Just installed '10 Blue Links' Google Chrome extension and it has removed all the AI junk at the top of the page that had been obscuring my search results. Hooray! Recommend💯

If you want to know how and why we've ended up in a situation where tens of thousands of people rally in support of a far-right influencer, backed by wealthy North American fascists, I just wrote a book about it. uk.bookshop.org/p/books/if-w...

A very good afternoon to the absolute hero who organised and parked this beauty in the middle of little Tommy’s far-right hate march. ❤️

Stumbled upon these stunning fossils at Kilve beach in north Somerset at the weekend. Like delicate fragments of golden lace. What a find!! 🤩

Very happy to have my latest research with my excellent co-author and dear friend, Xuan Qin at Fudan University, into the lasting effects of China's zero-COVID policy on its grassroots governance published in the China Journal!

A South West Coast Path scratch off map - a fantastic idea! Only downside is that you have to walk it in the stretches they suggest, and it’s virtually impossible to backfill with the bits you’ve already done. Still, a super cool idea in principle 👍

after a long wait, our forum article on the uses and abuses of the anticolonial in global reactionary politics is finally online! academic.oup.com/ips/article/... for the IPS @20 special issue

Wildfires are a global phenomenon. Speakers: Rayanne Vitali, from wildFIRE lab, University of Exeter, with colleagues Romy Franz Bodenham, Alastair Crawford, Tara Jeffery Further information wildfire-lab.com For Zoom link email [email protected] #wildfires #onlineevent

I'm in @theobserveruk.bsky.social today looking at why so many unis are in financial trouble and what the government needs to do to save HE. observer.co.uk/news/columni...

Bude Sea Pool, created 1930. While the surfers ride the Atlantic waves, swimmers enjoy calm waters. Still cold though 🥶

Peter Magyar has offered a template which can be used, without too much alteration, in defeating populists worldwide open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/...

Leaving beautiful Innsbruck after an intense and exhilarating week at the #ecprjs26, critically discussing the concept of “regime” and how best to study it, with an incredible group of scholars. So many new ideas, collaborations and friendships to take forward! Unforgettable.

Absolutely thrilled to learn that my article with Licia Cianetti and Giannia Del Panta, "What is a Regime", has been awarded the Frank Cass Prize for the best article in @democratization.bsky.social in 2025! Thank you so much to the editors for this recognition of our work - we're all over the moon!

China Book Review's shortlist for the 2025 Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Book on China. chinabooksreview.com/2026/04/02/s...

♨️New #OpenAccess Brief report! . Ibrahim Bornoma, Nick Kirsop-Taylor & David Benson argue that administrative traditions in the majority world must be understood through both colonial and pre-colonial institutional legacies. 🔗 doi.org/10.1002/pad....

Happy to see my awesome co-author, Licia Cianetti, quoted in this Atlantic blog on whether to refer to "the Trump regime" and linking to our review article "What is a Regime?" www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Whenever I have any kind of professional interview, I’m always reminded of the 90s sitcom Spaced, when Daisy is imagining her upcoming interview with a women’s magazine: “What do you think about current affairs, Daisy?” “What do I think about current affairs? Well I like them, I think they’re good…”

‘By 1990 surveys showed that a majority of Russians gave some credence to astrology, telepathy, “supernatural forces” and faith healing via the TV screen.’ Sheila Fitzpatrick on spiritualism during the collapse of the USSR. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Just received the most amazing present from my sister: a bootleg copy of Fantasy Top Trumps!🤩 Oh the hours we spent playing this game when we were small, with these haunting images etched on my brain forever!

happy to update that I managed to find funding to make the book open access. it's too late in the production now to covert to OA right away, but the publisher can do delayed OA after one year. still good!

Reading "The Regime Question" by Amel Ahmed. She shows how the timing of the introduction of parliaments and mass suffrage shaped regime stability in early European democracies. Facinating stuff, with ramification for regime studies today. Recommend💯 press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

Attacks leave dead vs killed

US House Speaker Mike Johnson: “We're not at war right now. “We're four days in to a very specific, clear mission, an operation, Operation Epic Fury.” A Special Military Operation, say, just like your pals in the Kremlin.

US leadership of "th ‘international rules-based order’[is] deformed beyond recognition by th Gaza genocide but no alternative architecture has cohered in [its]place. Instead there is a politics of gangster imperialism that has neither international nor domestic consent" www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

It’s insane this is legal. People around Trump are profiting off war and death. I’m introducing legislation ASAP to ban this.

Today's the last day of our @komex.bsky.social course, "Doing Fieldwork in Challenging Contexts" with @xiananj.bsky.social and @surajtelange.bsky.social. What a week of thoughtful and emotional discussions we've had! Our participants are doing inspirational work - its been a privilege to teach them!

The Cornish coast path just west of Portreath. What a way to reset the brain after a week staring at a computer screen! Awesome.

A court has ruled that the government's authoritarian ban on Palestine Action was unlawful. Time to stop criminalising the people protesting a genocide - and start ending the UK's complicity.

Please spread this far and wide, as stories don't get much bigger than this. When the government blocks even the intelligence services from telling us we're heading for environmental catastrophe, you know we have a problem. A very big problem. Thank you. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“We conclude that a major legacy of pandemic governance in China is a more powerful system of grassroots bureaucracy capable of the microgovernance of citizens’ private lives.”

My latest article with Xuan Qin at Fudan Uni is online at The China Journal! Our research evidences the lasting transformations in China's grassroots bureaucracy wrought by 3 years of zero-COVID, in which biosecurity enhanced & deepened political security. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Listen to my awesome colleague @xiananj.bsky.social talk about our up-coming @komex.bsky.social methods course - one week left to register for the early bird fee!!!

We will either end fossil fuel dependency and the predatory extractivist basis of global production, or they will end us through wars and ecological collapse - all at the same time.

Relatable. And increasingly difficult to avoid with the proliferation of photogaphers at conferences and requests from journals to make short videos of one’s recently published articles. No thanks!

Pre-Christian pagan traditions in West Cornwall, UK. Penzance celebrates “Montol”, the shortest day of the year. From tomorrow, the light starts creeping back in! The future is bright, at least in some respects..

Important article by Gerhard Hoffstaedter that resonates with my own experience: eastasiaforum.org/2025/10/11/t... "As Western area studies decline, policy risks being driven more by domestic perceptions than regional expertise. We risk losing soft power, cultural diplomacy and mutual understanding"

Very happy to have a chapter with @beverleyloke.bsky.social in this meticulously curated volume, "Knowledge and Expertise in International Politics: A Handbook" - just out! global.oup.com/academic/pro... Our piece provides a contextually sensitive account of IR knowledge production hierarchies.

Two more days to apply for our @ecpr.bsky.social Joint Sessions workshop, 'Rethinking "Regimes": Critical Reflections on an Under-Theorised Concept', co-organised with Gianni Del Panta (Pavia) & Licia Cianetti (Birmingham) ecpr.eu/Events/Event... Come spend 5 days deliberating with us in Innsbruck!

This is the most alarming story I’ve read today. Giving up the fight before it’s started

Looking forward to next week's discussion of @jheathershaw.bsky.social's excellent and important book, Indulging Kleptocracy, co-authored with Tena Prelec and Tom Mayne, at @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social!

R.I.P. Mani - bassist in the two best bands in the world. Thank you for the music 🎶🎸🪨🌹

⚙️ #ecprjs26 Workshop directors 🎬 @catherineowen.bsky.social & Gianni Del Panta 💡 Seeks Papers that move beyond the notion that political regimes are self-contained, internally homogeneous, and functionally equivalent units ⌛ Submit by 10 Dec buff.ly/df1Bz8S #Polisky #CallforPapers

„Im Unterschied zur Abwägung bei den Bürgern ist es allerdings nicht nur eine der privaten Moral, wenn sich die deutsche Polizei von der Software der Firma Palantir abhängig macht oder Rheinmetall Marschflugkörper bei Anduril kauft."

An utterly incredible story! International scientific cooperation, overcoming geopolitical divides, heroic bravery and profound male friendship. It feels like this kind of intense collaboration in search of knowledge for humanity, not nations, would hardly happen today www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Just watched this in Redruth. Such an important film. Thank you for coming to Cornwall!

Well this is awful news: tinyurl.com/yr65mjkx 'All modern language and music courses are being suspended for new students at the University of Nottingham.' Nottingham friends: please be assured that we will join you in protesting against this decision in the strongest possible terms. Solidarity.

Join me, Gianni Del Panta and Licia Cianetti for the ECPR Joint Sessions at the Uni of Innsbruck, where we'll be hosting a workshop entitled "Rethinking Regimes: Critical Reflections on an Under-theorised Concept". Details here: ecpr.eu/Events/Event... Can't wait to get stuck into the discussions!🤓

Incredible! A Great Blue (I think?) heron calmly surveys its kingdom - a small pond next to a busy London high street. Is it lost, or has to chosen to live here?

The costs of the UK’s Global Talent Visa looks a trifle high in comparison to competitor countries - largely through the Immigration Health Surcharge (which critics say is a form of double taxation as they contribute to the NHS through normal tax on their earnings)

It’s fantastic to be back in Shanghai for the 23rd Conference on International Exchange of Professionals, at the invitation of Shanghai International Studies University. Our section, organised by Prof Yang Cheng, explores global trends in the study of Eurasia.