GEOPOLITICS
Geopolitics of Europe
- “Of Sanctions and Strategic Bombers” (31 May 2022)
- “What is the End Game in Ukraine?” (19 March 2022)
- “Ukraine, China, and the Shadow of the ’90s” (15 March 2022)
- “Pausing at the Precipice” (28 February 2022)
- “Thoughts on Shit Post Diplomacy” (22 February 2022)
- The Russian Strategy for Empire” (20 March 2014)
Geopolitics of Oceania and East Asia
- “Sino-American Competition and the Struggle For Historical Analogies” (19 November 2021)
- “Fear the First Strike” (18 June 2021)
- “Fleet Tactics With Lt. Col Nate Lauterbach,” podcast episode (5 June 2021)
- “China’s Attack on Australia is About America” (11 December 2020)
- “Do Not Choose Susan Rice” (19 November 2020)
- “Japan’s Achilles Heel?” (6 May 2020)
- “Losing Taiwan Means Losing Japan” (26 February 2020)
- “Political and Practical Implications of the Wuhan Virus” (28 January 2020)
- “The Aussies Who Doubt Us” (10 December 2019)
- “At What Point is Defending Japan No Longer Worth It?” (4 September 2019)
- “Losing Games We Don’t Know Are Being Played” (10 April 2018)
- “The Old G-2” (18 May 2016)
- “The Road to Beijing Runs Through Tokyo” (21 April 2015)
- “It is Time to Talk Honestly About the U.S.-Japanese Alliance” (10 August 2014)
- “Hard Truths and Hidden Gems at Shangri-La” (11 June 2014)
See also: CHINA: The Sino-American Relationship
Geopolitics of the Middle East
- “Khashoggi’s Death is the Crisis We Have Been Waiting For” (21 November 2018)
- “Sunzi on ISIS” (23 April 2016)
- “Saudi Arabia’s Dangerous Game” (13 March 2016)
- “The Future of the Fertile Crescent: Thoughts from Nibras Kazimi” (25 November 2015)
- “The Fight Against ISIS: A Few (Unorthodox) Points For Discussion” (17 November 2015)
- “Iran: The Debate We Should Be Having” (24 July 2015)
- “A Civilization is at Stake Here” (27 February 2015)
- “ISIS, the Mongols, and “The Return of Ancient Challenges” (18 December 2014)
Geopolitics of Southeast and South Asia
- “Needed: Deep State Traffic Cops” (2 December 2021)
- “What Do Cambodians Think About China?” (12 March 2019)
- “Leveraging Indian Power The Right Way” (4 September 2017)
- “The Cambodian Tilt Towards China” (5 January 2017)
- “The CNRP Won’t Save the South China Sea” (3 July 2015)
- “A Few Comments on China, Vietnam and the HYSY981 Crisis” (22 May 2014)
U.S. Armed Forces
- “Fear the First Strike” (18 June 2021)
- “Fleet Tactics With Lt. Col Nate Lauterbach,” podcast episode (5 June 2021)
- “The Navy’s Knives Must Come Out” (12 May 2021)
- “Questions on the Future of the U.S. Marine Corps” (7 July 2020)
- “What Cyber-War Will Look Like” (6 July 2018)
The U.S. in Iraq
- “Pausing at the Precipice” (28 February 2022)
- “Learning From Our Defeat: The Skill of the Vulcans” (26 October 2021)
- “Learning From Our Defeat: The Assumptions of Donald Rumsfeld” (7 September 2021)
- “Solidarity, Weapon of Modernity” (22 July 2020)
The U.S. in Afghanistan
- “Needed: Deep State Traffic Cops” (2 December 2021)
- “Learning From Our Defeat: The Skill of the Vulcans” (26 October 2021)
- “Learning From Our Defeat: The Assumptions of Donald Rumsfeld” (7 September 2021).
- “We Must Learn From Our Defeat” (21 August 2021)
- “Fighting Like Taliban” (1 August 2021)
- Solidarity, Weapon of Modernity” (22 July 2020)
- “Akbar Ahmed on Terrorism and the Collapse of the Tribal Order” (15 October 2013)
- “’Winning Hearts and Minds’ Is Dead” (13 April 2013).
Modern Diplomacy
- “Of Sanctions and Strategic Bombers” (31 May 2022)
- “Thoughts on Shit Post Diplomacy” (22 February 2022)
- “Needed: Deep State Traffic Cops” (2 December 2021)
- “On Diplomats-in-Chief” (8 September, 2020)
- “So Begins a New Age of Instagram Diplomacy” (1 January 2020)
International Order
- “Ukraine, China, and the Shadow of the ’90s” (15 March 2022)
- “Learning From Our Defeat: The Assumptions of Donald Rumsfeld” (7 September 2021)
- “The First Failure of the Liberal Rules Based Order” (21 January 2021).
- “Yes, We Are in an Ideological Competition With China” (28 September 2020)
See also: CHINA: PRC International Relations—The World That China Wants; Communist Party of China—Xi Jinping
The “Nat-Sec” World
- “Of Sanctions and Strategic Bombers” (31 May 2022)
- “Thoughts on Shit Post Diplomacy” (22 February 2022)
- “Needed: Deep State Traffic Cops” (2 December 2021)
- “Learning From Our Defeat: The Skill of the Vulcans” (26 October 2021)
- “Yale and the Education of American Elites” (7 October 2021)
- “We Must Learn From Our Defeat” (21 August 2021)
- “Fear the First Strike” (18 June 2021)
- “Fleet Tactics With Lt. Col Nate Lauterbach,” podcast episode (5 June 2021)
- “The Navy’s Knives Must Come Out” (12 May 2021)
- “Against the Kennan Sweepstakes” (6 March 2021)
- “You Do Not Have the People” (3 March 2018)
- “America Will Always Fail At Regional Expertise” (13 January 2016)
- “Requiem for the Strategy Sphere” (2 November 2015)
- “Wanted: A Stupid-Proof Strategy For America” (30 October 2015)
- “Ends and Means” (1 September 2015)
- “American Policy Makers Do Not Read Books” (18 February 2015)
- “On Credibility” (2 September 2013)
MODERN CHINA
Contemporary Chinese Culture and Society
- “Why Chinese Culture Has Not Conquered Us All” (26 April 2022)
- “On the Party and the Princelings” (30 November 2021)
- “Xi Jinping’s War on Spontaneous Order” (28 September 2021)
- “As the Generations Churn: The Strategic Consequences of Cultural Change in Communist Russia… and China?” (26 August 2021)
- “On Cultures That Build” (18 June 2020)
- “Fissures in the Façade” (8 December 2019)
- “Chinese Are Partisan Too” (14 August 2019)
- “The Inner Life of Chinese Teenagers” (19 April 2019)
- “Everything is Worse in China” (19 July 2017)
- “In Hong Kong, Your Clothes Matter” (12 May 2016)
- “The Limits of Weibo” (22 December 2013)
The Sino-American Relationship
- “Generational Churn and the CPC” (30 April 2022)
- Sino-American Competition and the Struggle For Historical Analogies” (19 November 2021)
- “Fear the First Strike” (18 June 2021)
- “Against the Kennan Sweepstakes” (6 March 2021)
- “Assessing the Trump China Strategy: The Key Documents” (18 January, 2021)
- “China’s Attack on Australia is About America” (11 December 2020)
- “Do Not Choose Susan Rice” (19 November 2020)
- “Yes, We Are in an Ideological Competition With China” (28 September 2020)
- “Why Banning All Party Members is Stupid” (17 July 2020)
- “When “Engagement” Backfired: The Story Behind Pro-Communist Private Enterprise” (29 August 2020)
- “It Is Time For a Libertarian Case Against China” (29 April 2020)
- “The Education China Hands Need, But Most Do Not Get” (29 February, 2020)
- “Give No Heed to the Walking Dead” (1 July 2019)
- “Are We Ready For What Comes Next?” (22 May 2019)
- “Moral Hazards and China” (1 June 2018)
- “Do Mil-Mil Exchanges With the Chinese Do More Harm than Good?” (4 December 2017)
- “China: The Unknowable Kingdom” (16 November 2016)
- “Everybody Wants a Thucydides Trap” (30 October 2016)
- “Should America Give a Whit About the South China Sea?” (23 October 2015)
- “The United States Doesn’t Know What to Do With the East China Sea” (6 February 2014)
Communist Party of China —Party Building & Party Control
- “Generational Churn and the CPC” (30 April 2022)
- “On the Party and the Princelings” (30 November 2021)
- “Rethink What You Know About Xi’s Belt and Road” (25 October 2020)
- “Counting Speeches to Understand Xi Jinping” (12 October 2020)
- “Bootlicking in Beijing” (7 December 2018)
Communist Party of China —Ideology
- “Xi Jinping’s War on Spontaneous Order” (28 September 2021)
- “Xi Jinping and the Laws of History” (9 July 2020)
- “A Note on “Historical Nihilism” (20 November 2019)
- “Xi Jinping and the Laws of History” (9 July 2020) “A Note on “Historical Nihilism” (20 November 2019)
- “Xi Jinping Explains His Political Philosophy” (2 June 2019)
- “Where is the Communism in the Chinese Communist Party?” (29 December 2018)
See also: CHINA: PRC International Relations—The World That China Wants; Communist Party of China—Stability Maintenance; Communist Party of China—Xi Jinping
Communist Party of China — Political Economy
- “Xi Jinping’s War on Spontaneous Order” (28 September 2021)
- “Engagement’s Second Order Catastrophes” (9 July 2021)
- “When “Engagement” Backfired: The Story Behind Pro-Communist Private Enterprise” (29 August 2020) “
- “Its Not The Economy, Stupid!” What Wealth Can’t Explain About Chinese Politics” (16 June 2015)
- “Can China Liberalize in Time? Keep Your Eyes on Shandong” (27 December 2014)
- “Passages I Highlighted in My Copy of “Red Capitalism”” (16 August 2014)
- “Notes From Beijing: About that Chinese Social Contract” (24 August 2013)
See also: PRC INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS — THE BELT AND ROAD
Communist Party of China — Stability Maintenance
- “On the Party and the Princelings” (30 November 2021)
- “Everything I Got Wrong in 2020” (6 January, 2021)
- “Political and Practical Implications of the Wuhan Virus” (28 January 2020)
- “Fissures in the Façade” (8 December 2019)
- “Mr. Science, Meet Mr. Stability” (4 October 2019)
- “Chinese Are Partisan Too” (14 August 2019)
- “Two Case Studies in Communist Insecurity” (24 July 2019)
- “It Is Not Like That Black Mirror Episode” (June 2019)
- “Reflections on China’s Stalinist Heritage II: Just How Totalitarian is Modern China?” (7 March 2019)
- “Reflections on China’s Stalinist Heritage I: A Tyrant’s Toolkit” (17 January 2019)
- “A Small Note on the Terror of Uncertainty” (13 September 2018)
- “Things That Will Get You Thrown in a Chinese Political Education Camp” (11 September 2018)
- “Chinese Journalism and Chinese Soft Power” (31 July 2015)
- “Bargaining with the Dragon: Some Straight Talk on Hong Kong” (6 October 2014)
- “Notes From Beijing: About that Chinese Social Contract” (24 August 2013)
Communist Party of China — Xi Jinping
- “Everything I Got Wrong in 2020” (6 January, 2021)
- “Rethink What You Know About Xi’s Belt and Road” (25 October 2020)
- “Counting Speeches to Understand Xi Jinping” (12 October 2020)
- “Xi Jinping and the Laws of History” (9 July 2020)
- “Review: Inside the Mind of Xi Jinping” (25 November 2019)
- “A Note on “Historical Nihilism” (20 November 2019)
- “Xi Jinping Explains His Political Philosophy” (2 June 2019)
- “Bootlicking in Beijing” (7 December 2018)
PRC International Relations—The World China Wants
- “Ukraine, China, and the Shadow of the ’90s” (15 March 2022)
- “Yes, We Are in an Ideological Competition With China” (28 September 2020)
- “The World That China Wants (III): Taking Chinese Communism Seriously” (29 July 2020)
- “The World That China Wants (II): The Communist Case In Brief” (18 May 2020)
- “The World That China Wants (Part I): Why Intentions Matter” (15 April 2020)
- “China’s Vision of Victory?” (14 October 2019)
- “China Does Not Want Your Rules Based Order” (4 June 2016)
PRC International Relations—Diplomacy and Intelligence
- “So Begins a New Age of Instagram Diplomacy” (1 January 2020)
- “Chinese Influence and Intelligence Activities: A Few Notes” (20 September 2017)
- “Chinese Journalism and Chinese Soft Power” (31 July 2015)
PRC International Relations—The World China Wants
- “Yes, We Are in an Ideological Competition With China” (28 September 2020)
- “The World That China Wants (III): Taking Chinese Communism Seriously” (29 July 2020)
- “The World That China Wants (II): The Communist Case In Brief” (18 May 2020)
- “The World That China Wants (Part I): Why Intentions Matter” (15 April 2020)
- “China’s Vision of Victory?” (14 October 2019)
- “China Does Not Want Your Rules Based Order” (4 June 2016)
PRC International Relations — Belt and Road
- “Everything I Got Wrong in 2020” (6 January, 2021)
- “Rethink What You Know About Xi’s Belt and Road” (25 October 2020)
- “The Utterly Dysfunctional Belt and Road” (8 May 2019)
- “Bootlicking in Beijing” (7 December 2018) .
PRC International Relations—The PLA
- Sino-American Competition and the Struggle For Historical Analogies” (19 November 2021)
- “Do Mil-Mil Exchanges With the Chinese Do More Harm than Good?” (4 December 2017)
- “Costly Signaling in the South China Sea” (6 July 2016)
- “Arms and Influence… and China” (16 June 2016)
See also: TAIWAN: Taiwan—Military Affairs
PRC International Relations—Diplomacy and Intelligence
- “So Begins a New Age of Instagram Diplomacy” (1 January 2020)
- “Chinese Influence and Intelligence Activities: A Few Notes” (20 September 2017)
- “Chinese Journalism and Chinese Soft Power” (31 July 2015)
TAIWAN
Taiwan — National Identity
- “Understanding Taiwanese Nationalism: A Historical Primer in Bullet Points” (3 February 2021)
- “Taiwan Will Be Defended by the Bullet, or Not at All” (18 August 2018)
- “Taiwan’s Past Matters Less Than Taiwan’s Present” (10 August 2018)
- “Taiwan’s Problem is Not the Communist Party of China” (16 February 2016)
Taiwan — Domestic Politics
- “Why Taiwanese Leaders Put Political Symbolism Above Military Power” (17 September 2019)
- “Ko Wen-je Has No Staying Power” (18 August 2019)
Taiwan – Military Affairs
- Sino-American Competition and the Struggle For Historical Analogies” (19 November 2021)
- “All Measures Short of a Cross Straits Invasion” (3 March 2021)
- “Why I Fear For Taiwan” (11 September 2020)
- “Why Taiwanese Leaders Put Political Symbolism Above Military Power” (17 September 2019)
- “Who is to Blame For Taiwan’s Military Woes?” (30 March 2019)
- “Taiwan Can Win a War With China” (25 September 2018)
- “Taiwan Will Be Defended by the Bullet, or Not at All” (18 August 2018)
Taiwan — History
- “Understanding Taiwanese Nationalism: A Historical Primer in Bullet Points” (3 February 2021)
- “Public Opinion in Authoritarian States” (16 September 2019)
THE REST OF ASIA
Cambodia
- “The First Failure of the Liberal Rules Based Order” (21 January 2021)
- “Reflections on China’s Stalinist Heritage II: Just How Totalitarian is Modern China?” (7 March 2019)
- “There Will Be No Cambodian “Spring”” (5 August 2014)
- “Infiltrating the Khmer Rouge – The Nate Thayer Story” (29 May 2014)
- “How to Be Buddy-Buddy With an Guerilla General” (25 January 2014)
- “I’m From Princeton, and I’m Here to Help!” (2 January 2014)
See also: GEOPOLITICS—Geopolitics of Southeast and South Asia
Japan
- “Fleet Tactics With Lt. Col Nate Lauterbach,” podcast episode (5 June 2021)
- “Japan’s Achilles Heel?” (6 May 2020)
Vietnam
- “The Asian Productivity Race” (11 April 2016)
India
- “Trying to Make Sense of India’s Sexual Violence, State by State” (3 October 2013)
Korea
“Why Chinese Culture Has Not Conquered Us All” (26 April 2022)
STRATEGIC THEORY
Strategic Theorists—Ancient
- “Beware the Alcibiades Point” (14 December 2016)
- “Sunzi on ISIS” (23 April 2016)
- “The OODA Loop, Ancient China Style” (26 July 2015)
- “Chinese Strategic Tradition: A Research Program (II)” (28 May 2015)
- “Chinese Strategic Tradition: A Research Program (I)” (26 May 2015)
- “The Radical Sunzi” (2 January 2015)
- “Not Everyone Likes Sunzi” (17 October 2013)
Strategic Theorists—Modern
- “Of Sanctions and Strategic Bombers” (31 May 2022)
- Sino-American Competition and the Struggle For Historical Analogies” (19 November 2021)
- “Book Notes—Strategy: A History” (16 July 2019)
- “Book Notes — Military Strategy: A Very Short Introduction” (1 May 2018)
- “The OODA Loop, Ancient China Style” (26 July 2015)
Strategic Culture
- “Yale and the Education of American Elites” (7 October 2021)
- “As the Generations Churn: The Strategic Consequences of Cultural Change in Communist Russia… and China?” (26 August 2021)
- “Newsflash: The Chinese Play Chess Too” (5 June 2015)
Terrorism
- “Akbar Ahmed on Terrorism and the Collapse of the Tribal Order” (15 October 2013)
- “Radical Islamic Terrorism in Context, pt II” (10 October 2013)
- “Radical Islamic Terrorism in Context, pt I” (9 October 2013)
Strategic Theory—Cognitive Foundations
- “The Marvelous Machiavellian Mind Reader” (4 November 2018)
- “Psychology Makes the Strategist” (20 September 2018)
- “Fiction and the Strategist” (19 June 2015)
Causes of War
- “Men of Honor, Men of Interest” (1 December 2016)
- “Everybody Wants a Thucydides Trap” (30 October 2016)
- “The Extraordinary Thing About WWII Is What Happened After” (6 June 2015)
- “Shame and War” (17 February 2014)
Civil War
- “Solidarity, Weapon of Modernity” (22 July 2020)
- “On Days of Disorder” (31 May 2020)
Counterinsurgency
- “Winning Hearts and Minds” Is Dead” (13 April 2013)
Naval Warfare
- “Fear the First Strike” (18 June 2021)
- “Fleet Tactics With Lt. Col Nate Lauterbach,” podcast episode (5 June 2021)
POLITICAL THEORY
Asabiyah
- “Solidarity, Weapon of Modernity” (22 July 2020)
- “Introducing: Asabiyah” (2 May 2015)
- “ISIS, the Mongols, and “The Return of Ancient Challenges” (18 December 2014)
Electoral Politics
- “How To Win An Election” (27 August 2020)
- “Hacking Democracy” (1 April 2016)
- “Understanding Dysfunctional Democracies” (4 May 2014)
The Extremist Gambit
- “A Brief Model of Extremist Politics” (26 August 2019)
- “Radical Islamic Terrorism in Context, pt II” (10 October 2013)
- “Radical Islamic Terrorism in Context, pt I” (9 October 2013)
- .
Democratization
- “Why Didn’t China Give Birth to Democracy?” (22 July 2018)
- “Emmanuel Todd’s Theory of Modernity” (14 July 2013).
Republicanism
- “Thoughts on Post-Liberalism (I)” (27 January 2022)
- “Pining for Democracy: A Few Readings” (10 November 2018)
- “Awareness vs. Action: Two Modes of Protest in American History” (7 October 2015)
- “Honor, Dignity, and Victimhood: A Tour Through Three Centuries of American Political Culture” (16 September 2015)
- “Redefining the Nature of the American Polity” (5 October 2013)
- “Despots Near and Despots Far” (16 July 2013)
- “Independence and Rights” (15 February 2013) .
Localism and Decentralization
- “Honor, Dignity, and Victimhood: A Tour Through Three Centuries of American Political Culture” (16 September 2015)
- “Despots Near and Despots Far” (16 July 2013)
- “America 3.0” (9 June 2013)
- “Economies of Scale Killed the American Dream” (1 July 2013)
Justice
- “Vengeance As Justice: Passages I Highlighted in My Copy of “Eye for an Eye” (26 January 2018)
- “Honor, Dignity, and Victimhood: A Tour Through Three Centuries of American Political Culture” (16 September 2015)
Freedom
- “Xi Jinping’s War on Spontaneous Order” (28 September 2021)
- “Redefining the Nature of the American Polity” (5 October 2013)
- “Independence and Rights” (15 February 2013)
- “Despots Near and Despots Far” (16 July 2013)
Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism
- “Xi Jinping’s War on Spontaneous Order” (28 September 2021)
- “A Theory of Authoritarian Personality Cults” (19 December 2020)
- “Public Opinion in Authoritarian States” (16 September 2019)
- “Chinese Are Partisan Too” (14 August 2019)
- “A Small Note on the Terror of Uncertainty” (13 September 2018)
Regime Stability
- “On Sparks Before the Prairie Fire” (9 October 2020)
- “On Days of Disorder” (31 May 2020)
- “Why Didn’t China Give Birth to Democracy?” (22 July 2018)
- “On Survivalism” (2 May 2013).
The Spirit of Faction
- “Public Opinion in Authoritarian States” (16 September 2019)
- “Chinese Are Partisan Too” (14 August 2019)
- “Reason is for Stabbing” (1 March 2019)
- “Signal Like Its 1711: James Addison on Partisan Signaling, 18th Century Style” (30 May 2015)
See also: POLITICAL THEORY: The Extremist Gambit; CONTEMPORARY AMERICA: Contemporary Partisanship
Meritocracy
- “Learning From Our Defeat: The Skill of the Vulcans” (26 October 2021)
- “The Problem Isn’t the ‘Merit,’ It’s the ‘Ocracy’” (20 December 2019)
- “Meritocracy” (21 January 2015)
LOGIC, ARGUMENT, AND EPISTEMOLOGY
See also: SOCIAL SCIENCE: Methodology
Expertise
- “Yale and the Education of American Elites” (7 October 2021)
- “The Limits of Expertise” (18 January 2014)
Signaling
- “Of Words and Weapons” (29 January 2019)
- “Signal Like Its 1711: James Addison on Partisan Signaling, 18th Century Style” (30 May 2015)
Complexity and Cognition
- “The Framers and the Framed: Notes On the Slate Star Codex Controversy” (25 February 2021)
- “The Marvelous Machiavellian Mind Reader” (4 November 2018)
See also: PSYCHOLOGY AND THE HUMAN SCIENCES: Social Cognition
Persuasion and Argument
- “In Favor of Bad Takes” (13 July 2021)
- “Do Not Trust Your Arguments” (3 September 2019)
- “Reason is for Stabbing” (1 March 2019)
- “Of Words and Weapons” (29 January 2019)
Tradition
- “Tradition is Smarter Than You Are” (27 August 2018)
LITERATURE AND THE HUMANITIES
Great Works/Canon
- “How I Taught the Iliad to Chinese Teenagers” (30 May 2021)
- “Where Have All the Great Works Gone?” (30 January 2021)
- “A Non-Western Canon: What Would a List of Humanity’s 100 Greatest Writers Look Like?” (25 October 2019)
- “Learning From Old China” (24 July 2017)
- “History is Written by the Losers” (21 November 2016)
- “Why I Read Thucydides” (17 October 2016)
- “Chinese Strategic Tradition: A Research Program (II)” (28 May 2015)
- “Chinese Strategic Tradition: A Research Program (I)” (26 May 2015)
- “Escaping the Echo Chamber of Modernity” (24 October 2013)
- “Do The Great Books Have a Place in the 21st Century?” (27 May 2013)
Popular Culture
- “Myths of the Over-Managed” (21 July 2021)
- “Conservative Fairy Tales & Liberal Allegories?” (30 September 2017)
- “Which is Worse: Game of Thrones or the Culture that Watches It?” (13 June 2015)
Literature
- “How I Taught the Iliad to Chinese Teenagers” (30 May 2021)
- “Shakespeare : Just What Kind of Writer Was He?” (4 November 2019)
- “On the Three Basic Types of Literature” (2 November 2019)
- “On The Tolkienic Hero” (22 March 2019)
- “Teaching the Humanities as Terribly as Possible” (17 November 2018)
- “Shakespeare in American Politics” (30 September 2015)
- “Fiction and the Strategist” (19 June 2015)
- “A Few Thoughts on Ender’s Game” (3 November 2013)
Poetry
- “Longfellow and the Decline of American Poetry” (27 February, 2021)
- “On Adding Phrases to the Language” (13 October 2019)
Marxism
- “Xi Jinping’s War on Spontaneous Order” (28 September 2021)
- “Bootstrapping Marx With the Peasant Masses” (29 January 2021)
- “Leninist Politics: A Reading Course” (30 November, 2020)
- “Of Words and Weapons” (29 January 2019)
CONTEMPORARY AMERICA
Culture War Stuff
- “Culture Wars are Long Wars” (3 July 2021)
- “The Framers and the Framed: Notes On the Slate Star Codex Controversy” (25 February 2021)
- “Everything I Got Wrong in 2020” (6 January, 2021)
- “This is Not The American Cultural Revolution” (5 August 2020)
- “Why Is the Fight for Free Speech Led by the Psychologists?” (5 November 2018)
- “My Grand Theory of Jordan Peterson” (23 March 2018)
- “A Short Defense of the Musical Hamilton” (18 February 2018)
- “Everything is Worse in China” (19 July 2017)
See also: CONTEMPORARY AMERICA: Conservative Civil War; Contemporary Partisanship; Generational Divides; Sex, Gender and All That;
Elections, Bills, and the Like
- “A Note on the Romney Vote” (7 February 2020)
- “Observations from Washington” (30 October 2018)
- “The Election We All Saw Coming” (21 December 2016)
- “Winning the Popular Vote While Losing Grip on Reality” (13 November 2016)
- “The Time Has Come To Give the Lie” (11 November 2016)
- “Are You Prepared For November 9th?” (5 September 2016)
- “Trump is Not the New Hitler—He is the New Andrew Jackson” (28 February 2016)
- “Rise of the Rookies: Trudeau’s Grand Experiment” (1 February 2016)
- “Why Did Asian America Abandon the GOP?” (4 November 2015)
- “Far Right and Far Left Coming Together – With Infographics!” (13 June 2013)
- “Far Right and Far Left – Two Peas in a Pod?” (10 April 2013)
Demographics
- “Why Did Asian America Abandon the GOP?” (4 November 2015)
- “How Many Generations Until Immigrants Think ‘Like the Rest of Us?’” (1 March 2014)
- “America Makes You Violent” (8 January 2014)
- “2010s: The Decade Asian America Goes Mainstream” (5 June 2013)
Conservatives’ Civil War
- “Thoughts on Post-Liberalism (I)” (27 January 2022)
- “Further Notes on the New Right” (24 May 2021)
- “The Problem of the New Right” (24 April 2021)
- “Against Patrick Deneen (II)” (3 June 2020)
- “Against Patrick Deneen (I)” (10 May 2020)
- “Talking Very Online Conservatism with Titus Techera” (23 April 2020)
- “Conservatism’s Generational Civil War” (17 March 2020)
- “Porn Restriction for Realists” (16 March 2020)
Sex, Gender, and All That
- “Porn Restriction for Realists” (16 March 2020)
- “Manning Up in Ancient China” (10 July 2018)
- “The Economics of Sex” (18 February 2014)
Media Dynamics
- “Scrap the Myth of Panic” (15 July 2021)
- “The Framers and the Framed: Notes On the Slate Star Codex Controversy” (25 February 2021)
- “Why Writers (and Think Tankers) Feud So Viciously” (16 February, 2021)
- “Public Intellectuals Have Short Shelf Lives—But Why?” (29 January 2020)
- “Do Not Trust Journalists (A Mormon Example)” (18 December 2019)
- “On the Angst of American Journalists” (8 August 2019)
Miscellany
Social Capital and Community
- “Thoughts on Post-Liberalism (I)” (27 January 2022)
- “Scrap the Myth of Panic” (15 July 2021)
- “A Note on the Romney Vote” (7 February 2020)
- “Pining for Democracy: A Few Readings” (10 November 2018)
- “Awareness vs. Action: Two Modes of Protest in American History” (7 October 2015)
- “Honor, Dignity, and Victimhood: A Tour Through Three Centuries of American Political Culture” (16 September 2015)
- “America 3.0” (9 June 2013)
See also: CONTEMPORARY AMERICA: The ‘On Cultures That Build’ Thesis; POLITICAL THEORY: Asabiyah
The “On Culture That Build” Thesis
- “Thoughts on Post-Liberalism (I)” (27 January 2022)
- “Myths of the Over Managed” (21 July 2021)
- “We Were Builders Once, and Strong” (20 October, 2020)
- “On Cultures That Build” (18 June 2020)
- “The Title IX-ifcation of American Childhood” (25 September 2019)
- “The Decline of American Democracy (in one Infographic!)” (10 October 2017)
- “Honor, Dignity, and Victimhood: A Tour Through Three Centuries of American Political Culture” (16 September 2015)
Generational Divides
- “Generational Churn and the CPC” (30 April 2022)
- “As the Generations Churn: The Strategic Consequences of Cultural Change in Communist Russia… and China?” (26 August 2021)
- “Culture Wars are Long Wars” (3 July 2021)
- “On Life in the Shadow of the Boomers” (28 October 2020)
- “Talking Very Online Conservatism with Titus Techera” (23 April 2020)
- “Conservatism’s Generational Civil War” (17 March 2020)
Inequality, Economics, and Class
- “The Problem Isn’t the ‘Merit,’ It’s the ‘Ocracy’” (30 December 2019)
- “The Next 40 Years in Twelve Hundred Words” (19 July 2014)
- “Economies of Scale Killed the American Dream” (1 July 2013)
- “What Happens When Wall Street Goes Up Against the CIA?” (2 May 2013)
Contemporary Partisanship
- “Plagues of Hate” (2 November 2020)
- “How To Win An Election” (27 August 2020)
Political Violence in America
- “Scrap the Myth of Panic” (15 July 2021)
- “Everything I Got Wrong in 2020” (6 January, 2021)
- “On Sparks Before the Prairie Fire” (9 October 2020)
- “This is Not The American Cultural Revolution” (5 August 2020)
- “On Days of Disorder” (31 May 2020)
Social Media and Online Communities
- “In Favor of Bad Takes” (13 July 2021)
- “Why I am Bearish on Substack” (22 November, 2020)
- “The World That Twitter Made” (10 July 2020)
- “So Begins a New Age of Instagram Diplomacy” (1 January 2020)
- “Editorial vs. Coffee House Blogging” (6 November 2015)
- “Requiem for the Strategy Sphere” (2 November 2015)
- “The World, As Seen Through Contested Wikipedia Pages” (18 July 2013)
Academia
- “Yale and the Education of American Elites” (7 October 2021)
- “How to Save the (Institutional) Humanities” (25 May 2019)
- “Teaching the Humanities as Terribly as Possible” (17 November 2018)
- “Why Is the Fight for Free Speech Led by the Psychologists?” (5 November 2018)
- “Modern Universities Are An Exercise in Insanity” (14 January 2018)
- “History is Written by the Losers” (21 November 2016)
- “Economies of Scale Killed the American Dream” (1 July 2013)
THE GOOD LIFE
Character Building
- “Yale and the Education of American Elites” (7 October 2021)
- “A Note on the Romney Vote” (7 February 2020)
- “On The Tolkienic Hero” (22 March 2019)
The Search for Meaning
- “Thoughts on Post-Liberalism (I)” (27 January 2022)
- “Conservatism’s Generational Civil War” (17 March 2020)
- “Questing for Transcendence” (28 April 2019)
- “The Inner Life of Chinese Teenagers” (19 April 2019)
- “On the American Football Game” (4 February 2019)
- “My Grand Theory of Jordan Peterson” (23 March 2018)
Ideology and its Discontents
- “Thoughts on Post-Liberalism (I)” (27 January 2022)
- “Culture Wars are Long Wars” (3 July 2021)
- “Further Notes on the New Right” (24 May 2021)
- “The Problem of the New Right” (24 April 2021)
- “Conservatism’s Generational Civil War” (17 March 2020)
Religion
- “Do Not Trust Journalists (A Mormon Example)” (18 December 2019)
- “Questing for Transcendence” (28 April 2019)
- “A Parable Concerning Tolerance” (6 March 2017)
- “Vox Will Never Understand Islam… Or Any Religion, Really” (15 November 2015)
- “A Civilization is at Stake Here” (27 February 2015)
Reading
- “Learning From Old China” (24 July 2017)
Incentives
- “Why Writers (and Think Tankers) Feud So Viciously” (16 February, 2021)
- “A Note on the Romney Vote” (7 February 2020)
- “Public Intellectuals Have Short Shelf Lives—But Why?” (29 January 2020)
SOCIAL SCIENCE
Methodology
- “Everything I Got Wrong in 2020” (6 January, 2021)
- “Spengler and the Search for a Science of Human Culture” (14 December 2020)
- “Historians, Fear Not the Psychologists” (8 November 2019)
- “A Study Guide for Human Society, Part I” (29 July 2019)
- “So Why Did They Publish Them? – A Few Notes on the Latest Batch of Fail-to-Replicates” (2 September 2018)
- “Is a Science of Cultural Change Possible?” (17 July 2015)
- “The Cross Section Illusion” (7 June 2014)
State Building
- “Taking Cross Cultural Psychology Seriously” (21 December 2018)
- “Why Didn’t China Give Birth to Democracy?” (22 July 2018)
- “Darwin and War in Ancient China, Sengoku Japan, and Early Modern Europe” (8 November 2015)
PSYCHOLOGY and the HUMAN SCIENCES
Cultural Evolution
- “Everything I Got Wrong in 2020” (6 January, 2021)
- “Spengler and the Search for a Science of Human Culture” (14 December 2020)
- “Historians, Fear Not the Psychologists” (8 November 2019)
- “Taking Cross Cultural Psychology Seriously” (21 December 2018)
- “Tradition is Smarter Than You Are” (27 August 2018)
- “Why do Humans Cooperate?” (15 October 2015)
Cross Cultural Psychology
- “Taking Cross Cultural Psychology Seriously” (21 December 2018)
Evolutionary Psychology
“Against Human Sexual Selection” (12 May 2019)
“Reason is for Stabbing” (1 March 2019)
See also: PSYCHOLOGY AND THE HUMAN SCIENCES: SOCIAL COGNITION
Social Cognition
- “Culture Wars are Long Wars” (3 July 2021)
- “The Marvelous Machiavellian Mind Reader” (4 November 2018)
- “Psychology Makes the Strategist” (20 September 2018)
- “So Why Did They Publish Them? – A Few Notes on the Latest Batch of Fail-to-Replicates” (2 September 2018)
Psychometrics
- “Public Intellectuals Have Short Shelf Lives—But Why?” (29 January 2020)
Neuroscience
- “Freud Did Not Discover the Unconscious” (30 November 2019)
Honor
- “Why Writers (and Think Tankers) Feud So Viciously” (16 February, 2021)
- “Vengeance As Justice: Passages I Highlighted in My Copy of “Eye for an Eye” (26 January 2018)
HISTORY
Historiography
- “Historians, Slave of Fashion?” (16 June 2021)
- “Spengler and the Search for a Science of Human Culture” (14 December 2020)
- “Why Do We Know So Little About China’s WWII?” (12 February 2016)
- “East Asian Military History – A Few Historiographical Notes” (18 December 2015)
- “Which Wars Are Most Important?” (8 August 2015)
- “What History Should An American Know?” (5 July 2015)
- “There Is No “Right Side” of History” (24 June 2015)
- “What Books Do We Need to Rewrite All of Human History?” (14 May 2014)
- “A Few Stray Thoughts on World History and its Books” (11 September 2013)
Cold War
- “Sino-American Competition and the Struggle For Historical Analogies” (19 November 2021)
- “As the Generations Churn: The Strategic Consequences of Cultural Change in Communist Russia… and China?” (26 August 2021)
- “Bootstrapping Marx With the Peasant Masses” (29 January 2021)
- “A Theory of Authoritarian Personality Cults” (19 December 2020)
- “Leninist Politics: A Reading Course” (30 November, 2020)
Chinese History (Shang-Tang)
- “Making Sense of Chinese History: A Reading List” (23 December 2018)
- “Being vs. Doing in Ancient Chinese Thought–A Note” (11 July 2018)
- “Manning Up in Ancient China” (10 July 2018)
- “Learning From Old China” (24 July 2017)
- “Beware the Alcibiades Point” (14 December 2016)
- “History is Written by the Losers” (21 November 2016)
- “Sunzi on ISIS” (23 April 2016)
- “East Asian Military History – A Few Historiographical Notes” (18 December 2015)
- “Chinese Strategic Tradition: A Research Program (II)” (28 May 2015)
- “Chinese Strategic Tradition: A Research Program (I)” (26 May 2015)
- “The Radical Sunzi” (2 January 2015)
- “What Edward Luttwak Doesn’t Know About Ancient China (Or a Short History of Han-Xiongnu Relations), pt. 2” (6 September 2014)
- “What Edward Luttwak Doesn’t Know About Ancient China (Or a Short History of Han-Xiongnu Relations), pt. 1” (4 September 2014)
- “Chinese Cookery: Notes on the History of Chinese Stir Fry” (13 June 2014)
- “Geography and Chinese History – The Fractured Land Hypothesis” (4 June 2013)
Chinese History (Song-Qing)
- “Book Review: The Great State” (1 May 2020)
- “Making Sense of Chinese History: A Reading List” (23 December 2018)
- “Why Didn’t China Give Birth to Democracy?” (22 July 2018)
- “China Was Never an Empire of the Mind” (31 July 2016)
- “East Asian Military History – A Few Historiographical Notes” (18 December 2015)
- “Wanted: A Stupid-Proof Strategy For America” (30 October 2015)
- “Chinese Strategic Tradition: A Research Program (II)” (28 May 2015)
- “Chinese Strategic Tradition: A Research Program (I)” (26 May 2015)
- “Chinese Cookery: Notes on the History of Chinese Stir Fry” (13 June 2014)
- “Smallpox on the Steppe” (8 March 2014)
- “Not Everyone Likes Sunzi” (17 October 2013)
- “Geography and Chinese History – The Fractured Land Hypothesis” (4 June 2013)
- “Striking It Rich in Ancient Times: An Example From the Song Dynasty” (26 April 2013)
Chinese History (Modern)
- “As the Generations Churn: The Strategic Consequences of Cultural Change in Communist Russia… and China?” (26 August 2021)
- “Bootstrapping Marx With the Peasant Masses” (29 January 2021)
- “Leninist Politics: A Reading Course” (30 November, 2020)
- “This is Not The American Cultural Revolution” (5 August 2020)
- “Mr. Science, Meet Mr. Stability” (1 October 2019)
- “Reflections on China’s Stalinist Heritage II: Just How Totalitarian is Modern China?” (7 March 2019)
- “Reflections on China’s Stalinist Heritage I: A Tyrant’s Toolkit” (17 January 2019)
- “Making Sense of Chinese History: A Reading List” (23 December 2018)
- “Chiang Kai Shek’s Gamble–Reviewing Shanghai and Nanjing 1937” (19 April 2016)
- “Why Do We Know So Little About China’s WWII?” (12 February 2016)
- “Why Was There No “May Fourth Movement” in India?” (2 October 2015)
- “Chinese Strategic Tradition: A Research Program (II)” (28 May 2015)
- “Chinese Strategic Tradition: A Research Program (I)” (26 May 2015)
- “Meditations on Maoism — Ye Fu’s “Hard Road Home” (30 April 2014)
American History (Colonial and Revolutionary)
- “Further Notes on the New Right” (24 May 2021)
- “The Problem of the New Right” (24 April 2021)
- “Against Patrick Deneen (II)” (3 June 2020)
- “Against Patrick Deneen (I)” (10 May 2020)
- “The New England Colonies: A History Decided by Culture, or by Ecology?” (28 February 2020)
- “A Parable Concerning Tolerance” (6 March 2017)
- “Jefferson and Adams are Gone” (4 July 2013)
- “America 3.0” (9 June 2013)
American History (Antebellum and Civil War)
- “Historians, Slave of Fashion?” (16 June 2021)
- “The Magic in Modernity” (26 May 2021)
- “On Sparks Before the Prairie Fire” (9 October 2020)
- “We Were Builders Once, and Strong” (20 October, 2020)
- “On Cultures That Build” (18 June 2020)
- “Pining for Democracy: A Few Readings” (10 November 2018)
- “Awareness vs. Action: Two Modes of Protest in American History” (7 October 2015)
- “Shakespeare in American Politics” (30 September 2015)
- “Honor, Dignity, and Victimhood: A Tour Through Three Centuries of American Political Culture” (16 September 2015)
- “Radical Islamic Terrorism in Context, pt II” (10 October 2013)
- “Despots Near and Despots Far” (16 July 2013)
- “America 3.0” (9 June 2013)
American History (Gilded and Progressive Eras)
- “Plagues of Hate” (2 November 2020)
- “On Sparks Before the Prairie Fire” (9 October 2020)
- “America 3.0” (9 June 2013)
American History (WWI Through WWII)
- “On Cultures That Build” (18 June 2020)
- “On Adding Phrases to the Language” (13 October 2019)
- “Passages I Highlighted in My Copy of “Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s”’ (24 June 2019)
- “Economies of Scale Killed the American Dream” (1 July 2013)
American History (Post-War)
- “Learning From Our Defeat: The Skill of the Vulcans” (26 October 2021)
- “Historians, Slave of Fashion?” (16 June 2021)
- “Further Notes on the New Right” (24 May 2021)
- “The Problem of the New Right” (24 April 2021)
- “On Life in the Shadow of the Boomers” (28 October 2020)
- “On Sparks Before the Prairie Fire” (9 October 2020)
- “On Cultures That Build” (18 June 2020)
- “On Adding Phrases to the Language” (13 October 2019)
- “Honor, Dignity, and Victimhood: A Tour Through Three Centuries of American Political Culture” (16 September 2015)
- “Economies of Scale Killed the American Dream” (1 July 2013)
- “America 3.0” (9 June 2013)
Big History
- “The Rise and Fall of Civilizations: A Reader’s Course” (13 January 2013)
- “Macro-History: A Few More Books” (14 December 2014)
- “Another Look at ‘The Rise of the West’ – But With Better Numbers” (20 November 2013)
- “A Few Stray Thoughts on World History and its Books” (11 September 2013)
- “The Rise of the West: Asking the Right Questions” (7 July 2013)
- “Quick Hits: Life Before the Plow” (22 May 2013)
- “Global Temperature, 0-2000 AD” (23 April 2013)
Intellectual History
- “Where Have All the Great Works Gone?” (30 January 2021)
- “Spengler and the Search for a Science of Human Culture” (14 December 2020)
- “On Life in the Shadow of the Boomers” (28 October 2020)
- “Freud Did Not Discover the Unconscious” (30 November 2019)
- “On Adding Phrases to the Language” (13 October 2019)
- “I Choose Hannah Arendt” (5 October 2019)
- “Book Notes—Strategy: A History” (16 July 2019)
- “On The Tolkienic Hero” (22 March 2019)
Japan (Premodern)
- “East Asian Military History – A Few Historiographical Notes” (18 December 2015)
- “Darwin and War in Ancient China, Sengoku Japan, and Early Modern Europe” (8 November 2015)
Japan (Modern)
- “Chiang Kai Shek’s Gamble–Reviewing Shanghai and Nanjing 1937” (19 April 2016)
- “When Modern War Met an Antique Art” (8 may 2015)
Rome and Greece
- “Thoughts on Post-Liberalism (I)” (27 January 2022)
- “Beware the Alcibiades Point” (14 December 2016)
- “Men of Honor, Men of Interest” (1 December 2016)
- “History is Written by the Losers” (21 November 2016)
- “Everybody Wants a Thucydides Trap” (30 October 2016)
- “Why I Read Thucydides” (17 October 2016)
- “Wanted: A Stupid-Proof Strategy For America” (30 October 2015)
- “A Few More Thoughts on the Terrors of Pre-Modern Battle” (27 October 2015)
- “Pre-Modern Battlefields Were Absolutely Terrifying” (25 October 2015)
- “Health Isn’t Wealth II” (25 April 2015)
- “Health ≠ Wealth” (22 March 2015)
Western Europe (up to French Revolution)
- “Plagues of Hate” (2 November 2020)
- “Historians, Fear Not the Psychologists” (8 November 2019)
- “Darwin and War in Ancient China, Sengoku Japan, and Early Modern Europe” (8 November 2015)
- “Emmanuel Todd’s Theory of Modernity” (14 July 2013)
Western Europe (French Revolution to today)
“Of Sanctions and Strategic Bombers” (31 May 2022) - “Plagues of Hate” (2 November 2020)
India (Modern)
- “Why Was There No “May Fourth Movement” in India?” (2 October 2015)
India (Premodern)
Mongols and other Nomadic Peoples
- “Introducing: Asabiyah” (2 May 2015)
- “Why the Mongols Conquered the World, According to the Mongols” (23 February 2015)
- “ISIS, the Mongols, and “The Return of Ancient Challenges” (18 December 2014)
- “Smallpox on the Steppe” (8 March 2014)
- “The Nomadic Survival Strategy: Salzman’s 20 Observations” (11 November 2013)
- “Introducing: The Mongol Project” (6 November 2013)
- “Radical Islamic Terrorism in Context, pt I” (9 October 2013)
Ancient Middle East (up to Islamic Conquests)
Premodern Middle East (from Islamic Conquests to 20th Century)
- “A Civilization is at Stake Here” (27 February 2015)
- “Radical Islamic Terrorism in Context, pt I” (9 October 2013)
- “Radical Islamic Terrorism in Context, pt II” (10 October 2013)
- “Iran – Not as Persian as You Think” (6 July 2013)
Eastern Europe and Russia (Pre-Soviet)
- “Thoughts on Shit Post Diplomacy” (22 February 2022)
- “The Russian Strategy for Empire” (20 March 2014)
Eastern Europe and Russia (Soviet and post Soviet)
- “Ukraine, China, and the Shadow of the ’90s” (15 March 2022)
- Sino-American Competition and the Struggle For Historical Analogies” (19 November 2021)
- “As the Generations Churn: The Strategic Consequences of Cultural Change in Communist Russia… and China?” (26 August 2021)
- “A Theory of Authoritarian Personality Cults” (19 December 2020)
- “Leninist Politics: A Reading Course” (30 November, 2020)
NATURAL SCIENCE
Pandemics
- “Plagues of Hate” (2 November 2020)
- “Bullet Reviews: A Bunch of Books on Epidemic and Disaster Response” (31 March 2020)
- “Political and Practical Implications of the Wuhan Virus” (28 January 2020)
Ecology and Environmental Science
- “The New England Colonies: A History Decided by Culture, or by Ecology?” (28 February 2020)
- “A Few Thoughts on Environmental History” (6 July 2014)
BOOKS AND READING LISTS
Every Book I Read In___
- “Every Book I Read in 2021” (6 January 2022)
- “Every Book I Read in 2020” (4 January 2021)
- “Every Book I Read in 2019” (3 January 2020)
- “Every Book I Read in 2018” (1 January 2019)
- “Every Book I Read in 2017” (1 January 2018)
- “Every Book I Read in 2016” (3 January 2017)
- “Every Book I Read in 2015” (1 January 2016)
- “Every Book I Read in 2014” (1 January 2015)
- “Every Book I Read in 2013” (31 December 2013)
Reading Lists
- “The Rise and Fall of Civilizations: A Reader’s Course” (13 January 2013)
- “Leninist Politics: A Reading Course” (30 November, 2020)
- “Bullet Reviews: A Bunch of Books on Epidemic and Disaster Response” (31 March 2020)
- “Making Sense of Chinese History: A Reading List” (23 December 2018)
- “Pining for Democracy: A Few Readings” (10 November 2018)
- “Macro-History: A Few More Books” (14 December 2014)
- “Quantum Libraries” (23 July 2014)
PERSONAL & BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
- “Welcome to the New Scholar’s Stage” (9 June 2021)
- “Blogs I Read, Researchers I Follow, and Podcasts I Listen To” (25 November 2019)
- “On the Future of this Blog” (1 May 2019)
- “Secure Communications Strategies for China and Elsewhere” (2 March 2019)
- “The Real Reason Chinese is “So Damn Hard“” (1 June 2016)
- “How to Be a History Blogger” (6 February 2016)
- “5 Thinkers I Wish Had Their Own Blogs” (3 April 2014)