I used my lunch break to write about the far right's plastic patriots, and how they are Putin's men. Also some thoughts on where we are re the threat from Russia to the UK. open.substack.com/pub/sianushk...

Psyched + humbled to see our SPEAKING SCIENCE TO POWER recognized as #1 Top Book in IR per @iajournal.bsky.social @chathamhouse.org (reviewed by @mgmessmer.bsky.social) global.oup.com/academic/pro... @epsteinprof.bsky.social @jaylyall.bsky.social @siecenter.bsky.social @stanfordcddrl.bsky.social

Last year, I was interviewed for a @frontlinepbs.bsky.social documentary about Germany's far right, with a nod to Russia and the US. The documentary came out last month and makes for deeply uncomfortable viewing. www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontli...

Top 10 books: The International Affairs Christmas reading list 2025 📚🎄 Ahead of the holidays, Book Reviews Editor Mariana Vieira has curated a list of books that reflects our commitments to covering the whole of the International Relations discipline. Check them out 👇 medium.com/internationa...

Alarming events in nuclear proliferation, space security and hybrid warfare meant 2025 was a year in which the international security order deteriorated. Read the latest from @mgmessmer.bsky.social and @katjabego.bsky.social⤵️

“Austria, Hungary, Italy, and Poland are listed as countries the U.S. should “work more with…with the goal of pulling them away from the [European Union].”“ www.defenseone.com/policy/2025/...

I’ve cited this in two reports, written in conversation with it and recommend it to you for further reading.

I would argue this point on its merits — does CBS “matter” — but the family is involved in owning more than network tv and that matters. YMMV.

Being able to recognise I am autistic and non-binary helped me make sense of who I am. It allows me to recognise why my brain works the way it does, why I feel the way I do. Not being able to do that left scars, mental and physical. It's a good thing being able to have a frame for your life. 1/

Costa: "On this we must be clear. History taught us there's no freedom of speech without freedom of information + freedom of info exists where there's respect for pluralism. There'll be no freedom of speech if citizens' freedom of info is sacrificed to defend US tech oligarchs"

Dear European official accounts, just a reminder that it is possible to leave X behind - the German defence ministry did so in January 2025 and has not posted since.

Those are some big numbers in favour of a European nuclear deterrence capability

Wow. This says *everything* about the German defence debate, really. For YEARS experts have fretted over public opinion on defence spending and how it would be impossible to justify spending over 1 or 2%. Turns out 35% (!!!!) of Germans think we’re already spending OVER 5 % of GDP. WTH.

It is my opinion that people should focus more on "How do we get through the next five years?" and less on "If only it was 2015 again!“

It's not credible the US would fight a nuclear war over Europe if they aren't willing to contribute conventionally.

Absolutely true, but there's a more basic question. If we are not concerned with "great power competition" or defense of our alliances, with economic competition being the only problem, then why do we need nuclear weapons at all? Status and stature? (1/2)

US national security strategy. Something sure is unrecognisable here, but it’s not Europe. www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...

TIL the underground lab was built right next to all the craters from nuclear testing

The US government will never do an explosive nuclear test again at the Nevada Test Site. They have built an immense underground laboratory, costing billions of dollars. It contains particle accelerators and lasers that will not fare well with the shaking that comes with nuclear tests.

This is a new level of deranged as policy

Time for a (long - apologies)🧵 summarizing the findings! The paper was born out of a shared annoyance with some of the wild claims flying around about AI. Things like 'AI could destroy or save humanity'. For a recent example, see e.g., this piece in the Guardian: www.theguardian.com/technology/n...

Latest Daily on Monocle Radio. @mgmessmer.bsky.social and Somnath Batabyal on the latest Moscow machinations and the day's other stuff, and @laurakramer.bsky.social reports from the International Luxury Travel Market in Cannes. monocle.com/radio/shows/...

🧵 1-5 The recent Alawite protests in Latakia, Tartus, Homs, and Hama – and the reactions they sparked – highlight dynamics far more significant than their modest turnout suggests. In my latest, I unpack the three key takeaways they reveal. en.majalla.com/node/328524/...

Last week I checked in on a friend, someone who I thought would be one of the very last immigrants (who have any other options) to leave Germany, only to find that they and their family are already in the process of leaving. Their explicit reason: the rise of fascism. Very, very disturbing times.

Not a drill - there's a Britain-focused lectureship (FT, permanent) available. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPQ588/l...

Something happened in Yasnyy/Dombarovskiy. There is also a video and some NOTAMs t.me/militaryruss.... Looks like a failed ICBM launch. The color of this cloud doesn't look good. Not clear if it's Sarmat. There are other options: SS-18 or SS-19. Wait for more information.

I wrote about Oura's security and privacy practices earlier this year for this.weekinsecurity.com, and found: • Oura rings *don't* end-to-end encrypt users' health data; • Oura *can* access its users' data; • Oura told me that the company *has* received U.S. government demands for users' data.

If your starting point is that you are more afraid of escalation than you are concerned about Russian sabotage, then you have effectively decided that you aren't willing to run the necessary risks to deter Russian grey-zone activity.

Anecdotally, while I was looking for a source to refer to for this article with the search words ”Russia rejects US peace plan”, I found media articles on that topic from November 2024, February, May, June, September, and October 2025.

Spaß an Wissenschaftskommunikation? Interessiert an Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik? Dann schnell sein, bis zum 28.11. bewerben und als Student:in im SWP-Kommunikations-Team starten! 📆 Beginn: 1.2.2026 ⏰ 11h/Woche 📍 Arbeiten in Berlin 🗓️ Bewerbung bis: 28.11.2025 👉 swp-berlin.pulse.ly/6y7cbtbgmy

Zwei sehr ernste Themen aber es freut mich, dass mein PhD Mitstreiter @gerritkurtz.bsky.social im Sicherheitspod auftaucht 🙂

"We have built factories that could start making equipment tomorrow. But we can’t until an order is placed” Worked with @estwebber.bsky.social on a sad tale about Britain's defence industry, waiting to hear if the government will ever pour money into the sector www.politico.eu/article/keir...

Depending on US digital services and infrastructure may not be a good idea for Europe.

Good @emmaclairefoley.bsky.social piece pushing back against a recent Foreign Affairs article: "Below the confidence in America’s power to shape the global status quo seems to lurk a quiet admission that the American empire is fracturing" jacobin.com/2025/11/nucl...

💬 “The 28-point plan looks like a brainchild of the Kremlin” and “resembles more a demand for capitulation” @chathamhouse.org experts Keir Giles, Orysia Lutsevych, Mark Weller give their early analysis as Zelenskyy is pressured by Trump to accept a ‘peace deal’. www.chathamhouse.org/2025/11/trum...

This applies to any year since 2015 🫠

Sickening that trans women are being pushed out of public life while some company is trying to make money out of an "AI trans girlfriend" experience

In 2025, I have been reading a lot about the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazis in Germany as it has felt like one of the best examples to process what is happening in Europe and the US (and maybe to find a solution to safeguard democracy, so that we can do better this time).

So, to recap, Ukraine and Europe understand that America has effectively endorsed a 28-point plan to force Kyiv to capitulate, set a Thursday deadline to accept it, and threatened to cut off all aid. Now Marco Rubio says it's all wrong, that's not the plan, there's no deadline and no threat.

I just dipped a toe in the cesspit that used to be Twitter, and I think the surest indication that the “28 points” were translated from Russian is the number of Russian mouthpiece accounts busy shouting, unprompted, that that is absolutely not the case and they were drafted in the White House.

@casmudde.bsky.social makes the case (again!) to social democratic leaders that aping the far right is not a good electoral strategy! … it’s almost like they a deliberately ignoring political science research in their dash to oblivion 🤦‍♂️ www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Moscow Times: „The very emergence of such a U.S. initiative signals, in Putin’s view, that Washington is capitulating. And capitulating not because it has suffered losses — it has lost neither tanks nor aircraft nor soldiers — but because it is tired,frightened and eager to avoid involvement.“

It has a cover! WE SHALL OUTLAST THEM tells the story of how Russia has reinvented itself on the global stage since February 2022—to try to outlast the West in a struggle over Ukraine and over global order: wwnorton.com/books/978132... 🧵 /1

This is the best hypothesis I've seen as for how START I made it into the US-Russia peace plan

Some notable things in what's being called the "Trump peace plan" but which could not have been more clearly written in Moscow if it came with a 2 for 1 deal on tickets to the Bolshoi Ballet. 🧵

my number one most serious writing tip is to make cool friends. in the last year I've needed to know about blacksmithing, neo-medievalism in the american empire, and mid-century lesbian pulp publishing and each time I've been able to just. call a guy.

“Helsinki hasn’t registered a single traffic-related fatality in the past year…Citing data that shows the risk of pedestrian fatality is cut in half by reducing a car’s speed from 40 to 30km/hr, city officials imposed the lower limit in most of Helsinki’s residential areas & city center in 2021.”

Yes. By the same token, I don't think Germany as a society truly understands what Germany's complicity in all this means for the country. I predict Gaza will be a significant factor in alienating or repelling the "high-skilled" workers the economy needs: www.iamexpat.de/expat-info/g...

Who were they clubbing with? They were clubbing with trafficked children, correct?

You could literally do a horror anthology based on the different ways this can go wrong. AI dead mom escapes into your TV, and your digital fridge, and your pacemaker.