@benvallison.bsky.social
Christian. History PhD Candidate at UT-Austin. US relations w MENA and Russia since 1945. Nat sec, terries/insurgency, proxy war. My opinions. Spitballer.
They just don't title Congressional reports like they used to...
09.01.2026 21:59 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Pleased to share my review for π-ππ’π³ of Aaron Donaghy's ππ©π¦ ππ¦π€π°π―π₯ ππ°ππ₯ ππ’π³: ππ’π³π΅π¦π³, ππ¦π’π¨π’π―, π’π―π₯ π΅π©π¦ ππ°ππͺπ΅πͺπ€π΄ π°π§ ππ°π³π¦πͺπ¨π― ππ°ππͺπ€πΊ
08.01.2026 16:47 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
An interesting snippet from a Reagan administration document (1981).
11.12.2025 19:55 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0The first time???
11.12.2025 13:18 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Reagan's team, on the other hand, dismissed this as magical thinking, and believed that the Arabs and Israelis needed to be convinced to make concessions for peace in order to counter the Soviets.
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Carter's team believed, to the very end, that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was necessary to stabilize the region, and saw the conflict's persistence as blocking their efforts at securitization against the Soviet threat.
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Sometimes, the differences between Carter and Reagan's foreign policies are overestimated (particularly by those in the "Two Carters" school). But it's pretty striking how opposite their administrations' approaches to the Middle East were. To wit:
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As the Monroe Doctrine comes roaring back in USFP, I'm thrilled to announce the Rethinking American Grand Strategy International conference at @mershoncenter.bsky.social l May 29-30, 2026 | What topics, what a lineup of scholars, thinkers, and practitionersποΈ mershoncenter.osu.edu/rethinking-a...
05.12.2025 20:41 β π 9 π 3 π¬ 2 π 0
The Jervis Forum Roundtable Review 17-18
Margaret Peacockβs Frequencies of Deceit: How Global Propaganda Wars Shaped the Middle East
βa tremendous book with which to think about radio, the power of language and discourse, and what it means for our world today.β βBenjamin V. Allison
wp.me/p2Insd-7CX
In which I am rendered incapable of generating a single criticism of the book under review.
Margaret Peacockβs latest book is outstanding.
Just looking at the Comey indictment mess, would you wager that this same DOJ has a solid legal justification for the killing spree at sea?
25.11.2025 21:45 β π 902 π 201 π¬ 34 π 8
My latest for @livenowfox.bsky.social, discussing Israel's strikes in Beirut.
24.11.2025 19:12 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
sorry,
21.11.2025 23:55 β π 3417 π 339 π¬ 73 π 25
At @aseees.bsky.social 2025? Come by Columbia 10 in the first session to hear papers from me, Alexey Chernyavskiy, Nikolaus Graf Vitzthum, and Svetlana Savranskaya, with commentary by the great, powerful, and virtual @radchenko.bsky.social!
20.11.2025 16:09 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Hey, that's me!
18.11.2025 15:34 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
The purported route of a Soviet airlift to South Yemen and Ethiopia in October 1979, as reported in Newsweek.
14.11.2025 20:55 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0SCENE: [A doctorβs office exam room. Milton Friedman sits, in a gown, on top of the exam table, swinging his feet and squinting at a prescription slip]
Friedman: Sudafed?! Thatβs what Iβve been saying!
Mamdani referred to a friend as 'bro' but a Free Press investigation has determined that this man is not his sibling.
28.10.2025 14:12 β π 2064 π 206 π¬ 44 π 15Any of the homies tryna put together a @shafrhistorians.bsky.social panel for June? Ideally on MENA and/or 1970s/80s?
22.10.2025 22:19 β π 1 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0Yβknow, when I suggested in 2021 that, among other things, maybe we needed to cut PhD lines to solve the jobs crisis, this is not what I had in mindβ¦ www.chronicle.com/article/how-...
21.10.2025 21:26 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0β¦you know what? Heβs right.
20.10.2025 21:24 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0For more on the history of federal government shutdowns (8 in Reagan's two terms alone! and 14 total since 1981), their duration, and government control by party, see this excellent graphic and @cnn.com articleποΈ www.cnn.com/politics/lon...
02.10.2025 21:22 β π 17 π 12 π¬ 0 π 0Ahmed Jibril on the Islamic Revolution in Iran:
"... we recognized its victory was a gift from heaven. Our tranquil gift and compensation for Egypt which Sadat took into the Israeli and American embrace."
Jibril, Muthakaraat, 288.
β¦my Lenten break was longer than anticipated
20.09.2025 03:08 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Blessed Lent. See yβall later.
06.03.2025 03:30 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
How I source my dissertation on relations between the United States, the Soviet Union, and the Steadfastness and Confrontation Front.
08.02.2025 02:27 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
My latest appearance on LiveNOW from FOX, discussing the ceasefire in Gaza.
19.01.2025 17:07 β π 2 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0
