Jessica Weeks
@jlpweeks.bsky.social
Professor of Political Science at University of Wisconsin-Madison
Reposted by Jessica Weeks
Scenes from a personalist regime
Per @garretthaake.bsky.social, the extremely tacky "presidential wall of fame" that lines the colonnade to the West Wing now has obviously-Trump-penned plaques insulting or praising the presidents.
December 17, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Scenes from a personalist regime
Reposted by Jessica Weeks
One of the most blatantly authoritarian threats in a Trump term full of them
December 11, 2025 at 4:51 PM
One of the most blatantly authoritarian threats in a Trump term full of them
"Every dollar you earn climbing from $40,000 to $100,000 triggers benefit losses that exceed your income gains. You are literally poorer for working harder." And then, importantly, you observe people below the official "poverty line" getting those benefits you are working for.
December 4, 2025 at 4:20 PM
"Every dollar you earn climbing from $40,000 to $100,000 triggers benefit losses that exceed your income gains. You are literally poorer for working harder." And then, importantly, you observe people below the official "poverty line" getting those benefits you are working for.
A must-read. Argues that once we take into account how much life as a family of 4 actually costs (health + child care, housing), the source of public economic rage is clear. "As income rises from $40,000 to $100,000, benefits disappear faster than wages increase"- working literally does not pay off.
Part 1: My Life Is a Lie
How a Broken Benchmark Quietly Broke America
www.yesigiveafig.com
December 4, 2025 at 4:16 PM
A must-read. Argues that once we take into account how much life as a family of 4 actually costs (health + child care, housing), the source of public economic rage is clear. "As income rises from $40,000 to $100,000, benefits disappear faster than wages increase"- working literally does not pay off.
Reposted by Jessica Weeks
Our online special issue, The Future of Global Governance and World Order, is out!
It features 15 short essays plus the editors' introduction, all #OpenAccess.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
#IOFoGG
It features 15 short essays plus the editors' introduction, all #OpenAccess.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
#IOFoGG
November 20, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Our online special issue, The Future of Global Governance and World Order, is out!
It features 15 short essays plus the editors' introduction, all #OpenAccess.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
#IOFoGG
It features 15 short essays plus the editors' introduction, all #OpenAccess.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
#IOFoGG
Step 1: Use the attached imagery to recruit a certain kind of ICE officer. Step 2: Unleash them on US cities w/few restrictions. Step 3: Call in the national guard to "protect" them from the resulting "insurrections". Having read some things about dictatorships, pretty sure I know what Steps 4+ are.
October 9, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Step 1: Use the attached imagery to recruit a certain kind of ICE officer. Step 2: Unleash them on US cities w/few restrictions. Step 3: Call in the national guard to "protect" them from the resulting "insurrections". Having read some things about dictatorships, pretty sure I know what Steps 4+ are.
Reposted by Jessica Weeks
Sign here!: forms.gle/pwB8bG7AjgJ8...
Journeys in World Politics NSF Grant Revocation Appeal
The purpose of this form is to collect signatures for the Journeys in World Politics NSF grant revocation appeal letter. By sharing your contact information below, you indicate that you wish to be inc...
forms.gle
May 9, 2025 at 4:16 AM
Sign here!: forms.gle/pwB8bG7AjgJ8...
Alumnae: help us appeal! bsky.app/profile/did:...
Alumae: please help us appeal the Journeys termination! Thank you @christinaboyes.bsky.social @sbmitche.bsky.social
The NSF grant funding the Journeys in World Politics program was terminated last week. We are working on an appeal. If you are an alumnae of the program, and are willing to join a support letter, please contact @christinaboyes.bsky.social within the next week (our appeal window is short). Thanks!
May 2, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Alumnae: help us appeal! bsky.app/profile/did:...
Alumae: please help us appeal the Journeys termination! Thank you @christinaboyes.bsky.social @sbmitche.bsky.social
The NSF grant funding the Journeys in World Politics program was terminated last week. We are working on an appeal. If you are an alumnae of the program, and are willing to join a support letter, please contact @christinaboyes.bsky.social within the next week (our appeal window is short). Thanks!
May 2, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Alumae: please help us appeal the Journeys termination! Thank you @christinaboyes.bsky.social @sbmitche.bsky.social
Reposted by Jessica Weeks
BREAKING: NSF has frozen all grant funding, as of yesterday. It's unclear when they will resume funding awards, or why the pause has been put in place. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones
US science funder also plans to screen grant applications for compliance with ‘agency priorities’.
www.nature.com
May 1, 2025 at 10:58 PM
BREAKING: NSF has frozen all grant funding, as of yesterday. It's unclear when they will resume funding awards, or why the pause has been put in place. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Jessica Weeks
Finally, they’re getting rid of the woke scholars that populate the field of … diplomatic history?
Unhappy to confirm that the entire Historical Advisory Committee at the State Department received termination notices this afternoon (myself included). The HAC, set up by Congress, oversees the office that produces the FRUS series. history.state.gov/about/hac/in... 1/
April 30, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Finally, they’re getting rid of the woke scholars that populate the field of … diplomatic history?
Bonus: fascinating and vivid description of backsliding in Hungary
April 30, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Bonus: fascinating and vivid description of backsliding in Hungary
Excellent article, w/ cause for both fear and hope. Fear: Things "may feel basically normal...but...this is the way it often feels, even after things have already spun out of control." Hope: Under competitive authoritarianism, "an autocrat, even one who has already stacked the deck, can still lose."
Nothing in politics is permanent, nor inevitable. “We spent centuries, as a society, building up democratic muscle, and we still have a lot of that muscle left,” the political scientist Steven Levitsky said. “I just keep waiting for someone to use it.”
Is the U.S. Becoming an Autocracy?
Other countries have watched their democracies slip away gradually, without tanks in the streets. That may be where we’re headed—or where we already are.
www.newyorker.com
April 30, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Excellent article, w/ cause for both fear and hope. Fear: Things "may feel basically normal...but...this is the way it often feels, even after things have already spun out of control." Hope: Under competitive authoritarianism, "an autocrat, even one who has already stacked the deck, can still lose."
Reposted by Jessica Weeks
Research universities have propelled innovation and bolstered American power since World War II, writes Sarah Kreps. The Trump administration’s assault on academia is not a principled move—it is a self-defeating one.
An Attack on America’s Universities Is an Attack on American Power
How academia bolsters national security.
www.foreignaffairs.com
April 29, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Research universities have propelled innovation and bolstered American power since World War II, writes Sarah Kreps. The Trump administration’s assault on academia is not a principled move—it is a self-defeating one.
See also Erica et al's excellent new book showing how personalism can infect democratic politics global.oup.com/academic/pro... (with Joe Wright and Andrea Kendall-Taylor)
global.oup.com
April 28, 2025 at 3:04 PM
See also Erica et al's excellent new book showing how personalism can infect democratic politics global.oup.com/academic/pro... (with Joe Wright and Andrea Kendall-Taylor)
Research (incl mine) shows that making decisions in a bubble based on loyalty rather than competence can be disastrous for foreign & economic policy (never thought my research on dictatorships would be relevant to the US rather than its adversaries) www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801...
Dictators at War and Peace by Jessica L. P. Weeks | Paperback | Cornell University Press
The first book to focus systematically on the foreign policy of different types of authoritarian regimes, Dictators at War and Peace breaks new ground in our understanding of the international behavio...
www.cornellpress.cornell.edu
April 28, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Research (incl mine) shows that making decisions in a bubble based on loyalty rather than competence can be disastrous for foreign & economic policy (never thought my research on dictatorships would be relevant to the US rather than its adversaries) www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801...
I highly recommend revisiting Erica Frantz's excellent interview with @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social that goes into a lot of detail about how Trump is personalizing decisionmaking at the top www.nytimes.com/2025/01/10/o...
Opinion | Trump 2.0 and the Return of ‘Court Politics’
The political scientist Erica Frantz describes the regime change the second Trump administration represents.
www.nytimes.com
April 28, 2025 at 3:03 PM
I highly recommend revisiting Erica Frantz's excellent interview with @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social that goes into a lot of detail about how Trump is personalizing decisionmaking at the top www.nytimes.com/2025/01/10/o...
I tend not to be too alarmist - but it is *extremely* alarming that decisions about U.S. national security are being made in a decisionmaking structure that is starting to look more like a personalist dictatorship than a democracy.
Decades of building an informational universe in which loyalty and loudness are the central virtues has resulted in a president and a senior team unprepared for reality. Gift link: wapo.st/44ce0i3
Opinion | The bubble that created Trump is the reason he’s stumbling
The White House is now a bubble where loyalty, not ability, defines success.
wapo.st
April 28, 2025 at 3:03 PM
I tend not to be too alarmist - but it is *extremely* alarming that decisions about U.S. national security are being made in a decisionmaking structure that is starting to look more like a personalist dictatorship than a democracy.
I’m so, so sorry. Just gutting.
April 25, 2025 at 10:03 PM
I’m so, so sorry. Just gutting.
I am so sorry Sabrina. That is devastating to hear. What a loss and waste.
April 25, 2025 at 10:00 PM
I am so sorry Sabrina. That is devastating to hear. What a loss and waste.
@bashleyleeds.bsky.social @mattesmc.bsky.social @adelineylo.bsky.social @tanishafazal.bsky.social @burcusavun.bsky.social
April 25, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Apparently Journeys "no longer effectuate[s] the program goals or agency priorities." I know we'll fight hard to find a way to keep Journeys alive, and help women find their place in IR. But for now - it's crushing.
April 25, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Apparently Journeys "no longer effectuate[s] the program goals or agency priorities." I know we'll fight hard to find a way to keep Journeys alive, and help women find their place in IR. But for now - it's crushing.
The workshop had been held for more than 2 decades (pioneered by @sbmitche.bsky.social and Kelly Kadera). In 2024, we received NSF funding to hold four future workshops at Iowa, UW-Madison, and USCD (with Christina Schneider). www.saramitchell.org/journeys.html
Journeys in World Politics
www.saramitchell.org
April 25, 2025 at 9:22 PM
The workshop had been held for more than 2 decades (pioneered by @sbmitche.bsky.social and Kelly Kadera). In 2024, we received NSF funding to hold four future workshops at Iowa, UW-Madison, and USCD (with Christina Schneider). www.saramitchell.org/journeys.html
It's hard to find the words. NSF just terminated the grant for Journeys, a mentoring workshop that tried to tackle underrepresentation of women in international relations. Future scholarship will be the worse for it. But this photo from our last gathering will motivate me to keep fighting.
April 25, 2025 at 9:22 PM
It's hard to find the words. NSF just terminated the grant for Journeys, a mentoring workshop that tried to tackle underrepresentation of women in international relations. Future scholarship will be the worse for it. But this photo from our last gathering will motivate me to keep fighting.
Thank you- the written work was on the list but I hadn’t seen the NPR!
April 23, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Thank you- the written work was on the list but I hadn’t seen the NPR!