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gmerabishv.bsky.social
Political geography postdoc at KU Leuven I study borders/territory, security and conflicts Current research: EU in the Black Sea https://research.kuleuven.be/portal/en/project/3E241158
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Charles Tilly in Brussels

FW admits that sending U.S. soldiers to UA was the best policy to deter Russian invasion but they didn't. (Afaik, didn't even consider seriously?). www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...

‘as Dmitri Medvedev, the former Russian president, said on social media the other day, “If you’d told me just three months ago that these were the words of the US president, I would have laughed out loud.”’ www.nytimes.com/2025/03/11/u...

@jessicadicarlo.bsky.social @sethschindler.bsky.social @steverolf.bsky.social and I wrote a thing for China Focus: "Sinews of Control: How state-capitalist geopolitics is reshaping global networks and power" uscnpm.substack.com/p/sinews-of-...

American politics makes a lot more sense when you realize that the GOP is afraid of pissing off the GOP base, and the Dems are afraid of pissing off the GOP base, but neither party is afraid of pissing off the Dem base.

I guess he couldn't do it on a cold rainy Tuesday in Plymouth

Trump's vezhlivie lyudi [polite people]

Chotiner always rings twice

🌎 Job: UCD are hiring an Assistant Professor in politics, IR, and/or development studies 👇 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMF709/l...

More-than-human

This chap is right but his chart is out of date. The international system has been fraying for years. The wars in Ethiopia, Sudan and now DRC have barely registered in the rich world but they've been extraordinarily bloody

#PostDoc #Job Join us: For our new Politics Department at the #LeibnizIOS we offer two positions (100%, TV-L E13) with a focus on #EasternEurope or #SoutheasternEuropa as soon as possible. #PoliticalScience, #InternationalRelations or related. 🗓️ Deadline: March 28th ➡️ leibniz-ios.de/en/vacancies...

Those who publish in social sciences, political science or human geography, which platform would you recommend to publish article preprints (outside of academia edu and researchgate) so that anyone can have open access?

New: Inside Russia’s shadow war in the Baltics. “It is impossible to drag an anchor for 150km without knowing you’re doing it”. We analysed suspected sabotage incidents in the Baltic Sea as European nations prepare themselves for a longer-term confrontation with Moscow. 👉 ft.com/baltic-sea

“The corridor works all the time. We’ve destroyed 100 floating mines. It’s a big operation, which nobody talks about and nobody really sees. Our task is to guarantee safe passage.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

"In 16 gut-wrenching days from February 12th to 28th, the putative leader of the free world initiated a tete-a-tete with the Russian dictator"... really good account of the last few weeks in world politics www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...

Here we go. An official statement from Orban's government Facebook page: "The European Union wants to keep Ukraine alive. This must not happen." Hungary is now openly opposing Ukraine’s existence. Hard to misinterpret this.

Russian imperialism didn’t start in 2022, nor is it confined to Ukraine. My new book analyses the Kremlin’s long shadow—past and present. Out on 24 April.

Great to see this finally out: a fine-grained, place and terrain-sensitive eventful process account of insurgency in the Donbas in 2014 based on in-depth research before 2022 in places now occupied & partially destroyed.

The Brotherhood of Trump Fanboys

Trump browbeating Zelensky offers rare window into how US wields power - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/trump-browbeating-zelensky-rare-window-into-how-us-wields-power

If the US were at war, Trump and Vance would hide in their bunker and shit their pants. These people have no idea what it’s like to visit the frontlines, to wake up with air raid alarm, to beg for help for year after year. This is quintessential post-West deluxe

That's literally all Ukrainians now

Bezos isn’t “bending the knee.” Corporate media isn’t either. The oligarchs aren’t scared or capitulating, they’re part of a coup in the middle of an aggressive class war. The longer we keep framing it otherwise the worse it’s going to get. jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/the-birth-...

I think about this headline all of the time.

"the territory called Ukraine — which until now has been a buffer zone between NATO and Russia" Orban's anti-Ukrainian language becomes more 'territorial', perhaps emboldened by Trump's expansionist fantasies over Greenland, etc. apnews.com/article/hung...

Are we in a second Cold War? @iliasalami.bsky.social, @jessicadicarlo.bsky.social, @steverolf.bsky.social and @sethschindler.bsky.social argue that the current conflict focuses on controlling global economic networks rather than ideology or territory. www.tni.org/en/article/t...

Surprised to find that @theb1m.bsky.social made a video on the Kobi-Kvesheti road youtu.be/yajklD0QvAI?... But even more surprised to read so many negative comments dissatisfied with the video's (I'd say moderately) critical perspective and the inclusion of a human rights expert.

Why Does Russia Invade its Neighbors? The title of a chapter in my book Near Abroad (2017), I revisited the question last year in a short lecture for my students. To mark the 3rd anniversary yesterday, I'm making it public. Comments, no doubt, will be made. 🙄 youtu.be/s6t2h1Mcsqk

"The Russian leader remains committed to limiting the size and power of Kyiv’s military, prohibiting foreign weapons on Ukrainian soil, ensuring Ukraine’s permanent neutrality, and maintaining influence over its political future." www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

The premise of American foreign policy to Ukraine, today, is one of grievance. It is worth patiently considering the proposals. They reveal little about Ukraine, but much about America in February 2025. snyder.substack.com/p/recoup-the...

Opportunity

Really good explanation of what's going in America atm. It reminded me of an article by Marlene Laruelle on Novorossiya: www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Jamelle Bouie is correct here, in my view. Using the phrase “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico” – the name first applied to that body of water in 1550 – has nothing to do with national pride or ideology and only to do with obedience to Tr•mp. #Obedience #Führerprinzip