Aidan Milliff

Today the US honors the man who discovered Columbus, Ohio.

RIP Dolly. This album was not literally stuck in the tape deck of my dad's truck, but it might as well have been. One of my favorites since I was a kid. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HMw...

If this is an audit study, it's a weird one.

Prospective PhD Students (PoliSci, U.S. programs): You *do not need to contact faculty in advance*. If you decide to ignore my advice, at least contact them yourself!! Having a consultant cold-email faculty on your behalf *will not help you gain admission.*

Finally, this has gone a bit under the radar, so I want to highlight it: The social, behavioral and economic sciences directorate (SBE) has simply ceased to deliver grants to many of its subareas. Any topic not specifically OK'd by the Trump administration is receiving zero new awards.

Northwestern is hiring in quant methods (assistant level, tenure track) Please repost and share with those you think would be good candidates, thank you! polisci.northwestern.edu/about/facult... #psjobs #psjminfo #poliscijobs

Working on this paper was so fun! Excited that it's now out in the world and I hope you can check it out. It builds on broader agendas on the built environment and how space structures social contact from both Paige and I, w/ more info here: paigebollen.com and nlnathan.mit.edu

Evergreen.

I have an unbeatable idea for a PR firm. You pay me $1,000/mo and if Isaac Chotiner calls you, I slap the phone out of your hand.

Very cool looking new NBER paper from @mushfiq-econ.bsky.social and Sultan Mehmood on one of the most transformative natural disasters in the history of modern South Asia www.nber.org/papers/w35360

Now that we’re well into summer, I think it’s time to announce here FSU’s polisci dept’s hiring last year. (I meant to do at the end of the year but forgot.) First up, James Gibson, previously of WashU, will be joining us in the fall as the Regent’s Research Professor. This is a huge coup for us.

New policy piece on our @bjpols.bsky.social paper with Paolo Bertolotti, Ali Jadbabaie, and Fotini Christia. What do drone strikes do to civilians nearby? The non-lethal effects are larger than advertised irregularwarfare.org/hidden-costs-of-precision-what-drone-strikes-actually-do-to-civilians

"The non-lethal effects of drone strikes have substantial humanitarian and political costs." We are proud to highlight some outstanding new research on drone strikes by @aidanmilliff.com, Paolo Bertolotti, Fotini Christia, and Ali Jadbabaie at IWI.

I also took the opportunity to write more about one of our puzzling findings: Why do we see so much regional variation in Indians' foreign policy attitudes? I toss out some ideas in this blog post: aidanmilliff.com/blog/indian-...

@pstaniland.bsky.social I appeared on Grand Tamasha 🎙️ with @milanv.bsky.social to discuss our new book on Indian public opinion. Check out the episode here: grand-tamasha.simplecast.com/episodes/wha... And the book is free to download until June 15: doi.org/10.1017/9781...

New research in Science from @dominic-rohner.bsky.social and others: USAID cuts caused violent conflict to spike immediately in areas that received the most USAID support and last for months. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

📣 The Department of Social Sciences at Universidad Carlos III is recruiting for a fixed-term 2-year position in Political Science. This is a two-year opportunity to conduct research, teach, and and collaborate in a vibrant and interdisciplinary academic environment. More info: lnkd.in/eyVbmPRJ

Super clever idea.

Book Alert! @pstaniland.bsky.social and I have a new Cambridge Element out now — and free to download through May 18. It's the result of nine years of digging through historic survey data on how the Indian public thinks about major powers. Read it here: www.cambridge.org/core/element...

New book! @aidanmilliff.com and I spent years tracking down survey data from the late 1950s-2025 on how the Indian public has viewed China, the US, and Russia/USSR. We use the data to explore trends and patterns. Cambridge has made it Open Access until 5/18, so go read for free here: t.co/YtNCz74758

We are organizing a pre-conference workshop at EPSS on the Politics of South Asia. To present, discuss, or attend, please submit your info by May 13th: forms.gle/pXaKtTLifJAY... Please circulate widely! If questions, contact me, @aliz-toth.bsky.social or @simonchauchard.bsky.social!

Watching this made me so unbelievably happy. Wout is one of the best characters in professional sports.

How is this not a threat to kill innocent people?

Operation Names can also be used for peaceful purposes. aidanmilliff.com/post/project...

[Claude.md that just says “fear me”]

Now is the time for posting thoughtful discussions of the role of LLMs in academia. I don't have one of those. But Machiavelli does.

It would be useful if the NYT explicitly stated that the pilot, if captured, would be a POW, that there are laws governing how POWs can be treated, that respect for international law on war shapes how the enemy approaches it, and this is why the US conduct of this illegal war has been so dangerous.

If I read this reporting correctly, NSF is preparing to shut down SBE (social, behavioral, economic sciences) *in anticipation* of the FY27 budget, despite Congressional instructions that no directorate receive more than a 5% cut in FY26.

It was worth a shot.

Destroying civilian infrastructure in war is wrong, and probably against the Law of Armed Conflict www.nytimes.com/2026/03/30/o...

Astute point in the linked paper (Hathaway with @azmatzahra.bsky.social) about "mistakes" in war: If you don't change procedures to prevent them from happening again, in what way are they really "mistakes"?

Me after I vibecoded a task manager that just eats tasks.

TBH people are taken aback by how much a *political science* grad degree is "I Hope You Like Matrices." I turned out to really dig it, but I don't think I knew what I was signing up for...

Astonishing. The goal of our war is now to undo the effect of the war we started. Gosh, if only we could rewind to, say, four weeks ago when the Strait of Hormuz was open and normal!

Just a year ago, we heard reducing the deficit was so important Elon Musk had to fire as many scientists, forest rangers and Black women on the government’s payroll that he could find. Now? 🤷🏾‍♂️

The peak annual supplemental for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was the $196 billion the Bush admin requested in 2008 as the Iraq surge wound down and Afg ramped up. The two Iraq supplementals in 2003, the year of the invasion, added up to $167B. (Invasion one alone was $79B.)

Good reminder for Iran today from Steve Coll’s The Achilles Trap: Betting on “self regime change” is something the U.S. has done before, and lost.

Good thread. MEU is a very small unit in ground combat terms but a kind of big unit to pull out of the Western Pacific

open.spotify.com/episode/1GU9...

BREAKING: The UN refugee agency says up to 3.2 million people in Iran have been displaced by the ongoing war. Follow AP’s live updates.

They could have read (yes, I know) this piece by @proftalmadge.bsky.social from [checks notes] *2008* entitled “Closing Time: Assessing the Iranian Threat to the Strait of Hormuz”! www.caitlintalmadge.com/uploads/8/5/4/1/85419560/closing_time.pdf