@rmarlin-b
Political Scientist | IR Theory & Global Politics of Information | Power*ing* and the dark side of soft power | https://www.marlin-bennett.com/ | Salzburg Global Fellow | Amateur dancer, singer, & cook.
Jews: we are guilty of settler colonialism. We took, without any a shekel of reparations or so much as a "by your leave," the lands of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite all b/c God said it was OK. We should have gotten title insurance. (Purim!)
Important that major US media outlets are correcting the record on Trump's false claims about Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities.
Some learning from the run up to the 2003 Iraq war?
Trump: "No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight."
Trump wants to show he's the American president that led to the downfall of the Islamic Republic. It's always about him, no matter the consequences.
There is a reason no previous president has done this.
This war could end tomorrow and the US and the region will be living with the consequences for many years.
You cannot put what Trump unleashed back in the box.
It's publication week! My new book takes a deep dive into how US policy on Iran has been made since the 1980's. It's a story of why US-Iran hostility has endured for now nearly half a century. Please check it out!
Simple (research) pleasures: I found a document that I had no idea still existed by doing a basic Google search and the following the link to DSpace@MIT.
I spent many, many hours with this document decades and decades ago... It feels like an old friend. (Can codebooks be old friends?)
New book from Shackelford, Douzet, and Ankerson on Securing Democracies: Defending Against Cyber Attack.
I discuss the dark side of soft power in Chapter 4.
*Open access*
www.cambridge.org/core/books/s...
I wrote last week about why military strikes are not the way to help the people of Iran if that's Trump's goal (and it's not clear that it is based on his current policies of visa bans, deportation flights, and slashing democracy and human rights programs)
Here's the abstract.
New (& somewhat quirky) article!
Marlin‐Bennett Renée. 2025. “War Talk as Strategic Ontology: Lessons from the Assyria–Judah Conflict of 701 BCE.” Media, War & Conflict OnlineFirst (September). doi.org/10.1177/1750....
journals-sagepub-com.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/doi/full/10....
I am not sure how to go forward today with the normal stuff of writing my APSA paper and getting my syllabus ready when democracy is dying in real time.
And if we go about our day smiling at folks and saying "Hi! How're you doing?" like usual, are we lobsters in a pot of cold water?
Even after a gazillion years as a professor, having a paper accepted for publication in a referee journal is still exciting. It's even better when a superb referee is really helpful.
The Houthis aren't really doing anything to help the Palestinians.
Just stating the obvious because I haven't seen it said lately.
(Like here 👇)
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
More of Trump's awfulness on full display.
May 12, 2025 open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...
A French researcher, en route to a scientific conference, was denied entry to the US for criticizing Trump's policy on research. "Evidence" found on social media. Phone & laptop confiscated, too.
www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...
Trump is blowing a system that has benefitted the US in a way that is likely to increase the concentration of wealth in the hands of the already super wealthy and materially harm the vast majority of Americans..
And that ☝️is the bottom line. 8/8
Comparative advantage This is arguably the single most powerful insight into economics. Suppose country A is better than country B at making automobiles, and country B is better than country A at making bread. It is obvious (the academics would say “trivial”) that both would benefit if A specialized in automobiles, B specialized in bread and they traded their products. That is a case of absolute advantage. But what if a country is bad at making everything? Will trade drive all producers out of business? The answer, according to Ricardo, is no. The reason is the principle of comparative advantage. It says, countries A and B still stand to benefit from trading with each other even if A is better than B at making everything. If A is much more superior at making automobiles and only slightly superior at making bread, then A should still invest resources in what it does best — producing automobiles — and export the product to B. B should still invest in what it does best — making bread — and export that product to A, even if it is not as efficient as A. Both would still benefit from the trade. A country does not have to be best at anything to gain from trade. That is comparative advantage. The theory dates back to classical economist David Ricardo. It is one of the most widely accepted among economists. It is also one of the most misunderstood among non-economists because it is confused with absolute advantage. It is often claimed, for example, that some countries have no comparative advantage in anything. That is virtually impossible. Think about it ...
4. Explaining comparative advantage: www.wto.org/english/thew... 6/8
3. For comic relief:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuOH...
(We usually say "Smoot-Hawley," rather than "Hawley-Smoot." Aside from that detail, this is spot on.) 5/8
Here are some sources I found useful.
1. Even Conservative exports understand that Trump's tariffs are bad for the US. 3/8 www.nationalreview.com/2025/03/tari...
I posted a quick explainer on Facebook, too, because many friends and family just don't know this stuff. Not because they're stupid, but because it's not their job. Also pro-Trump friends/family should also hear truth even if they don't accept. (I still care about them!) 2/8
Educate if you can! Q I posed in class today: "What is a tariff?" [Silence, then one timorous hand]. "A tax on exports?" & that gave me my opening in an IR theory class to talk about the constitution of the liberal world order as a benefit to the US, tariffs in context of mercantilism... 1/8
I'm not a free trade absolutist, and I'm Realist enough in my assessment of global politics to believe that there are some national security reasons to limit how free trade is. The pandemic reminded us that dependence on supply chains for essential goods is potentially dangerous. But 7/8
2. We tried this before. It did not go well.
www.investopedia.com/terms/s/smoo... 4/8
Congratulations, Wisconsin!
BUT HER EMAILS!
You cannot make this shit up. Sharing this jaw-dropping story with a gift link -- give it a read.
To do list entry: Cancel @washingtonpost.com subscription.
Completed.
Bezos broke it.
[qt of Amb Ross, con’t.] “to discredit their cause. Kidnapping and killing by hand 9 month old babies is monstrous. No cause can justify it. It is past time forPalestinian leaders to condemn Hamas.”
On the other site, former Ambassador Dennis Ross wrote: “One cannot be pro- Palestinian and pro-Hamas. No one has done more than Hamas to make Palestinians suffer and…[con’t]