Paul Staniland

Adjusting to AI in a discussion-based, "great books"-esque seminar built around a small number of texts; trying to maintain skill-building in writing while dramatically expanding the oral/interpersonal side of the course:

@pstaniland.bsky.social I appeared on Grand Tamasha 🎙️ with @milanv.bsky.social to discuss our new book on Indian public opinion. Check out the episode here: grand-tamasha.simplecast.com/episodes/wha... And the book is free to download until June 15: doi.org/10.1017/9781...

I got a preview of the new Obama Presidential Center (more later of the views from the top)

The Trump Administration's Puzzling Strategic Retreat From East Asia open.substack.com/pub/danieldr...

UChicago will offer free tuition for families with incomes below $250,000, greatly expanding undergraduate aid | University of Chicago News news.uchicago.edu/story/uchica...

Free to read/download until May 18:

Reading about 1970s India, listening to a podcast series about 1970s Britain. Just the worst decade.

Book Alert! @pstaniland.bsky.social and I have a new Cambridge Element out now — and free to download through May 18. It's the result of nine years of digging through historic survey data on how the Indian public thinks about major powers. Read it here: www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Quite a fascinating interview: "Arakan Army Chief Twan Mrat Naing on Talks With the Myanmar Government, and Relations With India and Bangladesh" thediplomat.com/2026/05/arak...

New book! @aidanmilliff.com and I spent years tracking down survey data from the late 1950s-2025 on how the Indian public has viewed China, the US, and Russia/USSR. We use the data to explore trends and patterns. Cambridge has made it Open Access until 5/18, so go read for free here: t.co/YtNCz74758

after the rain

I argue that debates over democratic backsliding and competitive authoritarianism in South Asia, while still important, need to be complemented by a renewed focus on how militaries exercise power and influence in Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and even Nepal: carnegieendowment.org/research/202...

for a distraction from [waves wildly at everything happening in the world]:

An extremely exciting infusion of new foreign policy talent into the Chicago area: globalaffairs.org/chicago-coun...

Appears that a US submarine may have sunk an Iranian destroyer off Sri Lanka. That wasn’t on my bingo card.

An extremely timely project!!!!

Yet again:

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Yet again:

I roll this perpetually-relevant meme out every once in awhile:

Reminiscent of Stalin telling a group of visiting Indian communists to advocate the unification of India, Pakistan, and Ceylon (digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/rec...):

Chairman Mao dispensed some wildly unhelpful advice over the years; this nugget was to Nasser after the 1967 war (from Lorenz Luthi's "Cold Wars"):

China set to widen footprint in Bangladesh as India's ties decline en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/b...

an administration staffed to the top with degenerate liars

The Pentagon struck a conciliatory tone toward Beijing in its new defense strategy, stating that its overarching goal is to establish “strategic stability” in the Indo-Pacific region www.wsj.com/politics/nat... via @WSJ

Happy to announce the 1st ever @isanet.bsky.social conference in South Asia in August 2026. Hosted in Colombo, Sri Lanka, we welcome proposals from scholars based in and/or studying South Asian politics & international relations, but also broader global themes ofc www.isanet.org/Conferences/...

Hyde Park is hip and cool: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

winter Chicago

I use class presentations and an oral exam alongside papers now in my undergrad seminar (and blue book final all by side papers in my UG lecture): “Professors are turning to this old-school method to stop AI use on exams” wapo.st/4pU5mNf

Sushila Karki government beset by court decisions kathmandupost.com/politics/202... via @kathmandupost

Illinois & Chicago stuck in "high tax, massive debt, comparatively unremarkable public services" equilibrium that will take either crisis or real political creativity to change: www.statecraft.pub/p/should-the...

"Casinos, high-rises and fraud: The BBC visits a bizarre city built on scams" bbc.com/news/article...

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

huge sale on Cornell University Press books:

I could spend my life just watching camera release videos: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMXV...

Really important survey from @ChicagoCouncil: “the bipartisan embrace of US-China competition no longer holds among the public, with partisan differences in perceived threats from China and disagreements on current US-China trade policy” globalaffairs.org/research/pub...

From Brooklyn Heights

Pakistani general's Dhaka visit explores stronger defence ties www.thedailystar.net/news/banglad...

Border patrol agents deployed tear gas on the 3700 block of North Kildare where residents say a landscape worker, a resident, and a woman on a bike were detained. Video from a resident.

Chicago's SkyDeck is pretty awesome (first time I've been here despite living in Chicago 19 of the past 25 years):

Afghanistan-Pakistan clashes: www.dawn.com/news/1948219...

Can't say I am loving the "Donald Trump sends combat forces to Chicago on an obvious pretext" experience.

Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

Based on his track record at UChicago, there is truly no one I would less want to be in a foxhole with than Daniel Diermeier, so very unsurprising news here: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

current draft syllabus for my Political Violence lecture class: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8swsa...

current draft syllabus for my Political Violence lecture class: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8swsa...