Paul Staniland

Should the Feds Bail Out Chicago? “Municipal debt is the history of America”

Illinois & Chicago stuck in "high tax, massive debt, comparatively unremarkable public services" equilibrium that will take either crisis or real political creativity to change:
www.statecraft.pub/p/should-the...

Myanmar's Shwe Kokko: Inside a city 'built on scams' A haven for the super rich, or a city built on scams? The BBC was invited to find out.

"Casinos, high-rises and fraud: The BBC visits a bizarre city built on scams"
bbc.com/news/article...

‘A Recipe for Idiocracy’ What happens when even college students can’t do math anymore?

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

huge sale on Cornell University Press books:

YouTube video by CanonUSA Welcoming the EOS R6 Mark III

I could spend my life just watching camera release videos:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMXV...

Americans Reverse Course on US-China Competition While Republicans remain focused on limiting China's rise, a majority of Americans now favor a policy of cooperation and engagement with Beijing.

Really important survey from @ChicagoCouncil:
“the bipartisan embrace of US-China competition no longer holds among the public, with partisan differences in perceived threats from China and disagreements on current US-China trade policy”
globalaffairs.org/research/pub...

From Brooklyn Heights

Pakistani general's Dhaka visit explores stronger defence ties General Sahir Shamshad Mirza meets Bangladesh’s three service chiefs

Pakistani general's Dhaka visit explores stronger defence ties www.thedailystar.net/news/banglad...

Border patrol agents deployed tear gas on the 3700 block of North Kildare where residents say a landscape worker, a resident, and a woman on a bike were detained. Video from a resident.

Chicago's SkyDeck is pretty awesome (first time I've been here despite living in Chicago 19 of the past 25 years):

23 troops martyred, 200 Taliban and affiliated terrorists killed in border skirmishes with Afghanistan: ISPR 21 hostile positions on Afghan side of border were briefly captured and multiple terrorist training camps were rendered inoperative, says ISPR.

Afghanistan-Pakistan clashes:
www.dawn.com/news/1948219...

Can't say I am loving the "Donald Trump sends combat forces to Chicago on an obvious pretext" experience.

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion

Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

Based on his track record at UChicago, there is truly no one I would less want to be in a foxhole with than Daniel Diermeier, so very unsurprising news here:
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

current draft syllabus for my Political Violence lecture class:
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8swsa...

current draft syllabus for my Political Violence lecture class:
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8swsa...

YouTube video by Ray Delahanty | CityNerd Can We Agree On the 4 Major U.S. Cities?

Fun video on assessing US cities' "Majorness":
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrj-...

vintage Canon FD 50/1.4: surprisingly sharp in the middle, weird, fun bokeh in the background

A cool find for the 6 people on earth (including me) with overlapping interests in photography and Chicago politics:

Molten water

Why South Asia’s Regimes Keep Falling | Journal of Democracy The government of Nepal has become the third South Asian government to collapse amid mass protests in three years. It will take more than elections to restore stability. Young protesters want to see…

South Asia has seen 3 governments fall due to mass protests in as many years. But returning to the status quo or simply holding elections isn't enough, real change is needed, @pstaniland.bsky.social on the current wave of protests impacting the region.
www.journalofdemocracy.org/online-exclu...

Plus more info from university yesterday suggests a lot of the internet coverage of this stuff - "UChicago goes bankrupt in MAGA-inspired self-immolation aimed at annihilating human knowledge while becoming nothing more than a start-up incubator" - was not correct

A key takeaway, including from the budget town hall today, is that the UChicago debt situation is getting better rather than worse, plus some of the spicier internet claims appear to be hyperbolic/inaccurate. Still challenges, but not a cataclysm (i.e. my dept is hiring 2 lines):

Why South Asia’s Regimes Keep Falling | Journal of Democracy The government of Nepal has become the third South Asian government to collapse amid mass protests in three years. It will take more than elections to restore stability. Young protesters want to see…

I have a new article out in the Journal of Democracy comparing mass protests and government collapse in 2025 Nepal, 2024 Bangladesh, and 2022 Sri Lanka:
www.journalofdemocracy.org/online-exclu...

A Bet Worth Placing: Computing and Data Science at UChicago The Department of Computer Science and Data Science Institute hold indispensable roles at the University, enriching the broader intellectual environment while offering meaningful benefits to both stud...

Also, this remarkably-restrained rebuttal is why not posting Cliff Ando op-eds (admittedly, and almost anything not about S/SE Asia) is a policy of this twitter feed:
chicagomaroon.com/48362/viewpo...

Some clarification from UChicago admin about finances; the most amusing bullet point is the "No, the University has not lost money on cryptocurrency" one:
provost.uchicago.edu/announcement...

Why South Asia’s Regimes Keep Falling | Journal of Democracy The government of Nepal has become the third South Asian government to collapse amid mass protests in three years. It will take more than elections to restore stability. Young protesters want to see…

I have a new article out in the Journal of Democracy comparing mass protests and government collapse in 2025 Nepal, 2024 Bangladesh, and 2022 Sri Lanka:
www.journalofdemocracy.org/online-exclu...

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…

An H-Diplo/ISSF Jervis Forum Roundtable on Roger Petersen's "Death, Dominance, and State-Building" (I wrote the introduction): issforum.org/roundtables/...

Excited to be joining the @global-affairs.bsky.social as a nonresident senior fellow in Asia Studies: