“Fair Trade” and the revenge against the “Foreigner”: From Chamberlain to Trump

A century before Trump’s tariff threats, Joseph Chamberlain pitched the same idea: use duties as a “big revolver” to force rivals into “fair trade.” That history helps explain why “unfairness” rhetoric and coercive foreign policy keep returning when hegemonic powers decline.

https://www.duckofminerva.com/2026/01/fair-trade-and-the-revenge-against-the-foreigner-from-chamberlain-to-trump.html

Bullies, Follies, and Decadent Orders: Constructing Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern 

On November 1, 2025, President Donald Trump threatened to end all U.S. assistance to Nigeria and — if he deemed it necessary — launch a military attack against insurgents in the country. As National Public Radio reported: “If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very…

https://www.duckofminerva.com/2025/11/bullies-follies-and-decadent-orders-constructing-nigeria-as-a-country-of-particular-concern.html

Exploring the Meaning of Responsibility

I’ve been thinking a lot about the meaning of “responsibility,” specifically in the context of politics and governance. We live in an age of populism, rising authoritarianism, disinformation, climate change, and the slaughter of civilians in places like Gaza and Sudan. The notions of responsibility associated with the so-called “liberal international order” are all under strain. Most of us, I think, rely on a kind of “

https://www.duckofminerva.com/2025/11/exploring-the-meaning-of-responsibility.html

Antisemitism, Israel and the Problem with no Easy Solution

Debates about Israel and Palestine have, as one scholar remarked to me, become the “third rail” in British academia. That needs to change. The terror attack in Manchester makes clear that UK academics must engage in a public, thoughtful, and careful discussion about Jews, Israel and Palestine. On October 2nd, 2025 — on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur — a Synagogue in Manchester was attacked…

https://www.duckofminerva.com/2025/10/antisemitism-israel-and-the-problem-with-no-easy-solution.html

The Mirage of Great-Power Competition

Photo by Dave Photoz on Unsplash Back in March, I wrote a post at Lawyers, Guns and Money called “Remember ‘Great Power Competition?’ Lol.” As the “Grand Strategy” of Trump 2.0 comes into focus, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit and update it. In brief, the normie national-security advisors who dominated the first Trump administration needed a way to make Trump’s semi-coherent ramblings legible to the global…

https://www.duckofminerva.com/2025/10/the-mirage-of-great-power-competition.html

The State of the Union is Grim

The Republic as we knew it is over. The fight now is whether the new one will be a fascistic, competitive authoritarian regime or a pluralist democracy that, one hopes, is better than what came before.

https://www.duckofminerva.com/2025/10/the-state-of-the-union-is-grim.html

Trump’s Foreign Policy and the Purpose of the MAGA State

How can we understand Tump 2.0 foreign policy? It's the product of the fusion of two different forces: Christian Nationalism and Personalist Rent-Extraction.

https://www.duckofminerva.com/2025/09/trumps-foreign-policy-and-the-purpose-of-the-maga-state.html

6+1 Questions about “The U.S.: A (Mostly) Hands-Off Superpower”

Drew Hogan answers 6+1 questions about how the United States does, and does not, support its overseas citizens.

https://www.duckofminerva.com/2025/08/61-questions-about-the-u-s-a-mostly-hands-off-superpower.html

What’s the Matter with Soft Power?

I dislike the term “soft power.” We owe the term to the late, great Joseph Nye. He popularized it in his 1990 book, Bound to Lead. Nye’s book was, first and foremost, an intervention in the “declinism” debates of the later 1980s. Japan was at the peak of its influence; some projected that its economy would overtake that of the United States by the early 2000s.

https://www.duckofminerva.com/2025/06/whats-the-matter-with-soft-power.html

So much for “Great Power Competition”

The buzzword of the first Trump administration was "Great Power Competition." That was also a lie.

https://www.duckofminerva.com/2025/03/so-much-for-great-power-competition.html