A New Chapter for Me and for the Peace of the City

A year ago this Friday, on July 17^th, 2025, I defended my dissertation at Georgetown University, making the theoretical case for durable, international forms of accountability to better allow us each to direct our own lives.

The project grew out of a frustration I had with the idea of self-determination. The concept is cited everywhere, often in ways that I found insufficiently thoughtful. For example, if the U.S. ends its occupation of Afghanistan, some might say that the Afghan nation now enjoys self-determination, but to me, this emphasis on the nation seemed to minimize the way that the Taliban’s rule clearly violates the self-determination of many, many Afghans. In fact, there were certainly some subgroups of the Afghan nation that enjoyed greater degrees of self-determination under the American occupation.

As I interrogated this idea of self-determination, I realized that I could not find strong biblical or theological support for national self-determination. The Israelites might have a claim to national self-determination since God promised land to them, but even the fulfillment of this promise was contingent upon the Israelites behaving themselves: when they terrorized the fatherless and oppressed (Psa. 10:18), God had no problem raising other nations—even deeply wicked ones (cf. Hab. 1:5-11)—to interrupt Israelite national self-determination and send them into exile.

National self-determination, however, widely serves as the moral basis for government power today. We Americans, for example, promote the notion of popular sovereignty, which usually morphs into the idea that the nation is sovereign over itself.

Without this foundation, I returned to Scripture and Christian history to think through government and the exercise of power over peoples. If nations do not have a clear right to exercise sovereign power, who does?

I concluded that God cares much more about the “how” than the “who” when it comes to ruling and government: it generally does not matter to God whether this person or that person exercises power, whether a political leader is an Israelite or a Babylonian, but it always matters whether those with power use it justly, protecting the innocent and the vulnerable and restraining the wicked and the powerful.

Now, I was ultimately earning my Ph.D. in Government rather than Theology, and only a quarter of my dissertation committee is Christian. With this in mind, I buried maybe 10 pages of the biblical interpretation and theological analysis that motivated my argument in the middle of the 200-page text and otherwise made my argument in terms that people of all faith backgrounds could find persuasive.

But to my surprise, my committee expressed real appreciation for the brief theology section and encouraged me to write more in this register.

After several months of workshopping an initial essay, I launched the Peace of the City last November. Candidly, I have been surprised at its success, recently crossing 100 subscribers, and your feedback, interest and engagement have made the weekly writing a genuine delight.

However, some very good personal news means changes for the Peace of the City moving forward.

Beginning in August, I will be joining the George Washington University Political Science Department as an Assistant Professor and the Director of their Politics & Values program. In my new role, I will be working with an cohort of 20-40 undergraduate freshmen, taking them through the basics of Political Science’s four subfields (Political Theory, American Politics, Comparative Politics and International Relations). Since at least my time as a student at Moody Bible Institute, teaching has been my passion, and I could not be more excited about the opportunity to fulfill this decade-long dream.

Unfortunately, this new position means that my day-to-day work will require more academic writing, limiting my ability to keep up with weekly posts. I therefore plan to decrease my regular posts to the first Wednesday of every month, rather than every Wednesday.

While I am sad to decrease the number of posts, I am excited about what this new writing schedule will allow me to do with the now-monthly posts. Derek Thompson, probably my favorite political commentator, recently reflected on the one-year anniversary of his Substack, sharing a new rule he adopted: “I don’t publish something until I can’t wait to share it.” Thompson recognized that “there is a vast landscape of bleh” in writing—“even the best newspapers, magazines, and newsletters publish plenty of bleh”—and he wanted to make sure he wasn’t inadvertently publishing bleh. Honestly, I have sometimes felt like I was pushing out a weekly piece that was really only 80% or 90% done, and with the new schedule, I can give each argument the time and space that it needs to develop.

In other words, rather than receiving a weekly post, you’ll now receive a monthly post that is roughly 1.5 times as long as my typical post has been in the past. Last week’s piece on the Sheep Detectives and American history is an example of what I hope future pieces will be like, slightly longer but with more room for thoughtfulness and nuance, and my next post will run Wednesday, August 5^th.

In addition to regular posts, I plan to continue publishing additional pieces when I can, as I did on the capturing of Nicolas Maduro, and I also hope to share excerpts of my academic writing, especially as I turn my dissertation into an actual book.

All in all, I am really excited about this next chapter of life, which I think will also add to the story of the Peace of the City. Thank you for reading and supporting this project, and I look forward to diving into social media, digital advertising and spiritual formation with you in early August.