.html

It's hard to find the words. NSF just terminated the grant for Journeys, a mentoring workshop that tried to tackle underrepresentation of women in international relations. Future scholarship will be the worse for it. But this photo from our last gathering will motivate me to keep fighting.

Thank you- the written work was on the list but I hadn’t seen the NPR!

Poli sci peeps - I'm finalizing an undergrad class session @ the current state of U.S. democracy. What readings would you assign? I'm thinking, a few scholarly writings on backsliding/defending democ, plus some commentary on current events. I have ideas but... the stakes are high and I'd love input.

Moreover, these funds serve the public interest. Universities do things private companies with research capacities cannot: train research talent, conduct basic research with uncertain payoffs, and distribute knowledge as a public good. And the rewards have been enormous. Everything from the internet to pharmaceutical and health care innovations evolved from such investments. We are richer and healthier for the investment.

The trope that universities are "dependent" on the federal government fundamentally misunderstands how vital this partnership has been for the US. The private sector can't replace it. If we kill it, we're all worse off. From @donmoyn.bsky.social and me: donmoynihan.substack.com/p/are-univer...

‘This is not a drill’: UW-Madison scholars warn of long-term, unprecedented threats to higher education A panel of University of Wisconsin-Madison professors and academic experts discussed significant challenges facing higher education Wednesday in the wake of the Trump administration’s sweeping budget ...

This is not a drill. Existential threats to both higher education & 🇺🇸 democracy. And already devastating for my colleagues, their students, & research on our campus.

Just a reminder how classic what we're seeing is:
1. redefine a group as a threat to civilization
2. reduce legal protections that they enjoy
3. abuse, threaten, harm, and/or relocate them
4. dismiss/ignore concerns about abuses and harms from the process
5. repeat steps 2-4, escalating each time