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Very sad to hear about the passing of the great @NunoPMonteiro1, gone far too young this week. Nuno was my preceptor - a sort of PhD student mentor and co-supervisor to a batch of MA students - during our time shared @UChicagoCIR. Twitter doesn’t do him justice, but I’ll try...
First, the whole field knows his scholarship was prodigious, tackling m important questions and providing vital insights. He noticed that unipolarity was not turning out as peaceful as many had expected, and explained why: https://watermark.silverchair.com/isec_a_00064.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAAnkwggJ1BgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggJmMIICYgIBADCCAlsGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQMi0CLAmddjbeQ-YbuAgEQgIICLKpvehW-vpEPh_1ADmJdz4zyVG1U__4wkiRCrk6EdYPOWyTmJhWeZ7-JtBlxvLDvsEJfjWngten-e3eEE3EgAoGWHRWx_VZ8vg6UvkFkhUWsX9R82iCOxDQAHcraaA6Gm7I8Q1WxaNymN5xz5_s5uxGVcUGJrBQdsSqXUwHSBJ-uMjZdcREf1XiwawhiFw1eH71AU-2BAZpPq5nrwzFHCV4XSqwvDVRWfc4x0DpcnqQYuh5wD20w0esXQZuYyP2ZCchMFdk0i2MZVpv7XWtyCbrZ6gP-jI2hL9O6kB8MRtgkck6dNJS5N-zkECcbuebcgPtj5nKBHhgLDIZEOZ_DfFWI7cxNWbYHASQYLl1dZyMMYFOi86CmkfOnBQYI0U5lkmYEuFyOzk2tukgKvcvCY9NCGexNx2svA14wUWNpa0-t2PV3ZjSALVNWbkVNEEgn46gm4zzE4Ib32jG4_BBjHJEbJZWNNa0jnWDMJEi2N089GA8EmF04-13MIBpTWlFHZbcBSS8ok7yiRG5JIJwjRvObxwyVYkA6GkdT_eiiUKKiIP35wYZzcSQnH5np3e1xUmTxp3zxdv6bNKzzzpY_8he9V2Dh8uHNslxCLY_ET3CAr5_1Un2REsE1jCygk_RGqK6AdtcfHHZpSY6ryQrJJzgpOjv4BN-2heODiq0L3mfyB92kw2MJhkTtwiwfX2CE_qD1wsCEy1PIn2fi2RemWhxZH6uyLiAnmvqgIYw. A book followed, with further...
...crucial insights, including on why unipolarity - especially of the military variety - was likely to prove longer-lived than many were then foretelling: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/theory-of-unipolar-politics/8B28E1C45E984540EAF6E15683E11856. Shedding yet more light on such effects of the balance of power, he (and Alex Debs) noted that...
... - when power *does* shift - it is not so much the mere fact of that happening, but rather the transparency/otherwise of states’ armament efforts that affect others’ incentive to strike (and thus the war-proneness of the process): https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/abs/known-unknowns-power-shifts-uncertainty-and-war/93860929449484112FDDC5F213C8BE16. He also turned...
...his sharp mind to the tough questions of nuclear proliferation (with Debs again), observing that the desire for security alone is insufficient to motivate proliferation. Rather, the interaction between the potential proliferator and their possible adversaries - including...
...their ability to deter preventive strike on their proliferation efforts, which is a function of both their own pre-existing relative power and the strength/reliability of any allies - condition the proliferation decision: https://watermark.silverchair.com/isec_a_00177.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAAnowggJ2BgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggJnMIICYwIBADCCAlwGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQMNsoSi4Qk3nDEqmx6AgEQgIICLe3_nFVfIBVEKnb0wXUnD5ZZAb79P69SjbqBSxQnPDD4X8eUrIg5Fd7mLn1qasCNt6tcjlqeh6mviwQpEjBFbzunQtmIPvoEk6Zen9UqeEyEQAQB_UNB_E5mc58sU0Mev5y2ngZ9ok4XVdm3o9q97AfAzWBh5R9NGrFk2WvJ9qCEJrO4onef9BZlYgMd-jzV5Eg1kFXlYY5OwVhAzCb_53AuYbzC4VneRM_8ioFiW-_d0Th678CA5SKTEOHDCRncCWJsLm1rw0FrsAhbj1s7stfdnur1sWf5BI_XV4ztBTKqlKf1NN1mNAOri3yzsM59H0g1ei3LHvCqRqHOl6OXqzb4IQwZA2n5PNxL5BSfkjc0YnpkDe_0vEXs0AoPS_0dyRN9v34IR6T80pV9hqxPd599fBaKLs3ufj8g_761y8RbmPuK3laPQ8JfqbdbFtxBTCB_9-h-QiVgQ4piREswe7W1ovJChxtTaLnZqEBB9xAoAVu90csvIZbfkNSASDCW0rpDW1JK6FObHo0lEagi4IXclfSBjJCl5PW8hILvB-WkNh1Lvp1u4ilPbOPqs5BS2SSBeG1hLQSetoZOvEKQ7N7ieQyfVJbwbUegII79Cltnda5dFqxPg6D1M9BhxXOxYg-cAN2PrdBbT3XZ1D7eS8BAgLnL0Zyh3ZkN0xZy60LWBnhcvc0FES8vehw_iAlUyCiIUJ-2hpu8rA6OwIHyiYoR1rU48VwzreCiq4QU. Another cracking book...
...followed: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/nuclear-politics/4919978AE58F00A326078662D50A4BFA. Even when provoking the established leaders of a sub-field into critique ( https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-theory/article/abs/ir-and-the-false-promise-of-philosophical-foundations/543FA2BAB3368DD0868F8F14312D6F3F) - which prompted these retorts ( https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-theory/issue/30DFABE74443508E76740E770FCC7836), and even some (friendly) criticism from a pupil ( https://academic.oup.com/isr/article-abstract/18/2/195/2572564?redirectedFrom=fulltext) - he (and..
...Keven Ruby) still moved an important debate along. But of course, professional contributions alone - however valuable - do not define a person. So...
Despite only being a PhD student himself at the time, Nuno was a legendary and awe-inspiring figure to us MA students. With his deep voice and bright eyes, he had presence. His intellect was fierce, and evidently so. As soon as he looked at you, you knew your faulty logic...
...and/or flawed empirics had been spotted and that you were in for an uncomfortable few minutes...but also that your argument would be all the better, in the end, for the application of his intellectual blowtorch. He was evidently destined for greatness in whatever he pursued.
I remember once chatting to him, and he said he’d only want to stay in academia if he could get a job with a good department and was confident he could make big contributions. That might sound like arrogance/hubris - and would certainly be impossible to assure in the academic...
...job market of today - but I simply took it as reflecting the fact that there are a world of big problems/challenges out there that require the application of sharp minds. Of course, he achieved on both fronts: even we pompous Oxford/UChicago sorts have to concede that Yale...
...exists - and that winning tenure there is kind of a big deal - while the importance of his contribution is manifest. Despite the fierce intellect and imposing persona, however, Nuno was also just a great guy. He had plenty of time for us MA students, even though - with...
...hindsight - we must’ve been an irritant. He also had a wicked (and distinctly European) sense of humour. He would rib me about Britain still pretending to be a great power. I’d laugh back that we’d unquestionably hit a rocky patch, but still had a good way to fall before...
...we hit Portugal’s level. He found it amusing that the UK draws its SLBMs from a US-controller stockpile while claiming an independent nuclear arsenal. I found it amusing that port wine was only habilitated as a gentleman’s drink in the Anglophone world thanks to our need...
...for cheap booze and desire to prop-up the ailing Portuguese during our wars with the French and Spanish. And so forth. Yet even despite such mutual p*ss-taking, he was unfailingly generous in his time with me, including providing initial feedback on my MA thesis draft that...
...helped it weather the scrutiny of its ‘proper’ faculty supervisor - the genial-but-tough John Mearsheimer - ultimately leading me to where I am today, given the PhD funding I was able to secure off the back of that thesis mark and associated reference letter. Mainly though...
...and I’ll stop soon - it’s three little kindnesses that will stay with me. 1: taking me - then a cash-strapped postdoc - for a coffee and attentively poring over my paper at an ISA conference years later which clearly made him late for something/-one more important. 2: the...
...way he commended me on my knowledge of JLG’s ‘Strategies of Containment’ during a thesis workshop in which I was otherwise floundering. And 3: the way he said “good job” in a very genuine way, with a nod and an impressed smile, the first time I saw him after getting my MA...
...thesis mark, which I think was the moment at which I definitely decided to apply for a PhD. These little things stay with you, and there’s a lesson in there for all of us. My thoughts are with his family and friends. RIP, Nuno. We’ll remember you.
P.S. I see two of the article links have timed out. So, to recognise him properly, here they are again: https://direct.mit.edu/isec/article/36/3/9/12035/Unrest-Assured-Why-Unipolarity-Is-Not-Peaceful
