New week is almost here #MilkTeaAlliance & here is the events🧵 To start, It's been a bit over 2 years since the Junta decided to start conscription, forcing 2 years service on many people. For the 1st batch demobilising it appears only 12% made it home. The rest killed or forced to stay on. 1/

7 hours of silence from the Prime Minister. The US is using UK bases. The President is openly talking about destroying a civilisation. And Downing Street says... nothing. If you won’t speak up now, when will you?

This feels like it should be bigger news

I hadn't even realised Germany had reintroduced conscription until @davidbrenner.bsky.social sent me his recent paper on it a last week... The tittle...."When the state grabs you by the balls" turns out to be both literal & metaphorical. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

You'd be nuts not to read this

Germany reintroduced a soft form of military service in 2026. While service remains voluntary, all male 18‑year‑olds must undergo military medical tests, including a testicle check. But what is this sovereign touch about? Spoiler: it offers little medical value but plenty of sociological insight.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... new paper on military service in Germany by my colleague @davidbrenner.bsky.social

🚨🧵The 2024 UCU General Secretary was so corrupt that @vickyblake.bsky.social + I are fighting a Certification Officer case to re-run it, 10 Feb. Grady won by 182 votes from 114,310 members, turnout 15%. In secret, Grady ordered UCU managers to "Re-elect GS" +said she'd "destroy" her opponents...

An intriguing analysis of the state of the field, raising long-overdue questions about whether, and how, the study of conflict and violence can be salvaged by disentangling it from its legacy as 1990s policy science.

Learning to write an essay was more than an academic rite of passage. It was about learning to make an argument, support it with evidence, and articulate it clearly and maybe even with style. Many students still want to learn how to do that for themselves, despite AI. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o...

We need a critique of AI in academic publishing. Following my decision not to sign an AI addendum to my contract with Cambridge University Press, I wrote this short essay which is now out in the Dublin Review of Books. 👇 drb.ie/move-over-fo...

This weekend is the LAST WEEKEND for #BISA2026 conference submissions! 🚨 Is International Studies ready for what comes next? New thinking, new directions 🎉 Make sure to submit your papers now 👉 https://conference.bisa.ac.uk/call-papers-0 VisitBrighton Simon Rushton @julietdryden.bsky.social

For over a decade, warlord Zahkung Ting Ying and his allies exploited the rare earth mining boom in Kachin State, Myanmar. @emilyfishbein11.bsky.social & Jauman Naw report, for @frontiermyanmar.bsky.social, on how they have continued doing business even after losing their territory. bit.ly/47JC0JB

The ability to #Teach, #Research, & speak on important topics is what #Academics do, but what do we do when academic freedom is threatened? Join ISA & @aaup.org to discuss the global threats to #AcademicFreedom & what resources exist to support #Faculty in the fight to preserve it: buff.ly/95exrLj

Is it possible to rethink Peace and Conflict studies? Join us for a discussion on the possibilities and constraints of decolonizing the field, challenges to mainstream assumptions, and how to promote a broader critical analysis of #Peace and #Conflict in these unprecedented times: buff.ly/l2NW9kB

My former PhD student, Zizhu Wang, published her first journal article. Check it out here: Licensing: Why is there no conceptual history of ‘international’: a semantic and translingual reinterpretation www.tandfonline.com/action/showC...

It's a miracle nobody was hurt. Sending solidarity to the Muslim community in Sussex and across the UK, as well as the Jewish community who are still grieving from the appalling attack in Manchester. No one should EVER feel unsafe in their place of worship www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

BISA + Brighton = perfect combo! Come and join us next year.

"We cannot do a project-based revolution." odi.org/en/publicati...

Looking forward to this one by @jamesstout.bsky.social Should be a really interesting read.

Why is our trade union emulating the worst behaviour of our employers towards UCU staff? How many of our letters, motions, attempts to bring motions from lay members pressing for resolution have been ignored now? Solidarity with all @uniteucu.bsky.social #UnionStrong #ReclaimUCU

Congratulations to Dr Claudio Montesi on successfully defending their PhD. Many thanks to @davidbrenner.bsky.social and Professor Alice Hills who examined the PhD. Also many congratulations and sincere thanks to my co-supervisor at Sussex IR dept, Professor Fabio Petito.

I’ve never been one for commas but this here pretty much sums up the brave new world of marking.

As England drowns in Union Jacks and St George’s flags, local politicians’ statements of solidarity with ethnic minorities are welcome. But their mantra-like claims that far-right nationalism is supported by only a small fraction are irresponsible, especially with Reform UK 8 points ahead in polls.

KontraS have posted this on twitter. Things are bad in Indonesia. Live ammo has been authorised by the chief of police against protesters.

Very nice explainer from twitter user normelpeople on what's happening in Indonesia this week and how people are feeling

Classic UK govt move: there is a useful fiction of the separation between arms companies and governments. So the UK gets to look like it did something good while materially enabling the bad stuff to happen and letting the Israeli govt cry wolf about how badly it’s treated.

Time to use your university library again. Academia will survive without citation counts and h-indexes. Could be worse 🤷‍♂️

This is good (though doesn't go far enough). Thai Government will grant long term refugees in the displacement camps along the Thai-Myanmar border the right to work in Thailand. It doesn't seem to cover the many Myanmar refugees since coup. Nor will it likely stop deportations back to Myanmar.

Important new Shan Human Rights Foundation report reveals 19 rare earth mining sites in territory controlled by the National Democratic Alliance Army, aka Mong La army, in Shan State's Mong Yawng township near the Mekong River & China border (short thread). shanhumanrights.org/satellite-im...

I don’t want to be too shrill about this but I think the BBC, ITV and Sky have disgraced themselves in their coverage of the anti-refugee protests. A massive failure of judgement. But now we know the next time a progressive protest “isn’t news” that it’s nothing to do with numbers

Most universities compete for students with individual career and lifestyle promises. Informal higher education providers in war-torn Kachin State, Myanmar, appeal to a communal desire of national liberation: “lead the nation with truth and knowledge!” www.youtube.com/watch?si=Q9f...

It's simple, if you throw paint on a plane then you get proscribed and any 80 year olds defending you get arrested. If you ask people to burn down hotels, and they try, you get an interview in the Telegraph and positive coverage in the BBC. That's sensible, proportionate policing.

Lots of good events happening this weekend #MilkTeaAlliance! So as usual here is our roundup of what's coming up. 1st our thanks & congratulations to @myanmar-now.bsky.social for their 10 year anniversary! Like many media outlets they have suffered to report on #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar 🙏 1/

The story of Kachin rare earths becoming more bizarre by the day.

Gotta appreciate the honesty.

I clearly remember from history class how it really was the fault of Germans that weren’t friends with NSDAP voters… if they had only reflected on their behaviour!

AFP | One of Myanmar’s most conflict-ravaged states has witnessed a “dramatic rise in hunger” after United States aid cuts pushed by President Donald Trump during a punishing civil war, the World Food Programme said Tuesday.

#Myanmar now ranks third globally for drone events — behind only Ukraine & Russia — as the junta ramps up investment to counter opposition forces. A new @theguardian.com piece using #ACLED data examines the conflict’s scale: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Well the weekend is here #MilkTeaAlliance Opening the thread with some of the protests been happening to commemorate the the 37th year since the 1988 uprising. We reaffirm our support for the peoples of Myanmar against the junta & recognise those that have given so much already #8888Uprising 1/

Mathieson puts his finger on the sore spot, as he does best. A must-read for anyone interested in Myanmar’s emerging political orders. www.irrawaddy.com/opinion/gues...

"The idea that the US could gain a meaningful foothold in #Myanmar’s rare earth sector is not just naïve; it is nonsensical. Worse, it risks playing directly into China’s hands," writes @davidbrenner.bsky.social asiatimes.com/2025/07/eye-...

Thanks, it’s just the latest episode of Trump’s war on Myanmar but certainly the most absurd!

A transboundary Kok River in Northern Thailand has been a source of livelihood of thousands in riverine communities. Recently, it has faced rising levels of heavy metal contamination, likely from suspected unregulated rare earth mining upstream in Myanmar. bit.ly/3ITFa4q

So much for keeping the US out of wars abroad.

1/ 📖 For Tea Circle, we reflect on the politics of producing knowledge in/of/for Myanmar’s borderlands after the 2021 coup. With co-authors: Anders K. Moeller, Radka Antalikova, Dan Seng Lawn, Peter Suante - each involved in non-state research/education work. 🔗 teacirclemyanmar.com/education/pr...

banishing Thaksin's chaos 'for good' in military's checkmate of dangerous civilians, via @joshkurlantzick.bsky.social: "The conflict has allowed the military to stoke nationalism, and the leaked phone call, amidst this spike of nationalism, got rid of Paetongtarn..." www.cfr.org/blog/real-re...

Don't think this has made it here but a tuk-tuk driver in bangkok (who has a hello kitty themed tuk-tuk) had a great sign criticising attacks & harassment against Cambodian migrant workers. Photo credit & sign translation @summerpanadd.bsky.social (Translation of sign in next post)

Former senior UN relief official Jan Eliasson has dismissed these air drops as an "ineffective sideshow". But of course, they're not aimed at stopping the genocide. Nothing Starmer does is aimed at stopping the genocide. Its aimed at managing the domestic politics of his complicity in the genocide.

I got a soft spot for this event cause I got to meet someone who I never thought I would get to meet at the 1st one. An artist whose work I've loved for ages.