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drconortobin.bsky.social
Historian and lecturer at UCD and Maynooth University. Book project on Carter, Brzezinski, and the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.
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The moral and intellectual pygmies around Trump might learn a thing or two from history and America's last grand strategists. Of course they won't. My weekend FT essay. on.ft.com/3GhNw4u

submitted 6 days ago • 10 comments

OTD - April 12, 1961 Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin becomes the first person to go to space when he is launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in a Vostok 3KA space capsule atop a Vostok K rocket. The flight lasts one orbit, a total of 108 minutes, before Gagarin successfully returns to

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

Job alert! My dept is hiring a lecturer in international economic history. This a permanent, full-time post and it's (hopefully) a really good time to be joining the School of History here. Very happy to chat with anyone about the role, UCC, or life in Cork in general. 🗃️ www.ucc.ie/en/future-hu...

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

That tingling sense of excitement when years of research and writing arrives in boxes as a finished product. A biography to read in the age of revenge of geopolitics.

submitted 14 days ago • 36 comments

Today in 1978, President Jimmy Carter “decided to defer production” of controversial enhanced radiation warheads—commonly known as neutron bombs—for the Lance mobile battlefield missile (W70) and the W79 8-inch artillery-fired atomic projectile. Production was formally canceled that October.

submitted 11 days ago • 3 comments

"Researchers from around the world have used the archives for projects, and scholars especially value the center’s records of documents from the Cold War era." DOGE's
dismantling of @wilsoncenter.org is a brazen act of vandalism. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/u...

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

The moment has arrived, my Edinburgh University Press book The President's Kill List is now available for pre-order in paperback. It is only £24.99. Plus, you can get a 30% discount with the code PAPER30. It is the perfect beach read. edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-pre...

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

We're hiring 2 new colleagues @historyatgalway.bsky.social - Lecturer A (.4FTE; 4-year post) in History (Ireland in Global Context) - Lecturer A (1FTE; 6-month post) in History (Irish Economy and Society, 1750-1900) Go here and click 'Academic Vacancies' www.universityofgalway.ie/about-us/jobs/ 🗃️

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments

It’s difficult to express without expletives how much the vast majority of people in Ireland are utterly disgusted by this … total f**king disgrace www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...

submitted 32 days ago • 0 comments

The @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social book of the day is my interview with @lucatrenta.bsky.social: The President's Kill List: Assassination and US Foreign Policy since 1945. GREAT conversation! #History #PoliSky #LawSky 💙📚 #PolicySky newbooksnetwork.com/presidents-k...

submitted 32 days ago • 1 comment

The podcast I recorded with @drsusanliebell.bsky.social for @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social is available. Have a listen as we explore the book and some current political reverberations. Also, the book is out in paperback in May with @edinburghup.bsky.social. newbooksnetwork.com/presidents-k...

submitted 32 days ago • 1 comment

🗃️ The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798: A thread on some ominous precedents. 🧵1/14 @iehs.bsky.social @migrationcollab.bsky.social

submitted 74 days ago • 5 comments

The 1940s OSS manual on sabotage is all the rage at the moment. But the CIA also has a long history of developing manuals for all sorts of tasks, from assassinations, to denouncing communist infiltrators, to small sabotage against a government. Read more here: open.substack.com/pub/thebrush...

submitted 57 days ago • 1 comment

A continuous plug here:

submitted 62 days ago • 0 comments

Thank you so much, @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social for giving me the opportunity to discuss THE IDEOLOGICAL SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA! @cornellupress.bsky.social You can listen to it here: newbooksnetwork.com/the-ideologi...

submitted 64 days ago • 1 comment

My Afghanistan war book THE HARDEST PLACE is approaching its four-year anniversary. Since I’ve mostly migrated from Twitter to Bluesky, over the next few months I’m going to recreate here a long thread of photos that many readers have enjoyed scrolling through as an accompaniment to the book.

submitted 65 days ago • 9 comments

✨GIVEAWAY✨ Smokes has taken over my CUP delivery box so it’s time for a giveaway of 2 paperback copies of Blue Helmet Bureaucrats! UK and EU addresses only pls (soz global pals!). RT & like for entry. Will randomly select the winners next Sat. 🩵💙🩵

submitted 69 days ago • 1 comment

I'm happy to see this generous roundtable review of Days of Opportunity in H-Diplo. Thanks to @susiecolbourn.bsky.social, Jayita Sarkar, Umberto Tulli, Carter Malkasian, and Terry Anderson for their thoughtful contributions. networks.h-net.org/group/discus...

submitted 70 days ago • 0 comments

Formerly Top Secret Records Shed Light on True History of Panama Canal Negotiations Bipartisan Effort Spanned Four Presidencies Kissinger Warning: “This is no issue to face the world on. It looks like pure colonialism.” nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

submitted 73 days ago • 2 comments