Modern fantasy/scifi seems to not feature many federal countries (or as we will call them, “federations”)—that is, countries made up of several subunits such as states or provinces, eac…| Building Worlds
Why do people obey a government? And how can you use this in your fiction? At the most basic, people obey for two reasons: they want to, or they are forced to. (And for many people, both of these a…| Building Worlds
In our supposedly enlightened era, many people would like to imagine that most wars are fought for essentially rational purposes: punishing terrorists, seizing resources, profiteering off of arms s…| Building Worlds
In the previous post, I discussed several basic functions of government—while inserting snide remarks about whether governments actually carry out these functions. …Continue reading →| Building Worlds
We’ve repeatedly alluded to the role of governments in structuring the economy. The full role of government goes well beyond …Continue reading →| Building Worlds
In previous blog posts, we discussed Jeremy Weinstein’s work on the internal dynamics of rebel groups, and how they lead some groups to commit indiscriminate violence against civilians. In a …| Building Worlds
In a previous post, I discussed the theory of Jeremy Weinstein on why some rebel groups act in a relatively restrained manner towards civilians, while other groups engage in indiscriminate violence…| Building Worlds