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Joseph Huddleston

@joehud.bsky.social

1.7K followers 520 following 590 posts

Associate Professor at @setonhall.bsky.social Diplomacy. Teaches conflict, nationalism, methods. Researches separatism, diplomacy, civilians in conflict. Sabbatical-ing as a CFR-fellow/Senate staffer. Yes I will belay you.

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Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Dec 26

New publication!

@reyhuang.bsky.social and I ask a tough ethical question of ourselves and conflict scholars: Are we marketing rebellion?

A few years ago, we discovered we both were grappling with this question. doi.org/10.1080/1467...
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Are we marketing rebellion?

Is studying civil war contributing to civil war? Rebel groups often expend significant resources building up international support and legitimacy for their cause. At the same time, much of conflict...

doi.org

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Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Jul 28

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Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Jun 5

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Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Apr 2

I am spending my sabbatical year working on Cory Booker's foreign policy team. What he pulled off with his 25-hr speech was extraordinary. I feel proud and incredibly privileged to have contributed.

Here's a bit of the national security section my team worked on: youtu.be/GnKDC5xzAi0?...

President Trump is Making America Less Safe | Senator Cory Booker’s long speech to the U.S. Senate

YouTube video by Senator Cory Booker

youtu.be

Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Mar 29

This is lovely, Steve. Brandon was a great colleague, and we are really feeling the loss at SHU School of Diplomacy. He got a lot done in his two short years here, including taking over as director of DiploLab and coauthoring several pieces with students.

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Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Feb 28

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Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Feb 12

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Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Jan 7

Thank you, Sebastian!

Link for free access (can be used 50 times total):
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/6AZGX...

Andrea, I agree with you, and we grappled with this question a lot. Our framework leaves room for mindful advocacy.

Here's my thread from last week: bsky.app/profile/joeh...

Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Dec 27

Best place to read rebel marketing is Cliff Bob's work, one of the originals on the topic.

Interesting thing to consider re:terrorism. I guess it depends on whether we treat "terrorist" as merely a slur versus an empirical descriptor. A lot of these groups do use terrorism as one of their tactics.

Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Dec 26

All this, and many other good articles, in CSD's latest special issue on Ethics and the Study of Armed Actors. www.tandfonline.com/toc/ccsd20/2...
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Conflict, Security & Development

Research Ethics and the Study of Armed Actors. Volume 24, Issue 6 of Conflict, Security & Development

www.tandfonline.com

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Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Dec 26

Finally, we don't think these concerns mean all rebel marketing is bad. Sometimes, the rebels might be better than the state and legitimizing them might be straightforwardly ethical. That's a separate debate. We just want conflict scholars to intentionally think about this ethical consideration.
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Text excerpt from Huang and Huddleston's "Are we marketing rebellion?"

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Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Dec 26

We don't have complete answers to the question of what to do about this. Definitely don't stop doing research. But DO think about how your work is useful to these actors, and DO be aware of biases built into your data collection during fieldwork.
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Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Dec 26

Moreover, many scholars are incentivized to write for larger audiences, so these effects can be magnified. And rebel leaders themselves read and cite our work more than you might think, and may directly use it in their marketing efforts.
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Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Dec 26

Next, this might be true even if scholars' (and journalists') coverage is negative, or normatively condemnatory. It can still raise their profiles and give them bargaining leverage, like it did severe abuse by rebels in the DRC.
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Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Dec 26

I don't like long threads, so let me keep it punchy. Our first point is that scholarship on rebels can be useful as rebel legitimation. Our work sometimes inadvertently plays into their hands, and conflict scholars need to think about how.
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Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Dec 26

Cliff Bob's book famously put journalism, TV, and other media in the category of marketing by rebel groups, but what about scholarship? Does it matter that our research is sometimes useful to violent nonstate actors? When and how is scholarship useful to them, and what can scholars do about it?
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Abstract of Huang and Huddleston's article "Are we marketing rebellion?"

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Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Dec 26

Are we marketing rebellion?

doi.org

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Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Dec 18

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Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Dec 15

I've seen plenty of AI slop, and I too, hate it. And very much agreed about writing=thinking. But that's not the point in question here, is it?

But I didn't see @afinetheorem.bsky.social advocating writing substitution use cases. It seems clear to me it's designed to complement instruction.

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Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Dec 15

But I get that others are worried that admin will then saddle me with a 4-4, not hire people. etc. I also worry about that.

Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Dec 15

It does seem like it wouldn't help much at all in writing classes, but seems great for my methods class, even parts of my conflict class.

If a chat can answer the midnight qs like "When is our final?" and "Which assignment counts the most?", my life would get easier. 3-3 is a lot of work!

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Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Dec 15

It's what everyone hates me for!

a close up of a man wearing a shirt and tie smiling

ALT: a close up of a man wearing a shirt and tie smiling

media.tenor.com

Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Dec 15

Initial 2 reactions.

Good: Wow, an AI that has read my syllabus and all my slides/readings will probably give better answers to my students than rando internet AIs at 3am.

Evil: Wow, a lot of people think this AI could replace TAs. I guess we finally have a solution to the overproduction of PhDs.

Kevin A. Bryan @afinetheorem.bsky.social · Dec 13

Super excited to publicly launch "All Day TA" (http://www.alldayta.com), a product @joshgans.bsky.social and I have been working on with our team over the last year. Short version: if you teach in spring, you will want to use this! It's the future of higher education. A short thread: 1/x

Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Dec 15

It's real colleagues, who are behaving as trolls and undermining any conversation about their important and (perhaps) dire point. Like he said, it's an empirical question, but all I see is assertion w/o evidence.

This tool looks useful for at least a few courses at my R2 (where there's no TAs).

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Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Dec 15

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Joseph Huddleston @joehud.bsky.social · Dec 14

Someone please help Mr Lizard get Big Scooter to make things right (preferably not Luigi-style).

Lizard @lizardky.bsky.social · Dec 14

So, looking for legal advice, fortunately not for anything dramatic.
My wife is disabled.
Around March, she bought an electric scooter which lets her get around our small town - church, post office, grocery, about a 2-mile range. This helped her greatly.
A few months later, it stopped working. 1/?