Excited to have a new article out at the Journal of Conflict Resolution! The takeaway: Recognition/formalization of marginalized communities during civil conflict can reduce violence & strengthen state authority. 🎉
Article: tinyurl.com/ffcxa5cs
This Sunday's election in Hungary is a major test for global right-wing populism. What that means for democracy in the US & elsewhere 👇
michaelalbertus.substack.com/p/why-jd-van...
Green and blue banner with text. The top section reads "BLOG POST" in bold white letters. The bottom section reads "American Political Science Review" in white letters.
Conversation with Authors from @apsrjournal.bsky.social -
@mikealbertus.bsky.social & @victorgayeco.bsky.social discuss their recent #OpenAccess article 'State-Building and Rebellion in the Run-Up to the French Revolution' -
https://cup.org/4sz773E
A "Conversation with Authors" post on my recent @apsrjournal.bsky.social paper "State-Building and Rebellion in the Run-Up to the French Revolution", with @victorgayeco.bsky.social.
www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...
Democracy is declining globally and in the US. Will 2026 prove to be a turning point or breaking point?
Data from V-Dem Institute and @freedomhouse.bsky.social
michaelalbertus.substack.com/p/democracy-...
Excited to have a new article accepted at the Journal of Conflict Resolution! 🎉"Adhering Indigenous Communities to the State: Recognition Politics During Civil Conflict." I show that recognition can reduce violence & strengthen state authority.
Article: papers.ssrn.com/abstract=644...
Even if the US & Israel succeed in drastically weakening Iran, will it bring stability there or elsewhere in the Middle East? My interview with @stanfordcddrl.bsky.social scholar Hesham Sallam suggests it won't.
@wazirelkif.bsky.social
michaelalbertus.substack.com/p/a-weaker-i...
What's next in Iran and the Middle East? Research on international & civil war and on regime change shows how the war could seed conflict and instability across the region and a power vacuum in #Iran itself. My latest post 👇
michaelalbertus.substack.com/p/the-war-in...
The emergence and spread of nation-states is one of the most consequential developments in history. But most states still struggle to centralize control, driving violence. My latest post, based on my article with @victorgayeco.bsky.social @apsrjournal.bsky.social
www.broadstreet.blog/cp/188144764
Excited to share that my newsletter – The Good Society – has surpassed 1,000 subscribers! My latest post on Trump's new Board of Peace, which will erase and transform #Gaza and could refashion international relations as he seeks to replace the UN 👇
michaelalbertus.substack.com/p/trumps-new...
Research shows that repression sometimes backfires, driving spiraling cycles of protest and violence. Excessive federal force, widespread images and videos of ICE abuse, and indiscriminate and mistaken targeting are doing just that in #Minneapolis. 👇
michaelalbertus.substack.com/p/research-o...
Great article @financialtimes.com on American land grabs, which shares my conversation with @simonkuper.bsky.social on the power and unceasing allure of land
www.ft.com/content/d59c...
#Minneapolis is more than just part of a supercharged deportation campaign: it's a legal and social testing ground for the Trump administration. My latest post 👇
michaelalbertus.substack.com/p/the-explos...
After the US intervention in Venezuela, Trump's threats to other countries have accelerated. Who's next on the hit list? My latest post 👇
michaelalbertus.substack.com/p/whos-next-...
An explainer on the US intervention in Venezuela: what's happening, how the US could "run" it, and what could happen next. Top questions that journalists have asked me about the situation, and my answers
The opposition in #Venezuela has a choice: It could take Trump's snub and lie low, waiting for another inflection point—or return to protests and organizing in hopes of backing Trump or Rodríguez into a corner and forcing elections. My piece at @theatlantic.com
www.theatlantic.com/internationa...
Our results highlight the importance of distinguishing state-building from state strength. Greater state capacity may stabilize society, but the building process itself can disrupt local social structures and be contested for decades.
👉Broadstreet post: www.broadstreet.blog/p/when-state...
We find that new horse-post relays caused more local rebellions in subsequent decades. This was due to the material consequences of state penetration, as the horse post spurred rebellions against agents with coercive powers to enforce order: the military, the police, and the judiciary.
We use a staggered DiD design at the parish level that compares changes in rebellion in parishes that received a horse-post relay to nearby parishes that would later receive one. We argue that the local configuration of relays between regional nodes was plausibly exogenous.
We test this hypothesis by combining archival data on the horse-post relay network over the eighteenth century from the Liste des Postes and a database of 6,000 rebellions in pre-Revolutionary France from the Jean Nicolas survey.
👉 On the JN survey : doi.org/10.46298/dc....
This system was central to the monarchy’s infrastructural capacity, strengthening its ability to penetrate society—enforce taxes, the rule of law, and conscription. It also crowded out private interests and activities, potentially generating resentment and resistance.
The monarchy’s communication network was the horse-post: a series of relays every 10–15km where state messengers could lodge & get fresh horses for faster travel. On these roads, the state held a monopoly over the gallop, horse rentals, and night travel. It expanded throughout the 18th century
Can state-building disrupt rather than stabilize society? In a new @apsrjournal.bsky.social article, @victorgayeco.bsky.social and I show that the expansion of state communication networks spurred rebellion for decades in France before the Revolution
👉 Article: doi.org/10.1017/S000...
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The US capture of Nicolás Maduro is a historic turn that repositions the US as openly interventionist in Latin America. But rebuilding Venezuela will be a far harder task. My piece at @theatlantic.com
www.theatlantic.com/internationa...
Publication brought lots of unexpected surprises: reviews in places like @thenewyorker.bsky.social & @wsj.com, podcasts, and plenty of rich conversations on everything from US land grabbing in Greenland to the housing crisis & property rights on the moon. Here's to a 2026 that measures up!
As 2025 clocks out, my biggest professional thrill this year was my new book Land Power! 🥳🎉 It tells how land became power, how it shapes power, and how who holds that power determines the fundamental social problems that societies grapple with. 🧵 @basicbooksgroup.bsky.social
The Arctic is ground zero for the colliding threats of climate change and geopolitical competition between the US, Russia, China, and EU countries. My interview with @klausdodds.bsky.social on his new book Unfrozen
michaelalbertus.substack.com/p/unfrozen-t...
My conversation with Princeton Professor Rory Truex on the American confrontation with Venezuela: where it's coming from and where it could be headed
