Benjamin Dassler

📘 The intro to the special issue "Victims of their own success? How successful liberal orders can become self-undermining" highlights how liberalism destabilises itself through excess, exploitation and exhaustion 👇

🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The Authoritarian Stack How Tech Billionaires Are Building a Post-Democratic America — And Why Europe Is Next

Diese Warnung ist unmissverständlich.

@francescabria.bsky.social & @josebautista.bsky.social haben das Vorgehen von US-Big-Tech kartografiert.

Ihre Fazit: Ein autoritäres Netzwerk ist auch hier dabei den Staat zu privatisieren.

Wir müssen #Palantir & Co den Stecker ziehen bevor es zu spät ist.

When authoritarians tell you they like authoritarianism, over and over and over and over and over again, believe them

I‘m sure these hundreds of US generals and admirals were very happy to be used as props in a campaign performance for Fox News by the former Fox News talking head and the former reality TV personality that never served, while being insulted as „decayed“ and „fat“. Brilliant move.

Author copies for

Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics

by me & @cooleyoneurasia.bsky.social arrived today!

If you re-post this by Sept 30 we'll put you in a drawing & send the winner a free signed copy anywhere they happen to be on the planet.

White House considers funding advantage for colleges that align with Trump policies The proposal has the potential to transform the government’s vast research funding operation, which has long awarded university grants based on scientific merit.

Exclusive: The White House is developing a plan that could change how universities are awarded research grants, giving a competitive advantage to schools that pledge to adhere to the values and policies of the Trump administration.

The New Economic Geography Who profits in a post-American world?

“It is a tragic and destructive irony that, in the name of national security, the United States is now injuring the allies that have contributed the most to its economic well-being while leaving China far less disadvantaged,” writes @adamposen.bsky.social.

Are we witnessing the death of international law? The long read: A growing number of scholars and lawyers are losing faith in the current system. Others say the law is not to blame, but the states that are supposed to uphold it

www.theguardian.com/law/2025/jun...

Behind Closed Doors, Harvard Officials Debate a Risky Truce With Trump

Absolutely wild how we’ve normalized the use of extra-legal & unconstitutional threats to coerce the behavior of private institutions

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/24/u...

Opinion | Elon Musk’s Legacy Is Disease, Starvation and Death

"If there were justice in the world, Musk would never be able to repair his reputation... Musk’s sojourn in government has revealed severe flaws in his character — a blithe, dehumanizing cruelty, and a deadly incuriosity. This should shape how he’s seen for the rest of his public life."

We are inviting applications for a 4-year PhD position in International Relations at the @unisalzburg.bsky.social.

Requirement: MA in Political Science or a closely related social science

Application deadline: 2 June 2025

For more details, see tinyurl.com/5ew3auby

#Polisky #poliscijobs

Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions - rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking steps to make sure students can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope others follow suit.

Quite unusually among policy makers taking up the notion, his working definition is pretty well exactly right (or at least what Abe and I intended by it)

Insider trading in politics is state-sanctioned theft dressed up as “strategy.” They get the death toll early and use it to double portfolios. While we panic, they profit, turning bloodshed into stock tips. It’s not public service; it’s a heist with better PR.

Incoming Punishment: A stern letter.

Billionaires Score Best-Ever Day as Stocks Soar on Tariff Pause The world’s wealthiest people added $304 billion to their combined net worth on Wednesday — the largest one-day gain in the history of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — as stock markets soared after ...

The world’s richest people added $304 billion to their combined net worth, the largest one-day gain in the history of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, after Trump pledged to pause tariffs for some countries

China, E.U. prepare ‘countermeasures’ as Trump tariffs unite friends and foes Allies and adversaries alike were reeling from Trump’s tariff blitz, with some signaling they were ready to retaliate, while others were still hoping for talks.

“We are bewildered,” said a senior fellow of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, a US treaty ally. “It’s worse now to be a U.S. ally than to be an adversary.” www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Reciprocal tariffs: you won’t believe how they came up with the numbers There is some method to the madness — it’s just a nonsensical method

Great piece on the insane underlying "logic" of the MAGA tariffs.

"There is some method to the madness - it's just a nonsensical method"

www.ft.com/content/e025...

Trump Launches Trade War With Penguins, Not Putin Donald Trump’s new global trade war declaration will place tariffs on America’s economic allies and Arctic waterfowl, but not Russia.

CORRECTION: No tariffs on Russia, but the penguins on the Heard and McDonald Islands are hit with 10% on all their feather exports
www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

Trump claims that European states charging VAT is a “tariff” on US goods!

Where does this madness end?

Eg. when I pay a 20% tip on a meal in an American restaurant, should I see this as a tariff on the eating service I am selling to America?

🤷‍♂️

Großartig aufbereiteter Einblick in den "Markt" wissenschaftlichen Publizierens ...
www.zdf.de/play/shows/m...

There is a new encyclopaedia covering all things IR, compiled by Beate Jahn & Sebastian Schindler. It's got almost 200 entries from lots of great colleagues.
I was happy to contribute an entry on "Institutions". Can't wait to dive into all the other entries ⬇️! 📚 be sure to check it out! 😊

In this blog, we discuss the intuition behind and implications of our (and other people's) research on institutional design of IOs published in ISQ (@isanet.bsky.social) and elsewhere.

What reforms can stabilise IOs in an era of shifting global power dynamics and increasing contestation?

Read @heinkelmann-wild.bsky.social, Martijn Huysmans and my thoughts on @ecprtheloop.bsky.social 👇

They are based on our recent ISQ article, available OA here:
academic.oup.com/isq/article/...

Already inserted in the lastest ISQ issue, in good company with @bendassler.bsky.social, Soo Yeon Kim, Evgeny Postnikov, @jp-singh.bsky.social and other IPE scholars

Using Trade Provisions to Make Environmental Agreements More Dynamic Abstract. This article examines the impact of trade provisions on treaty dynamism. It differentiates between static treaties, which remain unaltered, and d

🎉 Excited to share our new paper in ISQ, with @jfmorin.bsky.social, @cbrandi.bsky.social & Jakob Schwab!

We show how trade provisions can boost environmental treaties, pushing members to strengthen commitments ✍️ and attracting non-members to join 🤝.

Open access 🔗 academic.oup.com/isq/article/...

The US embrace of Russia is an existential threat to the EU. Germany must step up to save it | Catherine De Vries To counter the crisis caused by Trump, Friedrich Merz has little choice but to abandon decades of military and economic caution

Very good piece by @catherinedevries.bsky.social on the challenge now facing Europe www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

USA und Europa: Der Worst Case ist das neue Normal Donald Trump ist Europa nicht nur egal, er scheint es regelrecht zu verachten. Was nun geschieht, kann Europa an seine Grenzen bringen. Aber ganz hilflos ist es nicht.

Die Woche fing damit an, dass die USA in der UN sich auf die Seite der Russen schlugen und endete damit, dass im Oval Office die Ukraine vor den Bus geworfen wurde.

Es hilft nichts: Die Europäer müssen nun mit den gigantischen Überforderungen klarkommen. Mein Kommentar www.zeit.de/politik/ausl...

We're getting the social media crisis wrong The bigger problem isn't disinformation. It's degraded democratic publics

"The technologies through which we see the public shape how we understand it. Our publics have been distorted by social media in ways that lower the odds that democracy will be a problem-solving system." - @himself.bsky.social

www.programmablemutter.com/p/were-getti...

Limiting liberal intrusion to save inclusion in the Liberal International Order Following Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from bodies like the World Health Organization and the UN Human Rights Council, the role of international institutions in constraining powerful …

The Liberal International Order looks more precarious by the day.

@bendassler.bsky.social @heinkelmann-wild.bsky.social‬ and Andreas Kruck write on the LSE USAPP Blog that preserving it will require giving key states more power to avoid undesirable institutional outcomes.

I’m in Munich and people keep asking me to decode Vance’s speech. OK: In Vance English “free speech” means “Let Musk run your elections” and “democracy” means “let Russia run your elections.” Now move on. 2025 is about what Europeans do, not what Americans say.