A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
A look at history and popular culture
This week, time for something a bit silly: we're going to think about the plausibility of the warfare in Frank Herbert's Dune! In particular, I want to approach the question in two parts (I, II) : first asking if the model of warfare among the Great Houses we're introduced to in the first book of … Continue reading Collections: Warfare in Dune, Part I: Fighting Faufreluches
This week we're going to take a look at mercenaries in the ancient Mediterranean world! This was one of the runners-up in the latest ACOUP Senate poll, coming out of quite a few requests to discuss how mercenaries functioned in antiquity. In order to keep the scope here manageable and within my expertise, I am … Continue reading Collections: Ancient Mediterranean Mercenaries!
This week, continuing in the vein of some of our previous strategy and military theory primers, I wanted to off a basic 101-level survey of the strategic theory behind efforts, in a sense, directed against the state itself, both violent approaches (what we might call 'terroristic insurgency') and non-violent approaches (protest). It may seem strange … Continue reading Collections: Against the State – A Primer on Terrorism, Insurgency and Protest
Hey folks, Fireside this week! I have ended up a bit behind in my work and as always it is the blog that much suffer first. In this case, we have in two weeks twice managed to have snow which only increased my workload (it didn't cancel any of my classes, but did require me … Continue reading Fireside Friday, February 6, 2026 (On Ancient Migrations)