two thoughts on UK politics at this dire moment. First, Reform really seems more like a social movement than a political party, bringing together different groups on a single set of issues through contentious politics. If we treat it as a (reactionary) social movement, then we can address...

Very much looking forward to working with colleagues @osgaoxford.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk and Wolfson College in the autumn! Sad to be leaving colleagues at @warstudieskcl.bsky.social after so many years.

Fantastic to get such a comprehensive and incisive review on Righteous Demagogues from Sefika Kumral in @PacificAffairs -- verklempt! pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/book-reviews...

Some thoughts on DOGE/the Trump administration's destruction of USIP, the Wilson Center, and home-grown social science/area studies expertise about the rest of the world: paulstaniland.com/2025/04/16/u...

worth noting yet again that populism is a strategy for winning elections, not for governing. It relies on a resonance that the system is broken, and the establishment is uncaring. But successful populists are, more often than not, the dog that caught the firetruck. 1/

Populism is primarily a strategy for getting into power by making claims for moral restoration on behalf of the people, against elites as we argue in global.oup.com/academic/pro... Populism dies on the vine when achieving power, but it also sets up institutional confrontations... 1/

Delighted to hear that this short film, in which I address comparisons between trans-Atlantic slavery and other historical forms of enslavement, made by www.mjr-uk.com/afterthefloo..., just had its premier at the Kwanzaa film festival in Harlem, New York: player.vimeo.com/video/101761...

For the season finale of #GrandTamasha, I sit down with Adnan Naseemullah (@dnaseemullah.bsky.social) & Pradeep Chhibber to discuss their new book, "Righteous Demagogues: Populist Politics in South Asia and Beyond." Listen here: grand-tamasha.simplecast.com/episodes/pop...

Despite significant differences in context, their playbooks reveal a global appeal of right-wing populism in channeling discontent across the world today. @dnaseemullah and Pradeep Chibber explain this eloquently in their recently published book: global.oup.com/academic/pro... 5/5

Donald #Trump and #Prabowo Subianto share striking similarities as right-wing populist leaders. Both built their political brands on nationalism, strongman personas, and promises to upend the establishment. Here’s a quick breakdown: 🧵 #populism #indonesia #UnitedStates 1/5

Great piece from @bjoernbremer.bsky.social @jrgingrich.bsky.social and @hannaschwander.bsky.social on what social science tells about the ‘greenlash’. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

You know who hasn't had this degree of media support for their financial interests? Disabled people, poor people with more than two kids, public sector workers (after all that clapping for the NHS). I'm not usually a 'blame the media' person but seriously - this is mad

Exempt below £1 million! This is not exactly the repeal of the Corn Laws, chaps.

anyone checked to make sure that Liz Truss hasn't secretly been naturalized and isn't in the running for Treasury Secretary?

Hill and Cow - 1934,

Pradeep Chhibber wrote this on the meaning of the Pakistani elections: mhrc.lums.edu.pk/moral-meanin...

Hi all: just to re-up the link to my book, Patchwork States, from Cambridge UP in 2022: www.cambridge.org/gb/universit... It's a historical look at the processes of colonial and post-colonial statebuilding in South Asia and how these have shaped patterns of violence in India, Pakistan & Bangladesh.

Hey apparently I'm on bluesky, except that in the UK, the sky is never blue.