For @global-ih.bsky.social I reviewed Sabine Dullin's new book on the history of Russian despotism. I argue that she offers a valuable insight into the dynamics that produced the latest bout of Russian imperialism in Ukraine, but that we have to apply some of the same lessons to the West as well:

Thread. Israel passed a law allowing the death penalty exclusively for Palestinians. It was written by the fascist Ben Gvir. Israel is institutionalising genocide.

One underrated potential long-term consequence of the war on Iran: further shaking global faith in the dollar as reserve currency

Really pleased to advertise these 4 LSE postdocs in the history of popular government as part of our ERC Synergy Project "Popular Government in Global Perspective (POPGOV)"

A new archive of some of the Palestinian scholars in Gaza assassinated and killed by Israel rememberinggazascholars.org/the-scholars...

I'm in the same boat: article fully accepted in August(!), but no sign of it, and the journal in question hasn't put anything online for two weeks now. It's really not fair on ECRs -- the job market is impossible for us at the moment and to be frank our research needs all the exposure it can get

Very revealing that for years no-one in the British political class recognised what an opportunity renewables present in terms of comparative advantage, and then by some happy accident the one person who did miraculously became Energy Secretary, and so his own gvt immediately tried to destroy him

For this piece with @voltaire.ox.ac.uk, we argue that French writers' use of names, including in abolitionist lit, mirrored the logic of slavery itself: authors liberally detached these names from the cultures in which they had originated, and turned them into markers for an undifferentiated "Other"

Voilà ce dont je parlais. Ils mènent le monde à l'abîme. www.newsweek.com/david-sacks-...

From a friend in Beirut this morning, who in the last few days has seen several Israel missile strikes within walking distance of their home.

Israeli settlers in the West Bank harass, terrorise, destroy, burn, injure and kill Palestinians, their properties and livestock every day, while the IDF is aiding and abetting them. Every. Day. www.972mag.com/israeli-sett...

#Israel just attacked „Al Ramlet El Baida“, #Beiruts public beach area. So far there have been reports of many injuries and more than 8 deaths. This is a public beach where people stroll the seaside and where many displaced people who couldn’t find shelter slept. This is pure horror.

As HRW has repeatedly documented, Israel has been using white phosphorus on civilian areas for years -- in Lebanon, they've often used it alongside industrial herbicides and even depleted uranium to desertify agricultural land and force already impoverished farmers out www.hrw.org/news/2024/06...

French politicians convicted of crimes, since 1990, a database.

This is the language used by the BBC to describe Israel's war on Lebanon www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Cited: IDF Chief of Staff, Israeli living near the border, another Israeli, an Israeli politician and a Israeli commentator. No one else. The Lebanese are just numbers throughout the piece.

Israël a donné quelques heures pour s'enfuir à une population estimée à 4 à 700 000 personnes habitant le sud de Beyrouth et a commencé ce soir à bombarder. Est-ce qu'on se rend bien compte de la monstrueuse toute-puissance conférée à cet Etat en le laissant commettre un crime de masse à Gaza ?

The irony of Iran adopting a kind of international Dahiya doctrine in response to Israel/US attacks

American friends! Come listen to our Director, Nicholas Cronk, discussing Voltaire and Slavery on March 26th @amphilsociety.bsky.social: www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/news-item/ce...

One thing that's consistently surprised me is how many people (especially but not exclusively Americans), even on here, seem genuinely convinced Iran might pose a military threat to western countries, an idea that doesn't stand up to even five minutes of independent research or critical thinking

The objective is just to knock out Israel's regional rival so it can dominate on the US's behalf. Any regime, even a friendly one, is potentially a threat to that hegemony in future, so from the Israeli/US perspective, civil war is likely preferable

Have to assume he's encouraging them to do this so Israel can imprison or assassinate whomever they pick

Don't have any love for the Labour Party (which after all has made it abundantly clear how much it hates people like me) but I do feel bad for all the activists who've devoted their lives to it, only to watch it get demolished from within by a bunch of malignant narcissists

Raphaël Glucksman ne s’embarrasse pas avec les faits : il n’en a aucun à sa disposition pour incriminer LFI mais ce n’est pas grave, une élimination cinglante dès le premier tour des présidentielles vaut bien un mensonge diffamatoire 🤷‍♂️

On December 28, 2024, the IDF kidnapped Dr Hussam Abu Safiya from his post as pediatrician and director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza. He had refused to abandon his patients. He has been held in Israeli prison without charges ever since, tortured, starved, refused family visits.

Hard to disagree

When people talk about the idea that some universities must go under, there’s a certain tendency to behave as if these smaller local campuses are negligible- regrettable casualties perhaps but not ‘real’ universities. This report does a great job of illustrating why that’s wrong.

two years today since Hind Rajab was killed by the IOF. she was 5.

To close the educational attainment gap, we are rolling out a scheme to get poorer students addicted to amphetamines

Matt Goodwin makes a living out of railing against university educated elites & his whole schtick is "he was the first person in his family to go to university", which is a bit weird given that his Dad, now being heavily invoked for his Manchester connection, appears to have a string of degrees.

Muhammad Shehada: Gazan politics “did not interest” military planners who are convinced Palestinians will move into their biometric ghettoes “if you dump enough food there”. Once again, the essential ideological tool of imperialism is the denial that the Global South has any capacity for politics

May the history books never forget the "Butcher of Hama" and may we find alternate ways to bring Rifaat al-Assad's victims and their loved ones even a semblance of justice for the crimes he evaded accountability for during his lifetime.

This will be excellent — “Partisan Virtue” by Geertje Bol @whpt.bsky.social 👇 global.oup.com/academic/pro...

33 month postdoc (0.8 FTE) on a really interesting project at Essex on #EarlyModern German and English witchcraft... www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQC497/s...

Some professional news: I'm now hiring two postdocs to be part of the research project I'm leading on global republicanism and the making of democratic cultures in the early 19th century. If you know someone for whom this may be relevant, don't hesitate to let them know. www.au.dk/om/stillinge...

Being a historian of the French Revolution means occasionally looking up some minor political figure only to discover they've somehow been picked up as a character in an anime series castlevania.fandom.com/wiki/Vaublanc

the graduation of a cohort of gaza’s new medical professionals in front of the ruins of al shifa hospital. No words, really.

Please join Angela Davis, Robin D.G. Kelley, Ruth Wilson Gilmore and many others in signing this call for an academic and cultural boycott of the UAE, in relation to its complicity in genocide in Sudan. spectrejournal.com/for-a-cultur...

Last week, the Committee to Protect Journalists (@pressfreedom.bsky.social), Amnesty International (@amnesty.org), & 3 U.S. lawmakers urged accountability for Israel’s Oct. 13, 2023 strike in south Lebanon that killed Issam Abdallah, critically injured Christina Assi, & wounded 5 other journalists.

Israel hunted a 70 year old lady down with a gun drone and then hoovered above to make sure she bled out next to her dying son. They both join almost 1,000 Palestinians Israel has massacred or maimed in its genocide during the "ceasefire". www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12...

Not only did he do this, but literally three months later he refused to challenge the UAE over the RSF's genocidal massacre in Zamzam at a "peace" conference in London, and instead made a priority of meeting -- you guessed it -- the Israeli FM www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

In Lebanon. Can hear the Israeli drone constantly now. I’ve only been back for a day but folks here deal with it 24/7, for months. It’s psychological torture. You can even see it, just flying around. The Israelis want to let everyone know that they can kill whoever they want whenever they want.

Au printemps 1803, Henri Grégoire séjourne à Bruxelles, où il passe un bon moment en dégustant les bières locales, la faro et celles du village d'Hoegaarden. "Vous autres gens de Paris, vous ne connaissez pas cela, vous êtes des ignorants" écrit-il à sa gouvernante Madame Dubois.