Paul Staniland
@pstanpolitics
@UChicago @UChicagoCIR @CarnegieSAsia political scientist, @ChiPubSchools parent, mediocre photographer, self-loathing Bulls fan.
I'm excited to now be a co-editor in the @CornellPress Studies in Security Affairs book series, joining a great team of Alex Downes, @carsonaust, @ProfSaunders, & @ProfTalmadge. We will be holding a panel on the series at the ISA conference in a couple of weeks:
Residents of the central Myanmar town say they face a daily risk of abduction by both pro-military and pro-democracy militias, with perpetrators increasingly targeting children to force families to pay steep ransoms. frontiermyanmar.net/en/we-are-livi…
Re-upping this new report I wrote on how to think about major power competition over "swing" states and what the US should do about it, with a focus on South Asia:
How does major power rivalry play out for South Asia’s “swing states” – and what does that mean for U.S. policy in the region? @pstanpolitics highlighted a few policy recommendations in his new @CarnegieSAsia paper Read the full paper here: carnegieendowment.org/research/2025/…
Yes. Writing is not a second thing that happens after thinking. The act of writing is an act of thinking. Writing *is* thinking. Students, academics, and anyone else who outsources their writing to LLMs will find their screens full of words and their minds emptied of thought.
Really good documentary on Hannah Arendt: pbs.org/wnet/americanm…
A Father Braces for Life After a Plane Crash Took His ‘Everything’ nytimes.com/2025/07/16/wor…
"...We stopped a lot of wars. And these were serious, India and Pakistan, that was going on. Planes were being shot out of there. I think five jets were shot down, actually..." Says US President Donald Trump
Officially Dr. Tallo!🎓🥳🎉 Passed my dissertation defense! Thanks to my committee members @pstanpolitics, @carsonaust, Jon Rogowski, & Susan Stokes for all the guidance along the way & a productive discussion today.
Interested in major power competition? Small states navigating a complicated world? The intersection of IR & comparative politics? Asia? This @CarnegieEndow publication is for you:
This new @CarnegieEndow paper offers a framework for understanding how major power competition plays out within "swing" states and a set of implications for US foreign policy:
1/ Excited to release this new paper by @pstanpolitics on the interaction between great power relations and domestic politics in South Asia. Paul asks a big Q: How and why do domestic actors in Asia mobilize external major power rivalry in their own internal politics?
That’s why we’ve smacked every country in the region with tariffs, opted out of its trade pacts, punished even those we have existing FTAs with, are extraterritorializing tech control regs, and zeroed out much foreign assistance. But we still sail carriers around. #HessiansOfAsia
"This is where much of the story of the 21st century is going to be written. This is where two thirds of economic growth is going to happen over the next 25 or 30 years." — @SecRubio
Plus the ever-popular-on-this-website question of how India and the US should relate their policies to one another in South Asia's "swing" states:
Interested in major power competition? Small states navigating a complicated world? The intersection of IR & comparative politics? Asia? This @CarnegieEndow publication is for you:
This new @CarnegieEndow paper offers a framework for understanding how major power competition plays out within "swing" states and a set of implications for US foreign policy:
1/ Excited to release this new paper by @pstanpolitics on the interaction between great power relations and domestic politics in South Asia. Paul asks a big Q: How and why do domestic actors in Asia mobilize external major power rivalry in their own internal politics?
We’ve learned an unfortunate lesson about the Chicago progressive movement’s ability to govern:
It's grim, and it keeps getting grimmer. Chicago's City Council & Mayor Brandon Johnson will face an already huge budget shortfall, plus Trump cuts, a worsened pension picture, a CPS mess & more that will be solved with new taxes &/or cuts. By @ad_quig: chicagotribune.com/2025/07/13/upc…
12:01am on Friday morning. Lightning hitting both Sears Tower and the Hancock Building in Chicago. #weather #news #ilwx #chicago #storm #lightning
Japan as a swing state?
Japan's first National Security Advisor Yachi Shotaro told Nikkei that Japanese people must change their mindset and move on from the asymmetric Japan-U.S. alliance toward a more autonomous state in which Japan can make its own decisions. nikkei.com/article/DGXZQO…
Spectacular photo series from Ukraine, Sudan, DRC, and elsewhere as finalists in @leica_camera Oskar Barnack Award: leica-oskar-barnack-award.com/en/shortlists/…
Can attest that this is highly useful for people (i.e. me!) not very familiar with Vietnam:
Sharing the latest China in the World episode from @CarnegieChina @CarnegieEndow featuring @le2huong & Nguyen Khac Giang. We discuss 🇻🇳-🇨🇳 ties as part of our 5 episode season looking at how diff states manage economic & security ties w/🇨🇳. #Vietnam #China …-in-the-world-6693cc67.simplecast.com/episodes/calib…