I had the privilege this week of being awarded the title of Doctor of Political and Social Sciences from the @eui-eu.bsky.social after successfully defending my thesis on the EU sanctions policy.

🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 big congratulations Dr. Lepeu 🍾🍾🍾🍾🍾🍾

So wichtig wie #openaccess ist, so schön ist der Tag, an dem das Buch dann gedruckt vor einem liegt. 😀 "Österreichs #Neutralität" ist nun auch über den Buchhandel oder den Verlag (www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-7...) erhältlich (EUR 50,00). Zur PDF-Version geht es hier: www.neutralitaet.info

Ein paar Zeilen (naja: 🧵, 16) zu den aktuell diskutierten #Abschiebungen nach #Syrien, die Europäische Menschenrechtskonvention - #EMRK und den Europäischen Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte - #EGMR, der über die Einhaltung der EMRK zu wachen hat. Und warum #Karner grade einen Fehler macht: 🧵

📢New #PAG21 Notes from the Field 📝 In their Notes from the Field "Writing Brave Women," @jzulver.bsky.social & @kiranstallone.bsky.social reflect on the process of writing their upcoming book written about and with feminist activists from around the world. 🌟#OpenAccess🌟 gendersky buff.ly/NGzPIo1

100 Tage BReg, woran ließe sich eine gute Außenpolitik (insb. Ukrainepol.) erkennen? Aus meiner Sicht u.a. daran, dass Kanzler und Außenminister - statt über jedes Stöckchen von Trump zu springen - zwischen Peking, Delhi, Jakarta, Brasilia, Nairobi hin und her jetten, um Druck auf Putin zu erzeugen.

Hend is right. I warned of war crimes early on but it took me way to long to accept the fact that a genocide is unfolding in front of our eyes. Raz Segal was right in his op ed, written only days after Oct 7, that Israel's retaliation campaign against Gaza was becoming a "textbook case of genocide"

I have studied the targeting of journalists for many years, but the scale and public display of these killings is truly shocking: “Israel admits deliberate attack on the journalist, known for frontline coverage, in a strike on a tent outside al-Shifa hospital“ www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

In the face of Israeli war crimes, Germany has not only a moral and political but also a legal obligation to stop arms deliveries to Israel - now! Summed up clear and concise by @hannapfeifer.bsky.social & @goldmatt.bsky.social.

Obviously this is not a serious foreign policy and it is deeply disappointing once again from Labour and the UK. Recognition should be about Palestine, not about punishing, or rewarding, Israel. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

My department at Leuphana University offers 6 fully funded PhD scholarships (incl. research funding) for three years. If you are interested in studying democratic resilience (particularly party competition and elections 🤓) and you have a strong methodolgical background: Apply! shorturl.at/kcTbG

"B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights on Monday published a report accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, becoming the first major Israeli human rights organizations to join a list of international groups making the charge." www.timesofisrael.com/in-first-two...

Btselem—Israel's leading human rights group—has found that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. www.btselem.org/publications...

Yesterday's statement by @spdfraktion.de on Gaza calls for (partial) arms embargo, freeze of EU-Israel association agreement, end of settlements in the Westbank and political perspectives - and calls for Germany to join the recent statement issued by 29 countries. Reactions in Berlin so far? (1/4)

Happy birthday to Frantz Fanon, born #OTD exactly a hundred years ago, in 1925. (Illustration by Johnalynn Holland for @nybooks.com)

At long last, Austria is finding some words of condemnation for for the unbearable actions by Israel in Gaza. Now it would be high time for Germany to follow suit!

BREAKING: Statement on #Gaza by Adis Ahmetović, Member of the Bundestag and Foreign Policy Spokesperson for the @spdde.bsky.social Parliamentary Group, and Dr. Rolf Mützenich, MdB, Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rapporteur for the Middle East for @spdfraktion.de (my own translation!)

This sounds promising (👋🇪🇺...) www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-ai...

Congratulations to our 2025 Best Student Paper winner, Juliette Saetre!

Meinl-Reisinger bezeichnet Ägypten als "Anker der Stabilität". Wenn man repressive Unterdrückung "Stabilität" nennt.

Unsere Regierung sieht d russischen Angriffskrieg gegen d Ukraine zurecht als Völkerrechtsverletzung und sagt d auch öffentlich so. Im Nahen Osten werden v unserer Regierung Gewalthandlungen nur sehr indirekt, wenn überhaupt, als Völkerrechtsverletzungen bezeichnet und d Verletzer bleibt ungenannt.

Ein 🧵: Es ist die Aufgabe von Journalisten, kritisch nachzufragen und nicht die Worte der Mächtigen nachzuplappern. Beim israelischen Angriff auf den Iran habe ich einige Fragen. Netanjahu spricht seit 30 Jahren davon, dass die Iraner kurz vor dem Bau einer Atomwaffe stehen👇🏼

Friedrich #Merz hat sich heute bewusst auf die Seite des völkerrechtswidrigen israelischen Angriffskriegs auf Iran gestellt. Damit macht er Deutschland mit schuldig und auch potenziell zum Ziel. Dieser Krieg muss sofort beendet werden, dafür sollte er sich einsetzen.

Israel‘s attacks on Iran are ‚dirty work‘ done for ‚all of us‘, says Merz. Now would be the time for de-escalation but this is literally the opposite. As is the language of dirt and garbage in connection to the bombing of both military and civilian targets. www.zdfheute.de/politik/g7-g...

Drehbuch mit offenem Ende: Meine längere Analyse zum Krieg zwischen Iran & Israel ⁦‪@taz.de taz.de/Analyse-zum-...

Late to the party aber es macht mich traurig zu sehen wie der Präsident meiner arbeitgebenden Uni hier rechte Talking Points bedient und jenen, die machtkritische Forschung betreiben, suggeriert, dass sie an der Aggression, die ihnen entgegenschlägt, selbst schuld seien.

Seitdem gibt es kein Internet. Nur wer eine eSim besitzt, hat an wenigen Stellen noch ein Netz. Der palästinensische Arzt Dr. Ezzedin hat es geschafft, eine Nachricht über sein x-Acount @ezzingaza zu schicken. Er fasst zusammen, wie es den Menschen im Gazastreifen in der erzwungenen Funkstille geht👇🏼

Das wird ein länger 🧵, bitte lest ihn bis zum Ende: Mit all dem, das im Iran und in Israel passiert, sollten wir den Gasastreifen nicht vergessen. Seit Tagen haben wir keine Nachricht mehr von unserem dortigen Kameramann. Bei einem israelischen Angriff wurde ein zentrales Fiber-Kabel zerstört.👇🏼

The geographical scope is huge, unclear yet how effective strikes were. Reports of civilian casualties in Iran. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Very thrilled and more than a little humbled with this! Thank you to the jury and the editors, and to my co-author☺️

Interested in attending @isanet.bsky.social #ISA2026? Interested in discussing how we create and produce knowledge about civil wars, and how this informs our research approaches? We are looking for participants to join a roundtable proposal for our "Reimagining a Field of Study" roundtable series!

Through a combination of stupidity, ignorance, utopian wish-casting, and short-sighted greed they are ripping it all up. And part of the underling problem is that they *think* "soft power" is 'effeminate', inferior, and altogether distinct from the "hard power" they worship.

Need support with fieldwork prep? Still time to register for our fieldwork course at the @essexsummerschool.bsky.social

🎉 Thrilled to share that Kristina Petrova and I have been awarded a 3-year grant through the Margarete von Wrangell Juniorprofessorinnen-Programm to work on climate conflict, migration, and humanitarian aid dynamics. She’ll be joining us in Mannheim as a postdoc. www.uni-mannheim.de/en/news/?tx_...

🧠 As the world changes, we need to adapt our thinking about the potential for democracy beyond the nation state. 📘 Excited to share this new open access article in International Theory! ❓️In it, I ask: How can we think about democracy when governing happens in informal, transboundary networks?

King's College London is hiring 20 scholars doing AI-related research across *all disciplines*, including social sciences (5-year research fellowship leading to permanent faculty position). Applications due May 19, 2025. @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social @kcl-spe.bsky.social

If you are interested in how the research programs on power transition, regime complexity & international order can speak to one another, then this forum could be of interest to you. Great contributions from Laura Gómez-Mera, @tgutner.bsky.social, Matias Margulis .. academic.oup.com/isr/article/...

🚨Publication Alert Very happy to share that my second PhD paper is now out with @govandopp.bsky.social 🤗🎉 Do populist politicians use simpler language? I analyse 30 years of parliamentary discourse to shed light on that question! 👇 Full article: doi.org/10.1017/gov.... #OpenAccess

Still cannot believe it: the United Nations Security Council Resolution Authors (UNSCRA) dataset is out in the @jpeaceresearch.bsky.social 🥳

 Read here why the data is important and use it widely for your research: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

🚨 Neues Forschungsprojekt! Diese Woche habe ich die freudige Nachricht erhalten, dass die DFG mein dreijähriges Forschungsprojekt "Politische Gewalt an der Basis" fördern wird. Es geht um Manifestationen und Auswirkungen von Gewalt gegen sozio-politisch Aktive jenseits der formalen Politik...

How do local expressions of dissent become global? 🌎🪧 In the first paper of my PhD—just accepted in the American Journal of Sociology (!!!)—I show how historical emigration patterns can inadvertently create latent global infrastructures for diffusion. 🔗 tinyurl.com/44s2wkvp 🧵 (1/7)

You're telling me the high modernist megaproject conceived in a top-down fashion that promised to remake humanity failed catastrophically in implementation what no way

So one of the first things I did after coming back from Chicago was going to yesterday's 8 March protest. On the backdrop of a prior split of the feminist protests into several marches -a split along the issue of Gaza- I expected harsh policing and thought it was important to go and take note. /1

Congratulations and thank YOU! We couldn’t have done it without the strong support and recognition from the community of friends, colleagues, students and mentees (former and present)

Wondering about the shift in global governance we are witnessing these days? We interviewed Prof. @stephofmann.bsky.social @eui-schuman.bsky.social @eui-sps.bsky.social on the challenges multilateralism faces, transatlantic security & digital policy. 📌 Read the full interview here: buff.ly/4dYJI7l

Incredibly moved that @anaprokhorov.bsky.social and @raffaelemstr.bsky.social secretly orchestrated my nomination for ISA’s J. Ann Tickner award. Warm thanks to all of you who supported the nomination. I still can’t believe it. @eui-sps.bsky.social @eui-schuman.bsky.social

On my way to #ISA2025 to talk about fieldwork, vulnerability and legitimation in international politics. Excited to see Chicago for the first time! Do reach out if you want to chat about (wartime) legitimacy and qualitative research!

Kurz vor der Bundestagswahl und bald anstehenden Koalitionsgesprächen haben Pola Lehmann und ich einen Blick in die Dynamiken der Ampelregierung auf Facebook geworfen und die Konfliktlinien zwischen den Parteien auch dort entdeckt. Hier unser Text für die @wzb.bsky.social Werkstatt Wahlen.

🚨 #Data alert 📣 We just released #ParlLawSpeech – full texts of more than 40k bills, 28k laws, and 3 mio. parliamentary speeches from 7 countries (AT, CZ, DE, DK, ES, HR, HU) and the EU! If you study democracy with #TextAsData / #NLP methods, this is for you! A short 🧵 (1/3) #PoliSkyData #polisky