If you are halfway through your PhD program, running on empty and ready to give up, remember: spite is a glorious wellspring of energy that can get you across the finish line. It worked for me!

Mary Peltola's decision to run for Senate in Alaska widens the battlefield in a year where Democrats face a tough map.

I'd love to see just one statement from an EU leader on the state oppression and violence being enacted by the Trump regime against innocent civilians who are exercising their right to free speech and association.

Once proud of its reputation as Central Asia’s democratic outlier, Kyrgyzstan now looks like a typical resident of the neighborhood: centralized authority, silenced dissent, and fear of open criticism.

Much has been said about the colonial roots of anthropology. Area studies have been criticized for being an arm of US soft power. Western academia and soft power structures provided employment for those with niche interests in other places. But what happens now that it’s all crumbling?

Greg Grandin on America First not as isolationist but “anti-universalist, as a tribalist nationalism that rejects the burden of global stewardship while clinging fiercely to regional supremacy.” The Monroe Doctrine enables “dominance without entanglement.” Great essay. www.ft.com/content/4e0e...

There’s now a Kyrgyz version of The Bachelor called Jashtar Syry (Secret of Youth) and I’m thrilled to be finally able to watch some trashy reality TV to improve my Kyrgyz youtu.be/6YhkeIP3Tng?...

Curious to see the Caucasus and Central Asia being referred to as the "Russian Middle East" in this Smithsonian Folkways recording from 1951

Uproar on Kyrgyz social media over a Russian landlord who bought an apartment in Bishkek and is now looking for “Slavic only” renters Almost as scandalous as the racism is how insanely high how the rent is in Bishkek these days. $750 (w/o utilities) for 45sq meters.

I always get queasy about treating antisemitism as a distinct form of bigotry. On the one hand (and in favor of such treatment), it is often associated with a "world conspiracy" that makes it distinctive from other racisms (with the possible exception of some breeds of anti-Catholic discourse).

man, they are just acting like American cops

small beans given everything that’s happening but the US went from being a dream destination for so many in Central Asia to a country that requires a $10.000 bond for a tourist visa

a few thoughts youtu.be/lERS4kJIQR8

The surprise invasion of Venezuela isn't imperial expansion driven by the dictates of capitalism; it is somehow even sicker. The Trump administration is behaving like gambling addicts chasing clout in an attention economy. Venezuela is a fucking meme stock. www.theverge.com/policy/85807...

have not always been on the same page with Adam Tooze, but he just referred to the Trump administration as “cosplaying resource extractivism” and that really sums it up, doesn’t it

went down a rabbit hole on Belgian politics and this has got to be one of the funniest party abbreviations (at least for a French speaker)

It should be rather basic, but one can be both critical of Maduro and against the US's actions in Venezuela. One of the most vexing things to observe in times like these, however, is to what extent the campists take advantage of such times to advance their positions

Friends in Bishkek have just released a short film that captures the vibe of the city's alternative music scene. Ailan bar has since been forced to close, but the team is keeping the spirit alive www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij-R...

I've seen a million posts like this but that's just not how international politics works. What really matters is power, not credibility or moral consistency. If Xi Jinping thinks he can successfully invade Taiwan at acceptable cost, he will do it

Putin has been famously reticient about targeting Zelensky or breaking international law till now of course.

I know it's easy to go "this is how the US Empire always operates!" but that ignores the fact that it matters who is in charge. There are obvious continuities, but US hegemony under neocons, liberals and now fascists is not the same. There is the apparatus and then there are the operators.

EU citizens - especially those in Greenland - deserve a clear answer to the question of how EU leaders would react to attempts of the US to annex Greenland. Will there be a clear political and economic response? Or is it also going to be a "complex situation" to be "closely monitored"?

Venezuela may seem like a tactical loss for Russia, but in fact it's a strategic win for Putin's vision of the world. new essay: hegemon.substack.com/p/venezuela-...

Btw this is a good illustration of why the long-term mainstream refusal to even use the term “fascist” was so damaging. Not bc history repeats or some stupid thing, but bc we can see that certain political characteristics often cluster together.

yes, humiliating for russia, but also consistent with the spheres of influence approach that putin wants (him, xi, and trump can do what they want in their respective zones)

the president of taiwan right now

Among the many reasons you don’t kidnap a foreign head of state at gunpoint even if you have the capability, is that it sparks consequences you can neither control nor anticipate.

this was basically Russia’s original plan in Ukraine they just couldn’t make it to Kyiv

Russian Foreign Ministry statement is out and is extremely soft, calls for “prevention of further escalation and to focus on finding a way to advance through dialogue”.

A defining moment for Europe. If it endorses/fails to condemn this flagrant breach of international law, it will have surrendered its core justification for opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

I feel like the entire vibe of this administration is powerful people from across the globe and within the United States pretending that's this admin is entirely normal and/or not happening

Wonder how many hours it’ll take European leaders to agree a mildly-worded statement of light rebuke.

this admin is profoundly and absolutely detached from reality, in a directly internet and slop-enabled way that I do think is genuinely unique in history.

A Kyrgyz news site posted about Mamdani’s inauguration and Instagram post has been flooded with antisemitic comments accusing Mamdani of being secretly a Jew or in the pockets of Jewish interests. Hard to tell how much of it is organic, but it’s incredibly sad to see

2025 in review: hegemonic suicide, medieval peasant brain, and other highlights from a very long year hegemon.substack.com/p/2025-hegem...

Fundamentally, the US and Europe perceive the world outside their borders as both a dangerous threat to be kept out at all costs and a lucrative opportunity to be extractively exploited, with the dividing line being everything above ground level versus everything below it.

Many parallels with Russians abroad

30-year-old Mansur Movlaev's asylum claim was rejected by a state committee in Kazakhstan on Dec. 26 and he is facing deportation to Russia where he may face torture and imprisonment. He is a Chechen activist and former political prisoner. bureau.kz/en/news/cauc...

Remarkable what Tashiev, Kyrgyzstan’s “tough guy/man of the people” second-in-command, allows himself when talking to a Chinese company in charge of road construction around Lake Issyk-Kul. Publicly chastises them for not speaking Kyrgyz, tells them they need to finish the work ahead of schedule

one of the critical things here is that 90 percent of journalism has been destroyed, and the remaining 10 percent is what was once the top 10 percent, highly status-driven, highly opinion-driven, and intensely New York/DC centered. there's no ladder to come up as a journeyman left.

Nothing surprising about the kind of history comic books being fed to Russian school children (notice the absence of Lenin).

Kyrgyzstan is undergoing an unprecedented mortgage boom with the highest rates of growth in homebuyer loans in Central Asia. The government has introduced a new subsidized loan scheme with just 4% interest rates––and there are lots of takers. Some are worried that the bubble might soon burst.

#Belarus Devastating news. Belarusian journalist and blogger Mikita Melkaziorau died suddenly in Warsaw. He was only 37. He was widely considered the best interviewer in Belarusian media. An enormous loss for all of us.

For the past twenty years, each successive generation of students in my classroom has arrived less knowledgeable about the world, less able to think through complex ideas, and less willing to engage seriously with views that challenge their assumptions.

The Best of Neon 2025: The value of reading.

I don’t remember who it was, maybe @redderbeanpaste.bsky.social?, who pointed out all those “it’s so cheap and convenient!” you hear from expats is because there are a bunch of lowly paid workers who are ‘invisible’

I continue to believe that people who focus on the misdeeds, omissions, and blinders of mainstream media outlets like the NYT have totally missed the plot (and, likely, have cherry picked offending articles). www.city-journal.org/article/manh...

incredible how similar to KINO this Portuguese band from the 1980s sounds. I thought this song from 1987 was "Zakroy za mnoy dver', ya ukhozhu" when I first heard it www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fST...

Negative attitudes towards Russia were rather muted when I was in Kyrgyzstan in 22/24, but this hate crime has unleashed a lot of anger and resentment. I’m seeing otherwise apolitical people on social media refer to Russia as “irredeemable” This murder really struck a chord

saying that Russia is at war with Ukraine is misleading. It’s an ongoing invasion. It may have stalled out on several occasions, but fundamentally it remains just that: an invasion