iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"AI is no more than a useless slop generator" "Essays are a true test of intellectual rigour" "AI makes it impossible to maintain the integrity of essays" I don't see how all three of these can be true, but all three seem to be held by many academics.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I've been reading Dynamics of Coercion by Daniel Byman and Matthew Waxman. Lots of relevance for the Trump administration's war with Iran: 'successful propagation of coercive strategies will require building sufficiently high and robust domestic and international support' 151

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Aylwyn Scally @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

In my experience quite a few colleagues are simply finding it impossible to get their heads around the fact that a written coursework essay, the basis for assessment their entire lives, is no longer any guarantee of effort or engagement by students.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Everyone either refuses to believe it or knew it anyways!

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

An interesting selection of articles by RIS!

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

We are recruiting several colleagues in politics and internationsl relations. In a tough job market, this is a significant expansion and could be a great opportunity. Please share with potential candidates! tinyurl.com/4zmcmy6a tinyurl.com/3nse3a48

tinyurl.com

Job Specification

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Google can I, as a rat, trust that cheese?🧀🐀

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Funny, I'm getting a different answer

how many days of the week have fish in them?
Exactly one day of the week has the word "fish" in its name: Friday.While there are many fish (like Wednesday or Tuesday if you stretch your imagination!), "Friday" is the only day that literally contains the word.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Probably true, but will be resisted by managers up and down the UK. Also a very imperfect fix as LLMs provide shortcuts to reading and note-writing.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

The outpouring of sympathy for the alleged stabber has been repulsive, although unsurprising given the current trajectory.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Funded PhD opportunity for a UK candidate working on the politics of Central and Eastern Europe (conceived broadly) at Liverpool University. This could be a great opportunity. www.liverpool.ac.uk/histories-la...

liverpool.ac.uk

Postgraduate research | School of Histories, Languages and Cultures | University of Liverpool

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

One type of publication that my students find really useful and get a lot from is the medium-n qualitative survey of multiple cases. I'd like to find more good examples in the foreign policy analysis/international conflict field. Three good examples below.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

One of the most perceptive points I've seen, similar to the idea that crises are the product of complacency - a self-defeating prophecy.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Has anyone checked on the Quincy Institute leftists since Friday evening?

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

Every year in Semester 1 computer lab sessions. Many are actively keen to develop computer skills they know they are lacking.

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Liv Uni Politics @livunipol.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Yesterday was a very busy day for our department and knowledge production! Thank you to everyone who attended the book launch for Dr @ndmlees.bsky.social and our offsite round table for the Dayton Peace Agreement which featured Dr @birtegippert.bsky.social at @ljmuofficial.bsky.social 📚👩‍⚖️⚖️

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Kenn Rushworth @kennrushworth.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

An excellent day for the Liverpool politics departments A superb book launch by the superb @ndmlees.bsky.social at UoL And a brilliant roundtable at LJMU reflecting on 30 years since the Dayton Peace Agreement organised by @matesuba.bsky.social @birtegippert.bsky.social

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Launch event for my new book 'The International Relations of the North-South Divide' today.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

An underrated big picture question is why small, rich countries exist. Why aren't they bullied and extorted by countries with greater total resources?

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

This is overall quite similar to Michael Mann's analysis of fascism's appeal as offering a) revenge for frightened elites b) 'cracking heads together' to get the nation moving again during a period of class conflict.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

Jost's recent book provides a new analysis of the dangers of fragmented national security institutions. The accompanying article in International Studies Quarterly has a slightly different (and better designed) quantitative analysis as well as an extra case study: academic.oup.com/isq/article/...

academic.oup.com

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

'the Security Dilemma... does not exist without underlying competition – actual or potential – over scarce, coveted objects of human desire, which is the overlooked reason why the Dilemma flares up in the first place. The structural realists’ ‘explanation’ has no engine.' Azar Gat

tandfonline.com

Is the decline of war a delusion? An exchange between researchers following the publication of Azar Gat’s article on the subject

Published in Journal of Strategic Studies (Vol. 48, No. 4, 2025)

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

An absolute classic. I think it's a broader phenomenon: 'We pretend to work and you pretend to pay us' ; 'We pretend to study and you pretend to test us'.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Another great thread from Liam, genuinely very thought provoking.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Really great thread. Seems to me like some of the 'restrainers' and unilateralists were suffering from what Jon Elster calls the 'younger sibling' fallacy - that others won't react strategically to our own strategic actions.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Had a great @mybisa.bsky.social panel on foreign policy of Global South states feat Obert Hodzi, Ahmed Umar, Thaís Doria with Meera Sabaratnam as discussant.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Most self-proclaimed 'geopolitics analysts' simply aren't very good at analysing geopolitics. It's usually little more than sports commentary, with a terrible signal to noise ratio.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

In a week and a day, I'll be presenting findings from my new book The International Relations of the North-South Divide as part of the British International Studies Association conference in Belfast. Looking forward to sharing ideas with others interested in Global South foreign policy.

Book cover for 'The International Relations of the North-South Divide'.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Looking forward to @mybisa.bsky.social - where I'll be discussing 'Southern Strategies: Foreign Policy Perspectives of Global South States' with a great group of panelists. My paper offers a new way of looking at foreign policy differences between Global South states, using cluster analysis.

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Jessica Weeks @jlpweeks.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

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...

cornellpress.cornell.edu

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...

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

I have a lot of new followers, so I thought I’d introduce myself. I’m Nicholas Lees, Senior Lecturer (Associate Prof) of International Politics at Liverpool University. I mainly research role of material inequalities in shaping diplomatic relations between states. Recent research below.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

This is terrible news and a great loss for conflict studies. Valeriano made important contributions to research on international rivalries, territorial conflict and cyberwarfare. He also published a peer-reviewed forecast of the Russian war with Ukraine.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Good to see this in print. New perspectives on some classic questions in international relations.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

There's a reason why even authoritarian powers like the USSR never pulled stunts like this even with vassals. Absolute amateurism.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Very good, as usual. 'I don’t write about international power politics because normally I just don’t know enough about the countries and actors involved, even though it often seems as if this is also true of many of those who do talk about such things.' Very true.

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Cullen Hendrix @cullenhendrix.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

If you've ever used the Polity data, read this from Monty Marshall. tl;dr Polity is coding recent US events as an executive self-coup and an adverse regime change.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

It looks pretty certain that Global North-Global South relations will continue to be rocky for the next 4 years.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Reminds me of when Jervis posed a puzzle for power political theories of IR: 'how can we explain the fact that the United States did not conquer Canada sometime in the past hundred years?'

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Alongside the dire implications for US democracy, the dismantling of USAID is hugely consequential for America's relationship with states of the Global South.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

As highlighted by this discussion between philosophers, Trump's presidency is a natural experiment testing different versions of the democratic peace thesis. The consequences might be unhappy, but we might learn quite a lot.

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Charlie Hebdo @charliehebdo.fr · 07/01/2025

Aujourd’hui, Charlie pense à toutes les victimes de janvier 2015 : à Frédéric Boisseau, à Michel Renaud, à Franck Brinsolaro, à Ahmed Merabet, à Clarissa Jean-Philippe, à Yohan Cohen, à Philippe Braham, à François-Michel Saada et à Yoav Hattab.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Professionally, the best thing about 2024 has been the growing sense that I'm surrounded by a group of really great, supportive colleagues @livunipol.bsky.social Come study with us! We are great.

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Nicholas Lees @ndmlees.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

What can conflict studies learn from a diversionary war that never happened because the leadership that needed the diversion was too incompetent?

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