Nicholas Lees

Recent research on secret police in autocracies indicates this pattern as well.

Or Malaysia!

One of the most perceptive points I've seen, similar to the idea that crises are the product of complacency - a self-defeating prophecy.

I re-read the Clash of Civilizations article again recently (read the book years ago). It's still really not good in multiple respects and, although not completely wrong in terms of the role of identity, makes some wildly bad predictions like 'Russia and Ukraine are too similar to ever go to war'.

It's even worse for Ikenberry and Deudney's arguments about mutually restraining, co-binding relationships making US hegemony 'safe'.

If they stopped quoting the classics without context they might have to do some social science.

Has anyone checked on the Quincy Institute leftists since Friday evening?

Smartphone natives, computer foreigners.

Every year in Semester 1 computer lab sessions. Many are actively keen to develop computer skills they know they are lacking.

Strongly correlated with the presence of the Deftones in popular culture. Everything will change if there's a White Stripes/The Strokes revival.

Yesterday was a very busy day for our department and knowledge production! Thank you to everyone who attended the book launch for Dr @ndmlees.bsky.social and our offsite round table for the Dayton Peace Agreement which featured Dr @birtegippert.bsky.social at @ljmuofficial.bsky.social 📚👩‍⚖️⚖️

An excellent day for the Liverpool politics departments
A superb book launch by the superb @ndmlees.bsky.social at UoL

And a brilliant roundtable at LJMU reflecting on 30 years since the Dayton Peace Agreement organised by @matesuba.bsky.social @birtegippert.bsky.social

Launch event for my new book 'The International Relations of the North-South Divide' today.

This is the quality content I come to Bluesky for 👍

An underrated big picture question is why small, rich countries exist. Why aren't they bullied and extorted by countries with greater total resources?

Fascists | Cambridge University Press & Assessment

www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...

This is overall quite similar to Michael Mann's analysis of fascism's appeal as offering a) revenge for frightened elites b) 'cracking heads together' to get the nation moving again during a period of class conflict.

The bureaucratic/intragovernmental level of analysis is one of the least developed in the study of foreign policy & conflict studies, despite Allison's famous book Essence of Decision. Jost's work makes a new case that the way national security institutions operate has a big impact on war and peace.

Jost's recent book provides a new analysis of the dangers of fragmented national security institutions. The accompanying article in International Studies Quarterly has a slightly different (and better designed) quantitative analysis as well as an extra case study:
academic.oup.com/isq/article/...

Book launch event upcoming!

Very important point that doesn't seem to stick despite being made by Schweller and Glaser, as well as Wagner in the best book that few IR scholars seem to have read - War and the State.

Is the decline of war a delusion? An exchange between researchers following the publication of Azar Gat’s article on the subject Published in Journal of Strategic Studies (Vol. 48, No. 4, 2025)

'the Security Dilemma... does not exist without underlying competition – actual or potential – over scarce, coveted objects of human desire, which is the overlooked reason why the Dilemma flares up in the first place. The structural realists’ ‘explanation’ has no engine.'
Azar Gat

The International Relations of the North–South Divide The International Relations of the North–South Divide - Historical Inequality, Contemporary Disagreement and World Politics; Available open access digitally under a CC-BY-NC-ND license. This book exam...

The book is now with the publisher for printing and distribution.
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-internat...

It's a very funny article, confirming that Wendt wasn't really going to make a big academic contribution to IR again, and saying the quiet part out loud that there's an affinity between critical theory and really fringe counterculture Fortean ideas.

An absolute classic. I think it's a broader phenomenon: 'We pretend to work and you pretend to pay us' ; 'We pretend to study and you pretend to test us'.

But, their qualitative investigation raises additional complications! Interviewees report increased tensions within the Group of 77 at the UN and a tendency towards drafting lowest-common-denominator resolutions to maintain unity. It's a really interesting and worthwhile contribution.

They find that South-South solidarity hasn't just persisted in terms of their chosen quantitative measure at the United Nations General Assembly despite the economic development of some Global South states, but that economic development seems to increase a state's alignment with the Global South.

Southern Solidarity? A Mixed-Methods Analysis of The G77 in the United Nations General Assembly Abstract. North–South politics are a defining feature of modern international relations. Yet as the Global South becomes increasingly diverse, questions re

Just read this very interesting contribution to the debate on the Global South as a diplomatic coalition at the United Nations by Gorana Draguljić and @nickanspach.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/isagsq/artic...

Another great thread from Liam, genuinely very thought provoking.

Great Leeds band. Blackbirds Fall is standout.