About the name

After a good long while of just calling the blog by my name, I’ve decided I need a new and catchy title. Or at least a new one.

My first run at a blog — started back in about 2004 — was called, simply, “Leviathan.” I’ve always been interested in the concept of the state authority, the social contract, and the monopoly of legitimate violence at the national level. This sort of conceptually dovetails nicely with my recent thinking and writing, which deals mostly with insurgencies and the way that state weakness challenges the international system.

All of which makes this sound a lot more like a political theory thesis than a blog, but you know me better than that. And so we have “Leviathan in Lilliput,” where I’ll focus mostly on the ways that political violence and strategic communications have evolved to allow the weak to threaten the strong.

Now write me and tell me what a stupid name this is!