Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
What is this place?
This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a
court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to
optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.
The weekly Culture War threads host the most
controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are
appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy;
if in doubt, post!
Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts.
You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.
Why are you called The Motte?
A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently,
it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey",
originally identified by
philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial
but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens
this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for
the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired
propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."
On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.
New post guidelines
If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it.
A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts
such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a
submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).
Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or
significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.
If in doubt, please post it!
Rules
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- When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
- Proactively provide evidence in proportion to how partisan and inflammatory your claim might be.
- Accept temporary bans as a time-out, and don't attempt to rejoin the conversation until it's lifted.
- Don't attempt to build consensus or enforce ideological conformity.
- Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
- The Wildcard Rule
- The Metarule

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Notes -
When it passes a resolution (example), the United Nations Security Council often says at the end that it "decides to remain actively seized of the matter". Apparently, there exists an official list of all the matters of which the Security Council is seized. At present, the list contains 49 active items that actually have been considered in the 2023–2026 period, plus another 16 stale items that were last considered before 2023 but to whose deletion a UN member objected in the latest annual review of the list. (For example: India's 1948 annexation of Hyderabad has not been considered by the Security Council since 1949, so it was highlighted as due for deletion from the list in January, and by default it would have been deleted in March. But Pakistan objected to that deletion, as it has done for many years. So, officially, the Security Council still is seized of that matter. Likewise, the UKGBNI has forced Russia's 2018 Novichok poisoning to remain on the list.)
For each item, the list gives only the first date of consideration and the latest date of consideration, so actually finding the related records can be a bit of a pain. (For example: The latest date listed for "the situation between Iraq and Kuwait" is 2025-09-17. Can you search for documents from that specific date in the UN Digital Library's interface? No—if you try to filter by what is labeled "creation date", you actually get a filter by what appears to be upload date. Rather, the best method is to search for the literal text "17 September 2025", which reveals the relevant resolution (regarding repatriation of Kuwaiti corpses and property (particularly, Kuwait's national archives) lost in Iraq's 1990 invasion) and meeting transcript.)
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