Adam Scharpf

The European Political Science Society is now accepting paper & panel proposals for its annual conference!

📢 Call for Papers: EPSS 2026 – Belfast

🗓️ June 18–20, 2026

📍 ICC Belfast

📬 Deadline: Nov 7, 2025

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New UN ideal point estimates available. These are for the first time based on years rather than UNGA sessions. For more, see here: dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtm...

Nice, crisp introduction to my latest article on the targeting logic behind soft power 👇 Thanks @worldpolitics.bsky.social

More on all this in the paper.

I hope some will view this article as a kind of dialogue between Henry Kissinger and Joseph Nye. Both are extremely influential figures and Harvard professors who recently passed away.

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What does Henry Kissinger's International Seminar tell us about global elite networks and their transnational activities?

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It has often been claimed that Kissinger used the International Seminar to build a network of "Kissinger boys."

Is this true?

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The ultimate goal of any exchange program is that its graduates eventually assume influential positions in their home countries.

Was this also the case with Kissinger's program?

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Historian Niall Ferguson describes Henry Kissinger's International Seminar as "soft power at its softest."

What impact can such a program possibly have?

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Henry Kissinger is often considered one of the most famous proponents of realism in international relations.

Why would he use an influence instrument commonly attributed to the (neo-)liberal school?

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Educational exchanges and "study abroad" programs are a, maybe the most, powerful soft power tool available, but the value of this tool is increasingly being questioned, especially in the United States.

What effects do such programs have?

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Like any (foreign) influence campaign, a soft power operation must be well-planned and executed.

What role do dissemination and credibility play in such operations?

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While most assume that soft power is utilized by governments and states, such campaigns are also used by foundations, billionaires, philanthropists, and other types of elites.

How exactly do their campaigns work?

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Soft power is used by many actors.

Who do they want to win over politically? Why? And how are they trying do it?

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The article is available here:
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

This is why I wrote this article:

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The new issue of @worldpolitics.bsky.social also includes a contribution from me 🥳

The article studies the targeted use of foreign influence campaigns. It examines an exchange program of a young Harvard scholar & one of the most influential politicians of the 20th century.

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The Review of International Organizations The Review of International Organizations publishes original scientific contributions in the entire field of international political economy, with a focus on ...

📌The special issue "Illiberal Regimes and International Organizations" is now published as Vol. 20 Issue 2 in RIO! @the-peio.bsky.social
link.springer.com/journal/1155...
Summary thread with each piece-- 🧵

😂

PhD Scholarship at the Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen (UCPH): Citizens’ Agenda-Setting in Democratic Systems (CASDS)

CfA: PhD scholarship in political theory @ucph.bsky.social

Part of my project "Citizens' Agenda-Setting in Democratic Systems," which will explore how citizens should participate in making political agendas

Apply by Aug. 3, 2025
➡️ employment.ku.dk/all-vacancie...

#PolTheory #demoinno

This works for military officers as well (as we show in a forthcoming book). Career pressure -> radical behavior -> repression (loyalty) and coups (disloyalty)

📣 Jobs, jobs, jobs!

Aarhus University’s Department of Political Science is hiring:

🔹 Assistant Professor
🗓 Deadline: 25 August
🔗 international.au.dk/about/profil...

🔹 Associate Professor
🗓 Deadline: 8 September
🔗 international.au.dk/about/profil...

How does foreign #military training shape civil-military relations? April @worldpolitics.bsky.social authors @ascharpf.bsky.social and Jesse Dillon Savage analyze original #data on military training from the US School of the Americas to address this question. muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

The deadline is approaching (5 June)! So, I am just reposting this once more... Perhaps it can reach a few more junior scholars interested in lobbying?

BJPolS abstract discussing how authoritarian regimes use legislative institutions to cope with economic and policy challenges, using the example of Kuwait's National Assembly and collaborative policy mechanisms.

NEW -

Legislative Cooptation in Authoritarian Regimes: Policy Cooperation in the Kuwait National Assembly - cup.org/4iVKa4R

- @danieltavana.bsky.social & Erin York

#OpenAccess

Dictating the Agenda This is a story not just of the limits of liberal influence across the world, but of how authoritarian governments came to dictate the global agenda by repurposing the very actors, tools, and norms th...

You can now see a preview on Google Books of my new book w/ Alex Cooley

Dictating the Agenda: the Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics

Out next month in USA, available for pre-order everywhere.

Thanks Sharan, also for your excellent feedback on the working paper.

Thanks to everyone who provided invaluable feedback along the way!
@sharangrewal.bsky.social @jcaverley.bsky.social @carlammm.bsky.social

Using unique foreign training data, we show with lots of tests and different types of evidence that:

i) external counterinsurgency/counterterrorism training politicizes the military

ii) external training in conventional warfare does not

After years in the making, our article is finally out in @worldpolitics.bsky.social!

Main takeaway:
Foreign military training does not equal foreign military training - it depends on what is taught to soldiers!

This has lots of implications for potentially harmful military aid.

Congrats to both of you! For years, I have recommended the working paper version to students. Great to see that it found a home now.