Tom Long

A Man, a Plan, and a Long History of Overplayed Hands Trump did not invent hardball U.S. diplomacy with Panama. Then, as now, it is doomed to backfire.

A Man, a Plan, and a Long History of Overplayed Hands

In Foreign Policy, PAIS's Tom Long and Carsten-Andreas Schulz put Donald Trump's recent threats to reclaim the Panama Canal in a long-term perspective.

Read the article -> buff.ly/FE8QRe0

And check out the underpinning research, open access in APSR! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The history of international order is usually the history of the great powers. But what can we learn from looking at worldviews of those who resisted intervention?

Very pleased to have this new post available on The Conversation with my coauthor and friend @caschulz.bsky.social.

ISA Book Award Winners (2024-2025). "The Oxford Handbook of History and International Relations." Mlada Bukovansky, Edward Keene, Christian Reus-Smit, and Maja Spanu. Joseph Fletcher Prize for Best Edited Book in Historical IR. "States and the Masters of Capital: Sovereign Lending, Old and New." Quentin Bruneau. Francesco Guicciardini Prize for Best Book in Historical IR. "Reconciliation by Stealth: How Poeple Talk about War Crimes." Denisa Kostovicova. HR Best Book Award. ISA logo.

Congratulations to this year's ISA #BookAward winners! Check them out and add them to your summer reading list. Stay tuned for more winner announcements throughout the summer.

Yes, I've worked in RG59 a good bit. This could be a disaster, or it could be pre-registration like at most Latin American foreign ministry archives. Given the current direction of policy, I fear the former... but also don't want panic if it's more of an admin change. Thanks for flagging it.

Oh, wow. Any idea what this means in practice? Like, submit a form in advance or only federal employees on government business?

IR accounts of history have long emphasized turning points; increasingly, IR scholars invoke "critical junctures." But how should IR understand these?

In this article, forthcoming in EJIR, @caschulz.bsky.social, and I propose a framework for CJ analysis in IR:
wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/19...

Thank you!

"An important source of declassified materials for scholars of American diplomacy is now under threat" Prof Mitch Lerner at LSE Blog on the Historians Advisory Council, declassification, FRUS & much more #SHAFR @osuhistory.bsky.social @mershoncenter.bsky.social 🗃️ blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/20...

New article decentring the Berlin Conference from the point of view of Latin America, by @tomlongphd.bsky.social and @caschulz.bsky.social #HistIR www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Thanks, Jan!

📢 New on First View!

Tom Long (‪@tomlongphd.bsky.social‬) and Carsten-Andreas Schulz ‪(@caschulz.bsky.social‬) highlight the broader repercussions of late nineteenth-century ‘high imperialism’ and reassess the nature of Latin American anti-imperialism.

Read more here! doi.org/10.1017/S174...

I am delighted to share the programme of 'Global Order and Governance beyond the West' (May 29) at @cityhistory.bsky.social. Featuring talks by Arnulf Becker Lorca (EUI), Emma Mackinnon (Cambridge), @mjbayly.bsky.social (LSE).
In person/online registration: www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

It was a pleasure to host Ignacio Higueras Hare, Peru's ambassador to the UK, at the University of Warwick and @warwickpais.bsky.social. We appreciated his remarks about Latin American integration, and especially his outreach to our students.
warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais...

Small States & Territories assembled a great forum on Veenendaal and Corbett's influential, "Why Small States Offer Important Answers to Large Questions."

My essay, "Historical dynamics of international relationships: Veenendaal and Corbett beyond
comparative politics" www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/...

Excited to be in this issue of APSR, with "A Turn Against Empire: Benito Juárez’s Liberal Rejoinder to the French Intervention in Mexico," with @caschulz.bsky.social.

doi.org/10.1017/S000...

@warwickpais.bsky.social

YouTube video by Dr. Ivo Ganchev Prof. Tom Long on Small States & U.S. Power in Latin America | Episode #01 | New Regional Orders

🎙️ My new #podcast New Regional Orders is now live!
Ep. 1: @tomlongphd.bsky.social from @warwickpais.bsky.social & I discuss U.S. #power in #Latin #America, #small #states & #regionalism.

As #Trump 2.0 reshapes #foreign #policy, this couldn’t be more timely.

🎧 Watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAhm...

Thrilled to see Nicaragua Must Survive discussed in a H-Diplo roundtable. Deeply grateful to @mollyavery.bsky.social , Michelle Chase, @tomlongphd.bsky.social & @sarahosten.bsky.social for their engagement and kind words. Thank you @emleake.bsky.social for organising!

issforum.org/ISSF/PDF/RJI...

Big congratulations to my @warwickpais.bsky.social colleague, Charlie Price!

The assault on the US knowledge infrastructure continues.

Workers at Wilson Center Put on Leave as Trump Seeks Shutdown About 130 employees of the Wilson Center were told they were being put on leave, just four days after workers for Elon Musk’s team entered the center.

The Wilson Center has been effectively shuttered by Trump and Musk. This saves taxpayers almost nothing, while erasing space for policy research, dialogue, and exchange, all things I gained from and made a small contribution to. For shame.
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/u...

U.S. Says Deportation of Maryland Man Was an ‘Administrative Error’ Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was in the U.S. legally, is now in prison in El Salvador, and federal courts have no jurisdiction to order his release, the Trump administration said in a court filin...

The arguments the Trump admin is making in this case are alarming. The USG can deport someone with legal status to another country's prisons (supposedly by mistake), cannot correct that error, nor be challenged in court as a "unitary executive". No limits, no checks.
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/u...

A happy 219th birthday to Mexico's Benito Juárez! If you'd like to learn more about the international political thought of the Benemérito and his Liberal coalition in the tumultous 1860s, please take at look at our recent piece in the @apsrjournal.bsky.social:
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

As Carsten Schulz and I head to #ISA2025, fittingly, a paper that we presented at ISA 2024 has just been accepted in the Journal of Global History!

"Seeing the Berlin Conference from the Periphery: Latin American Reactions to Imperialism Elsewhere, 1884-1885," details coming soon.

Sunday, on the RT "Liberalism beyond the West" chaired by John Ikenberry and Matías Spektor; Tues, on the panel, "Multilateralism in Time: The Past and Present of an Institutional Form," chaired by Orfeo Fioretos; and Wed, the RT "The Return of Territorial Conflict," organized by Rob Geist Pinfold.

Really looking forward to #ISA2025 in Chicago. So many people to see, and so much to discuss.

I'll be in the workshop "From Latin America to the World: Peripheral Norms and Practices in the Constitution of Global Order" on Saturday, led by Carsten Schulz, Marinana Andrade e Barros, and myself.

Such a pleasure to make my first (definitely not last!) visit to NUPI and spend time with these lovely, brilliant people.

Amidst the Trump circus and horror show, the oligarchs are getting what they paid for.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/u...

Really, I'd have thought there were bigger stories in UK higher education at the moment...but it's good to see the BBC bringing the hardest-hitting university news.

This is great, but right now I think remembering Panamá's agency in this process is crucial. That included an effective UNSC push, detailed here:
www.jstor.org/stable/26376...

And a decades-long govt and popular effort: www.cambridge.org/core/books/a...