Mark Wenyi Lai 賴文儀

 Just happened to read this abstract from a research paper titled: Stupid International Relations. This is so good. This is exactly I want to say about this field and I am solucky to encounter this article. This article responds to a number of recent debates in the field of International Relations (ir) that have contributed to the image of ir as a post-racial and postcolonial discipline. As such, the present intervention asks how the politics of colonial racism continues to structure ir precisely at a time when this issue has been relegated to the discipline’s uncomfortable history. The key contention will be that the image of ir as a post-racial and post-colonial discipline is facilitated by an ideology of stupidity. The latter is defined as a regime of naturalising the contingency of ideas as well as the inability to transform them. As such, the stupidity of ir enhances its incapacity to address phenomena that escape the artificial boundaries of its disciplinary identity, in this...

Close to the end of the semester, December, everything felt like drying and dying, like an ending relationship, breakfast egg omelet on the table for two days, yellow stain on dirty laundry from last week, or everyday news from whatever news outlet, I received this email from a student from the 2025 Spring semester. Dear Mark, I don't know if you remember me exactly. I was participating in your IPE classes last semester during my exchange at Wenzao. I am now working for a German public broadcaster and I have to admit - I miss your classes. Is there any way to stay updated on your takes on world politics via X or Mastodon, etc.? Also, I was wondering if your book on Taiwan-China relations was worth a read - if its still timely enough in this constantly changing world.  Of course, if you happen to be in Germany at some point - let me know!  Best This is perhaps the first real email writing to me since the ChatGPT came to the world 2 years ago. Nowad...