Nicholas Danforth
@nicholasdanfort.bsky.social
Reposted by Nicholas Danforth
The Foreign Policy Union stands in solidarity with the Washington Post journalists who were affected by mass layoffs this week. 1/3
February 6, 2026 at 9:05 PM
The Foreign Policy Union stands in solidarity with the Washington Post journalists who were affected by mass layoffs this week. 1/3
Reposted by Nicholas Danforth
Solidarity with all the fine people at the Washington Post finding themselves without work today. It’s been a critical resource for so many of us working on the Middle East. A newspaper that’s incurious about the world outside the US is not one worth reading.
February 4, 2026 at 9:55 PM
Solidarity with all the fine people at the Washington Post finding themselves without work today. It’s been a critical resource for so many of us working on the Middle East. A newspaper that’s incurious about the world outside the US is not one worth reading.
Sometimes feels like the goal of progressive history is to prove everything bad in the world is causally related to everything else bad.
The Gestapo did not copy slave catchers. That’s not a thing that happened.
Instead of "Stop saying 'gestapo,' just compare them to the slave catchers from our own history" you can say "That's exactly right, and we know the gestapo well because they copied the slave catchers from our own history" and then you're on the same team magic trick boom.
February 4, 2026 at 2:11 PM
Sometimes feels like the goal of progressive history is to prove everything bad in the world is causally related to everything else bad.
Reposted by Nicholas Danforth
Great to have @akmckeever.bsky.social joining Kulturkampf from Damascus to discuss the latest developments in northeast Syria
kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/discussing...
kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/discussing...
Discussing Northern Syria with Alexander McKeever
On the ongoing conflict between Damascus and the SDF
kulturkampftr.substack.com
February 1, 2026 at 4:45 PM
Great to have @akmckeever.bsky.social joining Kulturkampf from Damascus to discuss the latest developments in northeast Syria
kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/discussing...
kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/discussing...
Any historians out there want to write about watching the entire internet go through the Epstein emails and discover the possibilities and perils of doing primary source research in real time?
February 2, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Any historians out there want to write about watching the entire internet go through the Epstein emails and discover the possibilities and perils of doing primary source research in real time?
One takeaway from the latest Epstein emails is that a lot of rich, powerful people have the same half-baked views on foreign affairs as everyone else
February 1, 2026 at 5:13 PM
One takeaway from the latest Epstein emails is that a lot of rich, powerful people have the same half-baked views on foreign affairs as everyone else
Great to have @akmckeever.bsky.social joining Kulturkampf from Damascus to discuss the latest developments in northeast Syria
kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/discussing...
kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/discussing...
Discussing Northern Syria with Alexander McKeever
On the ongoing conflict between Damascus and the SDF
kulturkampftr.substack.com
February 1, 2026 at 4:45 PM
Great to have @akmckeever.bsky.social joining Kulturkampf from Damascus to discuss the latest developments in northeast Syria
kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/discussing...
kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/discussing...
Reposted by Nicholas Danforth
Fascinating piece on broader Russian and Turkish political identity by @samharshbarger.bsky.social.
Russian or “of Russia?” Turkish or “of Turkey?”
Turkish nationalism has become more like its Russian counterpart
kulturkampftr.substack.com
January 28, 2026 at 7:26 PM
Fascinating piece on broader Russian and Turkish political identity by @samharshbarger.bsky.social.
The town of Kobani, where in 2014 the alliance with the US began, is being besieged by Syrian forces during a cease-fire. Once again, Turkish Kurds are watching as their government cheers on the Islamist forces attacking their ethnic counterparts across the border
foreignpolicy.com/2026/01/28/r...
foreignpolicy.com/2026/01/28/r...
The Fall of Rojava
After defeat, Kurdish aspirations for autonomy remain.
foreignpolicy.com
January 28, 2026 at 4:53 PM
The town of Kobani, where in 2014 the alliance with the US began, is being besieged by Syrian forces during a cease-fire. Once again, Turkish Kurds are watching as their government cheers on the Islamist forces attacking their ethnic counterparts across the border
foreignpolicy.com/2026/01/28/r...
foreignpolicy.com/2026/01/28/r...
Reposted by Nicholas Danforth
A little niche, but I can't tell you how excited I am to read this forthcoming book from Murat Yildiz
utpress.utexas.edu/9781477332863/
utpress.utexas.edu/9781477332863/
The Ottoman World of Sports
A revision of the history of modern sports in late Ottoman Istanbul, showing how Muslims, Christians, and Jews created a shared sports culture that was simul...
utpress.utexas.edu
January 26, 2026 at 4:27 PM
A little niche, but I can't tell you how excited I am to read this forthcoming book from Murat Yildiz
utpress.utexas.edu/9781477332863/
utpress.utexas.edu/9781477332863/
The depressing, cynical and deeply unjust takeaway here might be that the SDF's willingness to work with the US after we betrayed the Kurds so many times suggests the geopolitical penalty for such betrayal is actually fairly low:
foreignpolicy.com/2026/01/16/t...
foreignpolicy.com/2026/01/16/t...
A Long History of Betrayal
Why Washington keeps encouraging foreign uprisings—and then walking away.
foreignpolicy.com
January 23, 2026 at 8:21 PM
The depressing, cynical and deeply unjust takeaway here might be that the SDF's willingness to work with the US after we betrayed the Kurds so many times suggests the geopolitical penalty for such betrayal is actually fairly low:
foreignpolicy.com/2026/01/16/t...
foreignpolicy.com/2026/01/16/t...
What’s Buried by Baghdad’s Construction Boom
The politics of rebuilding in a city of memories.
foreignpolicy.com
January 23, 2026 at 7:17 PM
Reposted by Nicholas Danforth
Wrote up a quick post about Trump's foreign policy and the redistribution of prestige:
kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/trumps-pre...
kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/trumps-pre...
Trump's Prestige Economy
He likes the tough ones
kulturkampftr.substack.com
January 23, 2026 at 12:45 PM
Wrote up a quick post about Trump's foreign policy and the redistribution of prestige:
kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/trumps-pre...
kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/trumps-pre...
Reposted by Nicholas Danforth
Thesis: ICE is un-American and the Minneapolis protestors are real Americans.
Antithesis: Ackshually ICE is operating in a long American tradition of racist terror.
Synthesis: Minneapolis is now the epicenter of a clash between two distinct but historically grounded American political traditions.
Antithesis: Ackshually ICE is operating in a long American tradition of racist terror.
Synthesis: Minneapolis is now the epicenter of a clash between two distinct but historically grounded American political traditions.
January 23, 2026 at 5:27 PM
Thesis: ICE is un-American and the Minneapolis protestors are real Americans.
Antithesis: Ackshually ICE is operating in a long American tradition of racist terror.
Synthesis: Minneapolis is now the epicenter of a clash between two distinct but historically grounded American political traditions.
Antithesis: Ackshually ICE is operating in a long American tradition of racist terror.
Synthesis: Minneapolis is now the epicenter of a clash between two distinct but historically grounded American political traditions.
Reposted by Nicholas Danforth
@nicholasdanfort.bsky.social's piece on how Trump is redistributing prestige.
Trump's Prestige Economy
He likes the tough ones
kulturkampftr.substack.com
January 23, 2026 at 3:47 PM
@nicholasdanfort.bsky.social's piece on how Trump is redistributing prestige.
Reposted by Nicholas Danforth
January 23, 2026 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Nicholas Danforth
“Prestige economy” for Trump resonates with me.
The idea of redistributing respect away from liberal elites strikes me as innately populist: pure people vs corrupt elite framing. For reputational and material ends.
And reminds me of other populists like Erdoğan - e.g., “the world is bigger than 5”
The idea of redistributing respect away from liberal elites strikes me as innately populist: pure people vs corrupt elite framing. For reputational and material ends.
And reminds me of other populists like Erdoğan - e.g., “the world is bigger than 5”
Wrote up a quick post about Trump's foreign policy and the redistribution of prestige:
kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/trumps-pre...
kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/trumps-pre...
Trump's Prestige Economy
He likes the tough ones
kulturkampftr.substack.com
January 23, 2026 at 1:26 PM
“Prestige economy” for Trump resonates with me.
The idea of redistributing respect away from liberal elites strikes me as innately populist: pure people vs corrupt elite framing. For reputational and material ends.
And reminds me of other populists like Erdoğan - e.g., “the world is bigger than 5”
The idea of redistributing respect away from liberal elites strikes me as innately populist: pure people vs corrupt elite framing. For reputational and material ends.
And reminds me of other populists like Erdoğan - e.g., “the world is bigger than 5”
Wrote up a quick post about Trump's foreign policy and the redistribution of prestige:
kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/trumps-pre...
kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/trumps-pre...
Trump's Prestige Economy
He likes the tough ones
kulturkampftr.substack.com
January 23, 2026 at 12:45 PM
Wrote up a quick post about Trump's foreign policy and the redistribution of prestige:
kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/trumps-pre...
kulturkampftr.substack.com/p/trumps-pre...
Really appreciate Christian Caryl cutting through the bullshit here:
foreignpolicy.com/2026/01/22/t...
foreignpolicy.com/2026/01/22/t...
Trump’s Greenland Obsession Is Madness. Can’t We Just Say That?
The commentariat persists in misrepresenting the U.S. president and his actions.
foreignpolicy.com
January 22, 2026 at 9:40 PM
Really appreciate Christian Caryl cutting through the bullshit here:
foreignpolicy.com/2026/01/22/t...
foreignpolicy.com/2026/01/22/t...
Reposted by Nicholas Danforth
elect a man who once bankrupted a casino and you too can achieve this outcome for the low low price of your civil liberties
Okay. So we self immolated ourselves on the international stage so we could keep the defense framework we established with Greenland 70 years ago.
Sick.
Sick.
January 22, 2026 at 2:16 PM
elect a man who once bankrupted a casino and you too can achieve this outcome for the low low price of your civil liberties
Reposted by Nicholas Danforth
'Is There A Plan Behind Trump's Confusion of Greenland and Iceland' will appear somewhere tomorrow, I'm sure.
people invested in the idea that the system can still work will do anything to avoid the reality of the president's deluded ignorance.
people invested in the idea that the system can still work will do anything to avoid the reality of the president's deluded ignorance.
January 21, 2026 at 3:08 PM
'Is There A Plan Behind Trump's Confusion of Greenland and Iceland' will appear somewhere tomorrow, I'm sure.
people invested in the idea that the system can still work will do anything to avoid the reality of the president's deluded ignorance.
people invested in the idea that the system can still work will do anything to avoid the reality of the president's deluded ignorance.
Reposted by Nicholas Danforth
Good Crisis Group report on the situation in northeast Syria between the government and SDF. Still very tenuous and tense.
www.crisisgroup.org/stm/middle-e...
www.crisisgroup.org/stm/middle-e...
Preventing Further Escalation in Syria’s North East | International Crisis Group
A dramatic confrontation between the Syrian government and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces has redrawn Syria’s political map. A U.S.-mediated ceasefire appears on the verge of collapse. More host...
www.crisisgroup.org
January 21, 2026 at 2:08 PM
Good Crisis Group report on the situation in northeast Syria between the government and SDF. Still very tenuous and tense.
www.crisisgroup.org/stm/middle-e...
www.crisisgroup.org/stm/middle-e...
Reposted by Nicholas Danforth
This is why this crowd actually likes trump, even tho these arguments make no sense.
He’s their hypocrisy-exposing, contradiction-heightening wrecking ball that is destroying the liberal society they always hated, and they think they won’t get caught in the wreckage.
He’s their hypocrisy-exposing, contradiction-heightening wrecking ball that is destroying the liberal society they always hated, and they think they won’t get caught in the wreckage.
January 19, 2026 at 11:59 PM
This is why this crowd actually likes trump, even tho these arguments make no sense.
He’s their hypocrisy-exposing, contradiction-heightening wrecking ball that is destroying the liberal society they always hated, and they think they won’t get caught in the wreckage.
He’s their hypocrisy-exposing, contradiction-heightening wrecking ball that is destroying the liberal society they always hated, and they think they won’t get caught in the wreckage.
Reposted by Nicholas Danforth
Analyst Henri J. Barkey joined our podcast today to discuss the Kurdish-led SDF’s territorial losses in Syria and possible implications for Turkey’s PKK peace talks.
Full episode: www.turkeyrecap.com/p/syrias-new...
Full episode: www.turkeyrecap.com/p/syrias-new...
January 19, 2026 at 8:11 PM
Analyst Henri J. Barkey joined our podcast today to discuss the Kurdish-led SDF’s territorial losses in Syria and possible implications for Turkey’s PKK peace talks.
Full episode: www.turkeyrecap.com/p/syrias-new...
Full episode: www.turkeyrecap.com/p/syrias-new...