Stephen Walt

Oh, man, he's so close to getting it.

I was pleased to participate in a panel discussion with Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick about their terrific new book ISRAEL'S LOBBY, along with John Mearsheimer and Rashid Khalidi. You can check out the video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wqr...

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com Vivek Ramaswamy’s “malicious” ad featuring Amy Acton’s mother shows how “every institution takes on the character of its leader,” writes our columnist David French.

This is literally the end of the rule of law. If a President can pardon people committing crimes on his behalf - and the Supreme Court says he himself can't be prosecuted for crimes committed as part of his job - then the government becomes a lawless entity able to violate our rights without limit.

In a democracy, having many good candidates should be a blessing. Under the top-two “jungle primary” system of Question 3, having many good candidates becomes a curse. Here’s how. This isn’t voter choice. It’s voter suppression. Vote NO on 3.

Every few weeks I am reminded why I never signed up for Facebook, and why I have never regretted that decision.

As amusing as it is, surrounding yourself with unqualified syncophants is a symptom of authoritarianism. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/16/u...

So will Katie Zacharia now become Ambassador to Greece?

A year ago I launched @hidden-cities.com with this essay by Omar El Akkad, a piece of absolute clarity, outrage, and humanity — adapted from his vital book, "One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This," which went on to win the National Book Award. www.hidden-cities.com/p/omar-el-ak...

more americans think trump has prioritized his own business interests (87%) than he has people like them (46%). can’t imagine why..

I mean, everyone can see that this is insane, right?

It's almost as though this was foreseeable ... iranwarcost.watson.brown.edu

"Record supplies of cocaine still arrive in the U.S., Europe and as far away as Australia every day, cheaper and purer than they’ve been in decades"

"For every poltroon in high places, thousands of ordinary citizens have raised their heads above the parapet." Yes, and this is worth remembering, if only as an inspiration to the rest of us. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/14/b...

This is more extreme than Viktor Orbán in Hungary

Trump Just Named a New Press Secretary. Seriously, What Kind of Person Wants That Job? open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...

Raiding the home of an opposition legislator is authoritarian. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Our tax money 💰 is being used for silly prosecutions such as this.

Russia is resupplying Iran with missiles. Guess who is, in effect, paying for those missiles when we pump $$$ to Russia for diesel? That's right. Another masterstroke from the genius-in-chief.

Shared some thoughts on the Trump administration’s boat strikes: “In the absence of an armed conflict,” Finucane said, “the term for premeditated killing is generally murder.” www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

He just can’t stop ruining DC www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2026/...

Out of touch with the American public: As the US imposes sanctions on the ICC, Americans across the partisan divide strongly want the US to defend human rights globally and say the best way to do so is through international organizations, such as the UN!

I'm just gonna bookmark this for future reference when Dem pundits complain about how the party has trouble communicating its message to voters. The reason you keep running into trouble with your branding isn't campus radicals. The reason is that your opponents purchased all the media outlets.

Diplomatic cable leaked to me shows Marco Rubio order embassies to bar people from the US for speech-related reasons. Hours later, Rubio gave a speech at the Acropolis celebrating "free debate and public discussion": www.kenklippenstein.com/p/the-speech...

"I can do whatever I want, if I want." Today is the 10th anniversary of the public revelation of Trump's 'Access Hollywood' comments.

Dear Mainers, I'm reposting this as the election nears. #SusanCollins #Maine

One Weird Trick: Don't Fight Another Iran War

Corrupting government data collection is also a commonly fatal Achilles heel for authoritarian regimes, because it means they're destroying the instruments they need to avoid flying the plane into the side of the mountain. On version of what @michaellewis65.bsky.social called "the fifth risk."

An underappreciated fact about far-right populists is that they are terrible at governing, especially in the longer run. Trump is a case in point every single day, but systematic studies shows that this is the case more generally. As this study shows, after 15 years they lower GDP per capita with

It's the thought that counts

No shit🤔💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯

"A national election, that of Brazil, which will affect the 8.3 billion people who inhabit this world. The Amazon, according to scientific evidence, is close to reaching a point of no return. Returning to the deforestation levels of 2022 (Bolsonaro) would be the final blow" x.com/ActisAndres/...

Amen.

CNN investigation finds that while Jared Kushner acted as a key Middle East peace negotiator, his private equity firm held the the largest stake in an Israeli company backing businesses tied to Israel's military campaign in Gaza, including its largest arms manufacturer. www.cnn.com/2026/10/01/u...

I don't know, sure looks like an ideological clown speaking here.

says the Secretary who lost the HQ of the 5th Fleet in Manama to Iranian missiles

The last U.S. soldier has finally left Iraq. They never should have been there in the first place. $3 Trillion and 550,000 deaths later, we can say with certainty that the war was a catastrophic blunder. joecirincione.substack.com/p/we-warned-...

Secretary of (Losing) Wars Hegseth rejects meritocracy. He doesn't want a military or service academies filled w/ the best people (no matter what color, gender, orientation, etc.), he wants a military that looks and thinks just like him. It's a recipe for incompetence, a topic on which he's expert.

It’s faded from the news but Hegseth is still working to strangle teaching and speech at the military academies. wapo.st/4hDFceJ

Jack Smith made it crystal clear that his investigation was sound and lawful, that the president had committed crimes and that the GOP attacks on him were the actual weaponization of our justice system. He showed courage and moral clarity and continues to be one of the heroes of this moment.

1/ The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights just released its report on campus antisemitism and Title VI. I testified at the hearing. The report is unanimous, bipartisan, & debunks the main legal theories behind recent attacks on universities for allegedly tolerating antisemitism. 🧵

Nobody seems to bat an eye that Rufo's podcast partner is a longtime anonymous troll who called gays "f*ggots," referred to Asians as "mongoloids," and explicitly sees his partnership with Rufo as a strategy of normalizing what most of us would see as bigotry www.vox.com/politics/368...

You might think #Trump is amoral and “Machiavellian,” but if Machiavelli were alive today, he’d see him as Exhibit A for what NOT to do. Latest FP column here: foreignpolicy.com/2026/09/23/t...

Must-read thread ⤵️

After arguing that it is better to be feared than loved, Machiavelli points out that there is something even worse: You could end up hated or despised. Trump is well on his way to the latter, writes columnist @stephenwalt.bsky.social. foreignpolicy.com/2026/09/23/w...

Two authors, two decades apart, on the same subject. Stephen Walt and Eli Clifton join Jonathan Guyer on the pod to discuss how pro-Israel advocacy in US politics has changed, and how the Gaza war has shaped the debate over it.