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ndmlees.bsky.social
Senior Lecturer in International Politics, University of Liverpool. Foreign policy, global inequality, democracy and conflict. https://www.nicholasdmlees.net/
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Very good, as usual. 'I don’t write about international power politics because normally I just don’t know enough about the countries and actors involved, even though it often seems as if this is also true of many of those who do talk about such things.' Very true.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

“We should no more support secular versions of blasphemy laws than the old religious variety.” My @observeruk.bsky.social column: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

submitted 11 days ago • 4 comments

If you've ever used the Polity data, read this from Monty Marshall. tl;dr Polity is coding recent US events as an executive self-coup and an adverse regime change.

submitted 15 days ago • 55 comments

It looks pretty certain that Global North-Global South relations will continue to be rocky for the next 4 years.

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

Reminds me of when Jervis posed a puzzle for power political theories of IR: 'how can we explain the fact that the United States did not conquer Canada sometime in the past hundred years?'

submitted 21 days ago • 1 comment

Alongside the dire implications for US democracy, the dismantling of USAID is hugely consequential for America's relationship with states of the Global South.

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

As highlighted by this discussion between philosophers, Trump's presidency is a natural experiment testing different versions of the democratic peace thesis. The consequences might be unhappy, but we might learn quite a lot.

submitted 50 days ago • 0 comments

Professionally, the best thing about 2024 has been the growing sense that I'm surrounded by a group of really great, supportive colleagues @livunipol.bsky.social Come study with us! We are great.

submitted 58 days ago • 0 comments

What can conflict studies learn from a diversionary war that never happened because the leadership that needed the diversion was too incompetent?

submitted 80 days ago • 0 comments

The rapid fall of the Assad regime is a great example of an information cascade. Repressive regimes lead to a lot of preference falsification, creating information problems for the authoritarian leader and for citizens.

submitted 81 days ago • 1 comment

History & Politics at Edge Hill University is advertising an open call PhD scholarship - fees and stipend. This is a great programme which ensures that candidates exit with a solid teaching qualification as well as a PhD: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DKY256/g...

submitted 84 days ago • 1 comment

Kyung-Pil Kim in @jjps.bsky.social 'A series of revelations related to armed forces over the past few years in South Korea highlighted a problem in Korean democracy: the use of the military in domestic politics for the political interests of the ruling power.' www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

submitted 85 days ago • 1 comment

Coup scenarios are a saddle, and its not good to be a prominent political actor on the wrong side.

submitted 85 days ago • 0 comments

A few important fact to remember: S. Korea lived under some form of military dictatorship from 1965-1988! Brazil lived under a military dictatorship from 1964-1985! Democracy is not an abstraction to these folk, it's a vulnerable thing that they want to protect.

submitted 86 days ago • 80 comments

The diff is Koreans don't think they're above having to fight for democracy & they understand from recent experience how fragile liberal democracy is. Many South Koreans remember what it's like to live under martial law, incl the middle-aged/older folks who lived through the 1980 Kwangju Massacre

submitted 86 days ago • 38 comments

Hard to ignore as an element in the explanation for American political trends.

submitted 92 days ago • 0 comments

My documentary, The Battle For Kyiv, is available online now for the next two weeks as part of the Byline Documentary Festival, you can watch it from today until the 8th December using the link below thanks to @bylinetv.bsky.social! www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ERJ...

submitted 94 days ago • 16 comments

Anything missing? #IRsky

submitted 99 days ago • 22 comments

Noted with interest: 'Does economic globalization promote civil peace in developing countries?' Kollmeyer in @coco-journal.bsky.social journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

submitted 98 days ago • 1 comment

Politics at Liverpool is inviting applications for the UKRI-funded PhD or MA+PhD scholarships through the NWSSDTP. Open to UK and international students, fully funded, start date October 2025, application deadline 3rd February 2024. nwssdtp.ac.uk/how-to-apply/

submitted 99 days ago • 1 comment

Recent reading: Shocks and Rivalries in the Middle East and North Africa edited by Mansour and Thompson. Another major contribution to research on strategic rivalries, examining how their evolution has been shaped by major upheavals in the region.

submitted 99 days ago • 1 comment