Van Jackson

Peace studies and the class politics of geopolitics. Newsletter and Podcast(s):

[Van Jackson @RealVanJackson]

The Rivalry Peril has a cover! Everything Washington has told you about great-power competition is wrong. Come January 2025, @mbrenes1 and I are gonna reveal why! #TheRivalryPeril

[DSA @DemSocialists]

“You underestimate how powerful you are, because of the moment in which you exist.

The organization you’re building — crucial.

It’s for you, the future. And if you go for it, you can get it.”

@ProfRDWolff , speaking to DSA co-chairs @ahSHEEK and @meganromer, and @DavidGriscom

[Jonathan Guyer @mideastXmidwest]

Has the Blob made its peace with Trump?

Picking up from my @nybooks essay, I joined @RealVanJackson on @UnDiplomaticPod to talk about the Washington establishment after the Democrats’ midterm sweep.

[Van Jackson @RealVanJackson]

If this is what the China committee becomes, I’m here for it. But there’s no evidence in its past that it could become peace oriented, and a different kind of politician would have to be seeking committee assignment on it

[Just Foreign Policy @justfp]

The China Select Committeee "should be guided by three complementary principles: competition, cooperation, and peaceful coexistence between the world's two largest economies"

"A renewed mandate should also include a commitment to combating anti-Asian racism"

Read in @Semafor:

[Volodymyr Ishchenko @Volod_Ishchenko]

After a decade of gaslighting that NATO had nothing to do with the causes of the war, after five years of (often hysterical) demands to read the whole of East European (and not only) history through ethnonationalist lenses, and after ridiculing the slightest hint that the Russian ultimatum on the eve of the invasion was real and should have been taken much more seriously, there is now a deafening silence about why the European security architecture is on the agenda of the most serious negotiations so far, and why the Russian side identifies it as the root cause of the war.

Also, the fact that it is European security that is on the negotiating table, and not, let's say, the “decolonization” of Russia, says something significant about whether the war grew out of an “irrational” obsession or was part of the material forces driving global change, aligned with rational interests.

[Dr. Abdul El-Sayed @AbdulElSayed]

We need to stop selling weaponry to foreign governments that use it to do the worst things, including genocide and apartheid and war. https://t.co/7nhYsPB3q6

[Van Jackson @RealVanJackson]

Draft finally complete!

[Van Jackson @RealVanJackson]

I’ve backed defensive arms for Ukraine, I view Russia as engaged in imperialist geopolitics, and I think Putin is at best a very bad hombre. But even that’s not enough for the Ukraine flag- waving militarists because I also demand a plausible strategy and redress of root causes

[Van Jackson @RealVanJackson]

The important thing is that as long as you make hand gestures in the direction of Russia, nobody is allowed to question you and everything you think is correct and any criticism of your preferences deserves mockery and ad hominems

[Megan K. Stack @Megankstack]

I thought you guys said this wasn’t a proxy war.

[Van Jackson @RealVanJackson]

It’s very early days, but the emergent signs about what’s going to happen when the Bluenami crashes into the Hill does not look promising…certainly nothing proportionate to the urgency of the crisis

[Van Jackson @RealVanJackson]

@ryangrim Do you have any idea of how toxically jingoistic the China committee is?

[Eric Blanc @_ericblanc]

My research found that 25 of the Democratic Party’s 32 Senate candidates explicitly ran against the billionaire class

When ppl like @mattyglesias say "moderation" won Democrats their majorities, they’re confused or lying

[Deep Singh Badhesha @DeepNotShallow]

When the cool senior lets the freshmen into the group selfie

[Van Jackson @RealVanJackson]

The surest indicator of European chauvinism is refuting this piece on the grounds that European elites “have no alternative” to militarism because Russia. Thanks for proving my point https://t.co/eWuY9heV2c

[Van Jackson @RealVanJackson]

@Harrison_J_Mann @WinWithoutWar One of the lessons from the Obama years

[Van Jackson @RealVanJackson]

@p_e_t_e_r_s_e_n What is “residual availability of DoD funds?” Is that a euphemism for the remainder of the federal discretionary budget?

[Van Jackson @RealVanJackson]

Unsurprisingly, this post has rage-baited the Bsky libs

[Van Jackson @RealVanJackson]

“The march to remilitarization across Europe has everything to do with elites papering over swelling domestic legitimacy problems associated with moribund economies and once solid welfare states turning to papier-mâché.”https://t.co/eWuY9heV2c

[Van Jackson @RealVanJackson]

The politicians of the center-left are warmongers because they’re servants of capital. But the thing is the really believe it https://t.co/eWuY9heV2c

[Ruben Gallego @RubenGallego]

@Switch82Vet No that’s the beauty of this, we can pay the Ukrainians to kill the Russians.

[Van Jackson @RealVanJackson]

@RubenGallego @Switch82Vet https://t.co/eWuY9heV2c

[Van Jackson @RealVanJackson]

“The march to remilitarization across Europe has everything to do with elites papering over swelling domestic legitimacy problems associated with moribund economies and once solid welfare states turning to papier-mâché.”https://t.co/eWuY9heV2c

[Van Jackson @RealVanJackson]

@ErikSperling We’ve had this discussion before but Ro is not doing good work on the China committee; the China committee is not doing good work. I like Ro fine but he’s the worst on China policy. Yes, I know it’s bc of his staff. Still, the committee is a den of jingos and crackpot realists

[Van Jackson @RealVanJackson]

You’re not going to be able to get a grip on the $1.5 trillion war budget if you don’t disband the China select committee…which is precisely why corrupt defense-industrial interests will lobby to keep it

[Nicholas Wu @nicholaswu12]

New - Some Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee are encouraging leaders to scrap the China committee

Ami Bera: "we’ve already got a Foreign Affairs Committee, we’ve already got the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific..."

w/ @Eleanor_Mueller
https://t.co/nhHKcqBrwc