Raiders of the Lost Archive

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Kobakhidze Doubles Down on the Narrative of Retribution - Civil Georgia Following the local elections and the night of localized unrest instigated by some protest rally org

civil.ge/archives/704...

It’s not enough to “win.” It’s also about all-of-society domination based on paranoia of “Derp State” foreign influence — or, more conservatively, seeing how far that argument can be pushed cynically. The loss of Western support is priced in.

This has no off-switch.

ROSE MCDERMOTT: "It never occurred to me until I was in college that not everyone knew how to do that."

#politicalscience #militaryfamilies #ravelife #archivalraiders

Most should not take time to watch the whole speech, but this short thread is useful, unpacking what he's suggesting from a HR perspective (for civilians who have not served):

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I do not think most civilians understand this point at all. Thanks for writing.

This bit, & the one in the next reskeet, need to be fully unpacked. What Hegseth is asserting here is that the zero defect concept, which plays an important role in an up or out military, is going away as long as he's SecDef. 1/

An unfortunate truth, I fear, is that most of the people voting for the anti-system parties would not educate themselves, even if content were free. Part of what we pay for is the "brand" of WOTR (or the NYT, or a good university) and *some* assurance of quality control, filtering disinformation.

WOTR has lots of free content but shelling out a bit to subsidize the full Kofman experience is not a bad value proposition, honestly, if you're in this space. Think about the subscription as supporting the artist directly, buying the swag at the shows, etc.

UP NEXT! Kirsten Weld (Harvard) discusses the discover of Guatemala's secret police archives. What did the author of PAPER CADAVERS carry with her into the field? Tune in to find out.

archiveraiders.weebly.com

What Will Historians Consider a Ukrainian Victory? Timothy Snyder, Niall Ferguson, Serhii Plokhii YouTube video by Victor Pinchuk Foundation

Academic historians (and Tom Friedman) articulating the constraints on an ideal future for Ukraine, trying to shape European coalitions in real time. Senior scholars at the top of the public relations game. Worth an hour for some of us.

www.youtube.com/live/5JxKRAl...

I think they mean people who read entire books without using Gen AI, which the university consultants have been pushing relentlessly as a way to make reading easier and less challenging for our students.

Mark Beissinger on the researcher as archivist.

Mark Beissinger on handling his KGB handler in the late Soviet period. #vodka #realexistingsocialism

"Could the US have cobbled together a coalition ... to prevent violence and build a stronger state? My answer is no. In a situation dominated by master cleavages, an outside intervenor cannot change the basic flow of a conflict by ... arranging deals among a diverse set of domestic elites." /micdrop

The Jervis Forum Roundtable 17-3 on Petersen, Death, Dominance, and State-Building Roger D. Petersen, Death, Dominance, and State-Building: The US in Iraq and the Future of American Military Intervention. Oxford University Press, 2024. ISBN: 9780197760741. 15 September 2025 | PDF…

Jervis Forum Roundtable 17-3
Roger D. Petersen’s Death, Dominance, and State-Building: The US in Iraq and the Future of American Military Intervention
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“counterinsurgency and military intervention will not go away, despite any US desire to turn away from it” –Jacqueline L. Hazelton

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

After a long haitus, a new episode is finally up today. Mark Beissinger (Princeton) recalls fieldwork in the Soviet Union, the transition to a “post-Soviet” experience, and speculates about the future of fieldwork in Russia as U.S.-Russia relations return to something resembling a new Cold War.

Today I was listening to James C Scott (RIP) wax poetic about how if you only write for your discipline, you're halfway to alienated labor. This is obviously correct. The other side of the coin is how few superheroes like Jim achieve escape velocity from the economic/status periphery. Great post.

Arson indeed. It does make one wonder what taxpayers will wish we'd kept studying 30 years from now.

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARCHIVE is a podcast featuring interviews with social scientists whose fieldwork inspires us. Visit the archive here (archiveraiders.weebly.com), or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Here's Margaret Levi and the tale of misfiled interview notes with Jimmy Hoffa.

Epic.

Raiders of the Lost Archive Podcast WHERE OUR ACADEMIC (S)HEROES ARE TREATED LIKE PULP FICTION LEGENDS, AND THEY ARE INVITED TO SHARE THEIR BACKSTORIES IN THEIR OWN WORDS.

COMING SOON -- 4 NEW EPISODES

* Mark Beissinger (to celebrate his retirement from Princeton)
* Rose McDermott (Brown)
* Kirsten Weld (Harvard)
* Michael Kofman (Carnegie)

archiveraiders.weebly.com