Congratulations to @lkatfield.bsky.social whose new book is being launched in Washington DC @illsp.bsky.social today. Its an 'insider' account of how the MAGA New Right grew from yet also broke with the Straussian conservative right that was her intellectual home. Insightful & unsettling reading.

So the new and outgoing Presidents of Ireland met yesterday and a certain book was visible on the table... Thanks @president.ie Michael D. Higgins for your great service to Ireland down the years (and for this little personal surprise). Here's to the success of President elect Catherine Connolly.

Hope.

“Being the party that feels the world’s pain is not a good answer to a president who invites his supporters to share the unalloyed joy of being able to inflict it.” — @fotoole.bsky.social on Kamala Harris’s new memoir

Trying to write a 900 word evaluation of Bosnia 30 years after Dayton is mission impossible. No way Tom Cruise could do it.

Out now & #OpenAccess: Does #China’s growing role and the #BRI challenge the EU’s approach to promoting development in in Eastern Europe? A new article by ZOiS researchers Julia Langbein & Valentin Krüsmann with Tanja Börzel & Lunting Wu in @globalpolicy.bsky.social ➡️ doi.org/10.1111/1758...

"In this instance, environmental and defensive aims overlap" www.dw.com/en/peatlands...

Missed this yesterday. Another ace deal 🤑 "meetings and communications with the Trump administration were facilitated by well-connected lobbyists and lawyers with ties to Mr. Trump who were paid a total of about $300,000 per month or more by the Srpska government.." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/u...

At @gsqjournal.bsky.social they're developing a special issue on land & politics. Here's one of the first articles: No Land to Give: Wartime Narratives and the Symbolic Value of Territory. academic-oup-com/isagsq/artic...

Superb piece by Ben Tonra in today’s Irish Tines, on Ireland’s strategic choices in a predatory world, with the necessity of a strategic pivot towards Europe increasingly apparent. Everyone interested in foreign policy making should read this.

I've said it before: Ian Masters is meeting the moment with great work. The conversations here are necessary perspective on our unhinged gaslite times.

The latest skirmish of the eternal civil war. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/u...

Look what just came in the mail! Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right by @lkatfield.bsky.social is fantastic, can’t wait to dive in!

Many thanks to @moisesnaim.bsky.social for this thoughtful review of Dictating the Agenda by me & @cooleyoneurasia.bsky.social “This is an excellent book…. one of the most penetrating and original accounts yet of how authoritarian regimes are reshaping the global order.”

In Irish Times @fotoole.bsky.social lays out what need to happen for the left to be a credible & cohesive force in Irish politics. A key question left unasked: is Irish neutrality compatible with a progressive left vision? www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...

The US hasn't 'exited the climate fight.' "America is still in the arena; it’s just fighting for the other side." www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Lifestyles carbon footprints by country: the vanguard states relentlessly occupying the atmosphere. From the 2025 Climate Sufficiency Report

More billionaires adjusting to the political wind. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/c...

Joint US & Qatar intimidation of EU sovereignty to address climate change & human rights is quite the fossil fuel empire flex. Renewables = stronger sovereignty www.ft.com/content/05ec...

I tried to track Trump’s search for a deal to end Russia’s war against Ukraine here. Diplomacy, however, is not the art of the deal, territory not property. theconversation.com/when-it-come...

Quite the logo map this.

I doubt that this means Trump is swinging back to support Ukraine. Its more likely that Putin wants to take more territory on the battlefield & that Trump is okay with this. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

My article on Trump, Zelensky and cursing over maps is now out. theconversation.com/when-it-come...

We had a great final panel yesterday on climate change at the Post-Liberalism conference. Après libéralisme, le déluge.

The Post-Liberalism conference at George Washington University is on today. I'll be talking on the last panel of the day, on "Humans in their Environment"... And arguing with a distinguished group of panelists about how 'our environment' keep us from understanding the planet. @illsp.bsky.social

Really top notch reporting by the FT team. I'll have a Conversation piece on this out soon.

I wonder if this whole issue is approached wrong. Rather than assuming that this reflects ignorance or incompetence, it may instead reveal that the parties choose to use this fiction to serve their ends. Certainly the Kremlin knows Witkoff likely knows too. He’s simply after a deal for the boss.

“Fighting fascism since 1940.” My friend Andrew & his son yesterday.

As I approached the NO KINGS stage I thought, for a moment, the Dept of Labor had taken their giant Trump banner down. Why, after all, so visibly affirm the protest? But no, it was still there, reminding everyone of the unhinged megalomania in our society.

Wonderful positive resistance energy at today’s rally. Quite the achievement to meet such lawless & dangerous times with humor.

Not a Palace.

Who's meeting the moment in the media? Ian Masters is. Consistent critical thinking on his pod, with degrees of alarm helpfully modulated in conversation.

With the potential for political violence ambient, some of us are asking whether it is wise to take our kids to the No Kings protest. Never had to think that before. youtu.be/SCT3e0WsrLI?...

This article confirms what I had suspected about the location of Trump's arc. Its placement in front of Robert E. Lee's former slave plantation is no accident. Instead, it's a tacit affirmation of him and the southern cause. Its an anti-BLM monument. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Since I am in print arguing for the importance of direct Russia-US talks on Ukraine and their mutual strategic interests, I'm not going to criticize this development. But I remain veryyyy skeptical of Trump's negotiating skills. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

Excellent essay by Amaël Cattaruzza. Géopocène. Repenser la géopolitique à l’heure de l’anthropocène supplements.aoc.media/fig/2025/09/...

Political deplorables never die, they just go lobby for Republika Srpska. Which, for an impoverished entity, has serious lobbying cash to spend. Where does the money come from? www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

I've been attending protests in DC for 25 years. Saturday's No Kings feels very important. Why? 1. Strong anger in city 2. GOP radicalized: talking points now unhinged conspiracism 3. Pressure & Provocation policing in cities: trawling for violence 4. Condition of non-hegemony Disagree please

I'm doing some research on Trump & public space in DC, specifically June 2020. Discovered that Office of the Inspector General Reports (review of Dept of Justice actions) are no longer accessible. Fortunately their 2024 report on Barr is available elsewhere. Accountability, though, appears awol.

Be sure to spread it around

Russia's war against Ukraine has brought Russia's coal industry to its knees. Another instance of how nostalgic 'greatness' projects accelerate the death of the material foundations of past 'greatness.' www.ft.com/content/7c62...

I'll be participating in this, with a great ideological mix of folks (as it should be). You can still sign up to attend.

A truth telling center - the Nobel Peace Center building in Oslo - in a world of geopolitical nonsense? I hope so.

We have a fantastic new essay on China’s new climate pledge by @jeremywallace.bsky.social at @heatmap.news this morning. He argues the country’s indecision about its green future is more than just an environmental disappointment — it is a serious governing mistake. heatmap.news/ideas/china-...

America's difficulty is China's opportunity. www.noemamag.com/trumps-clima...

"There's a case to be made that Beijing missed a trick in landing a more ambitious goal as it would have won broad global praise - a stark contrast to the US" bbc.com/news/article...

Wreckless militarism... (and imho hysterical masculinity). theconversation.com/warrior-etho...

My research with colleagues on shifting geopolitical orientations in Russia's near abroad found that Moldova uniquely had citizens who evaluated themselves as less pro-West than how they evaluated the country's current position (implicitly the government). theconversation.com/moldova-pro-...

Something under-discussed as Donald Trump and the White House rail against George Soros and promise to crack down on OSF (Open Society Foundations) – Soros himself no longer runs it, and in reality the OSF itself has been in something close to crisis for years. Short thread: