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Last year I was on a sabbatical in Edinburgh, and my family and I watched Eurovision for the first time. We loved the out-there electro-pop versions of local folk music, got bored by the slow ballads, and generally bought into the hype. This year, we were excited to discover it was streaming for US audiences […]

Even though the school year is ending, protests against Israel–most prominent on college campuses–will likely continue. Beginning at Columbia University, they gained attention and spread after a heavy-handed police response. Prompted by the Israeli attack on Gaza (retaliation for Hamas' attack on Israel), student protesters are calling on their universities to take action in opposition […]

I recently submitted the below letter to Foreign Affairs in response to their latest issue's set of essays on Israel-Palestine peace. They decided not to run it, and I assume that's because of all the letters they get. However, I worry that we ignore the small-scale peace efforts that may be the best way to […]

Scotland's independence drive won't disappear anytime soon. In "Scots Wha Hae," (from which the title of this post comes) Robert Burns calls on Scots to remember their victory over the English at the Battle of Bannockburn, and never lose their desire for independence. Observers of UK politics, who assume Scottish independence is dead, would be […]

International relations discourse tends to be a bit wonkier than domestic American political debates. While this leads to the frequent lament, from voices like Dan Drezner, that American voters don't care about international relations, it also insulates us from the more frustrating aspects of American politics. IR scholars don't usually have to deal with knee-jerk […]

A controversy broke out the weekend before Christmas, when Fr. Edward Beck, a Roman Catholic priest, claimed Jesus was a "Palestinian Jew" while discussing the current war between Israel and Hamas. Some may dismiss this as a disingenuous conservative freak-out; for example, the article I linked to was in the New York Post and figures […]

The ongoing war in Gaza has stretched on for over two months after the horrific October 7 attack by Hamas against Israel, which resulted in Hamas killing over 1000 Israelis and kidnapping over 200. Israel's subsequent airstrikes and ground invasion have killed over 10,000 Palestinians (with the Hamas-run Gaza Health Authority report numbers approaching 20,000). […]

The foreign policy world was abuzz this morning with the news that Antonio Guterres invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter over the Israel-Hamas conflict. This allows the Secretary General to bring an issue before the Security Council, and call on them to act. Many are cheering this, seeing it as a way to stop […]

Forced migration–the movement of people for reasons beyond their control–has become a global crisis. According to both the UNHCR and the Norwegian Refugee Council, over 100 million people were displaced by the end of 2022, a 19 million increase over 2021. There are two sides to this crisis. One is the push factors: the conditions […]

WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE BOOK AND WHAT ARE ITS COORDINATES? Peter S. Henne, Religious Appeals in Power Politics, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2023 WHAT'S THE ARGUMENT? Religious appeals—references to religious standards and symbols by states used to justify policies or critique rivals—are a potent but unwieldy tool in international power politics. States […]

This is just a short follow-up to my post yesterday with a few predictions. First about Netanyahu's future. Prior to Hamas' attack over the weekend, much discussion about Israel focused on the right-wing Netanyahu government, his continuing corruption trial, and his efforts to reduce the power of Israel's courts. For those who oppose Netanyahu, they […]

During a pivotal scene in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne talks with his butler/confidante Alfred about The Joker. Wayne suggests he can make sense of The Joker's motivation as a first step towards stopping his rampage. Alfred tells a story about an operation from his paramilitary career, in which a bandit leader was […]

Earlier this week, a boat carrying migrants fleeing Afghanistan sank in the English Channel, killing six. Earlier this month, 41 died after a ship sailing from Tunisia sank near Italy. There are many more examples of such tragedies I could point to, and, sadly, there will be many more in the future. These are not […]

On Wednesday, protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, setting part of it on fire. This was in retaliation for the burning of the Quran during protests in Sweden. In response, the UN Human Rights Council called for restrictions on "anti-religious expression." Some may welcome this as a means to limit religious strife and stop […]

This week, King Charles had a second coronation in Scotland, following the official one in London. He took part in a parade through Edinburgh and received the Scottish crown jewels in St. Giles Cathedral. While this was not technically necessary, as England and Scotland share the same throne, it indicated his desire to unify Great […]