I'm being pedantic, but this is also serious. Many evangelical Christians claim to represent "traditional" Christianity when their seasonal worship is actually defined by post-WWII consumerism. Meanwhile, my tradition (Episcopal) gets criticized for not singing Christmas songs in church in December

and I guess I should have noted that the reason I have these interests/am not surprised by these developments is bc of the people involved in this discussion

I remember in grad school being interested in how values&ideas in IR led to problems but that didn't fit w/ constructivism. And the liberal int'l order being vulnerable to hijacking by elites never seemed to resonate outside people like Susan Strange

that's about 30 years out of date at this point. And the textbooks don't really keep up. Ironic considering they release new editions every 2 months.

and some use state-level theories to criticize liberal internationalism, like Solingen's work on nuclear proliferation and differing levels of conflict btw East Asia and Middle East. So students end up thinking everything in IR has to be realist, liberal or constructivist, but...

The one I used to use lined up levels of analysis w/ IR paradigms, saying state-level=liberal. But that's not true. Yes, some liberal theorists point to state-level, but others still focus on systemic. Some realists point to state. Constructivists all do.

This is the problem terrorism studies scholars face: we use well-defined and transparent definitions of terrorism , but policymakers and pundits don't. And most observers don't differentiate. I suspect many critical terrorism studies critiques of terrorism studies are really about public discourse.

at some point they'll realize they've harmed their own cause

thanks, this is a good article. I've struggled with this (Episcopalian who respects Roman Catholic role in politics). I sometimes want a more direct challenge, a la Bishop Budde, but can also see the value in a conciliatory approach. have written a bit on this-

providencemag.com/2025/02/thre...

where is 15 "barely legal?" (I'm not going to look up age of consent across US states for the sake of my search history)