New publication alert! 🧵 My colleague Jozef Zagrapan and I just had a new article published in East European Politics. The paper is titled 'To help or not to help? Analysing Individual Support for Ukrainian Refugees in Slovakia'. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

#Cfp After a very succesful 1st edition, we are organizing a new GPREFCZSK Workshop on individual geopolitical preferences. If you are researching how individuals choose between geopolitical blocs, apply to join us in Bratislava. Deadline 12/01. More info: sociologia.sav.sk/podujatia.ph...

4/So what is going on? @segoddard.bsky.social and I argue the confusion is people using old models of global politics. This is not balancing or spheres of influence. It is international politics based on elite cliques rather than national interest i.e. neo-royalism. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

I don't know enough to speak about Venezuela, but this piece I wrote last year might be useful on the territorial aspects, along with the references and suggestions for further reading: "100 years since the Locarno Treaties and territorial integrity today" progressivegeographies.com/2025/11/30/1...

Nuuk suddenly becomes Denmark's Narva

რაღაცა იქნება

Forget Huntington's map that everyone is bringing up this morning. It's Haushofer's map that we need to look at.

2/ To put these interactions into a broader context check out this piece w/ @segoddard.bsky.social where we lay out the core features of a neo-royalist order. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

"Paradoxically, sustaining Europe’s social model will require greater investment in defence." www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Wave in Backlight — Peter Witt oil on canvas 80 x 80 cm

A few political messages found in Venice last week

I'm happy to report that my article "Rethinking Survival in IR: Ontological Security and Narrated Statehood" has been published online open access in the European Journal of International Security.

In February 2024, a British flagged cargo ship was hit by two Houthi missiles & severed fiber optic cables that cut 25% of the internet traffic between Europe and Asia. Ned Leadbeater explains how the geography of normalization has impacted how the world connects itself. buff.ly/1ySlEi6

I liked the article; it argues its main point well (that RU is primarily interested in controlling UA; NATO viewed as an obstacle to this). Yet, it is less convincing when explaining the timing of the invasion with the arguments about Medvedchuk's house arrest and Putin's covid-period isolation.

Sunny day in winter

A new journalistic investigation by iFact suggests Russian oil products may be reaching Netherlands, Switzerland, and Greece through Georgia, with the trade handled by companies with ties to ruling Georgian Dream party and Russian business circles.

"a lethal boundary" "The Israeli army has built new concrete outposts along the “yellow line” to fortify its positions and declared it a lethal boundary. Soldiers have repeatedly killed Palestinians they accuse of crossing it, including young children." www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

Finally, not surprising to see the AfD amongst the most pro-Russia groups, much more so than the Rassemblement National. What surprised me was that Fidesz, despite Orbáns outspoken role, was more cautious to vote pro-Russia (at least until 2025):

Fascist International

🚨Jobs!🚨 3-year PostDoc positions (aka Research Officers) at @lsegovernment.bsky.social to work with me on the local consequences of border change. Please reach out for questions and apply by Jan 4th to join the team and department: I’d love to hear from you! Job ad: jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

and it comes with a companion newsletter on the Political Geography of New York City www.expectinggoals.com/p/the-politi...

The headline, the main takeaway from a European viewpoint is this: The transatlantic relationship as we know it is over. Yes, we kinda knew this. But this is now official US White House policy. Not a sppech, not a statement. The West as it used to be no longer exists.

Trump national security strategy: Make Europe White Again. "Over the long term, it is more than plausible that within a few decades ...certain NATO members will become majority non-European" "the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure" www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...

The best soccer newsletter around.

"But this is only possible if Europe invests in its ability to take major decisions together through joint political authority and financial resources. ...building a stronger EU also means having to give somethings up. But in return we will gain something essential." www.politico.eu/article/euro...

Didn’t expect me to say this, huh? But yes, when we talk about the “drone wall” we can’t make the mistake to only talk about drones and not put in defences against other threats as well. My comments in a recent DGAP webinar.

Our latest forum is now online. @leaypi.bsky.social opens with a critique of our broken politics of immigration, with responses from @pochoaespejo.bsky.social, @daralind.bsky.social , @danieldenvir.bsky.social, Alex Aleinikoff, Chandran Kukathas, and Ayelet Shachar:

Ex-MI6 Chief Richard Moore on Putin archive.vn/vRfLV

“I’m in the deal settlement business. That’s why I’m here. We keep on knocking at the door and coming up with ideas.” As characters in the geopolitical drama, there are some parallels between Witkoff and Girkin in the way they have influenced the process. www.wsj.com/world/russia...

After almost 11 months and 3 rounds of revisions, my article on security perceptions in the Hungarian-Ukrainian borderland has been published in Journal of Borderland Studies. www.tandfonline.com/eprint/N2BTZ...

Achille Mbembe at KU Leuven Speaking about the 'earthly community'

Is this a mid-century version of spending hours on which font to use?

Orban is at it again

Mamdani leaving with a couple F-35s

New essay, written for the excellent @transitionsec.bsky.social Propelled by the climatic and hegemonic transitions, military-imperial forms of state capitalism are confiscating our collective right to a safe, green, tech-powered future. transitionsecurity.org/imperial-sta... @campolis.bsky.social

La Géographie ça sert d'abord à faire la guerre

Tom's mistake is that he conflates full blown authoritarianism with fascism. As if fascism only occurs when there has been full consolidation of power. There are 2 major scholarly definitions of fascism both of which tom is ignorant of: 1) Palingenetic ultranationalism (Roger Griffin) /1

Schumann today

"For the first time in its history the oil industry has an economically superior competitor."

How the government asks about race and ethnicity reflects shifts in how Americans think about their identity. Here are some changes made by the Census Bureau in measuring race and ethnicity over time 🧵⬇️

Crafting the Ocean: The Geographies of Environmental World-Making - a new paper by Kim Peters and I in @tibg.bsky.social. rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Huge thanks to the team at Transactions for such a constructive process.

"what radicalised you?" Nothing. Wanting equal human rights and dignity for all people, wanting everybody to be able to afford food and healthcare, wanting people to have control over their lives and careers isn't radical. It's the other side that's radical.

A Finnish border town economically affected by the closure of the border with Russia: "Whatever its future, Imatra won’t build itself around Russia again. 'Russian money was easy, but it left us with services oversized for the town. The easy money is gone.'” archive.vn/T6KHW

Today at KU Leuven, Karst Berkenbosch @berkenboschk.bsky.social presented his PhD research on everyday geopolitics in the Gulf of Saint Malo. The research explores territorial issues in the local fishing industry after Brexit.

Schuman today