“If we have the right to be aggressive in our own backyard,” said Fiona Hill, a Russia expert at the Brookings Institution, “why can’t they?” But, arguable, Trump is *following* Putin’s lead: “they do it so why don’t we” New transgressive behavior taker not maker. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/w...

What I’ve told reporters asking for my reaction to Venezuela.

Seizing territory is a fascist passion. Trump’s desire will end NATO. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Well that was very last century. Oil, our oil (under their soil for some reason), is the elixir of future prosperity.

“We’re going to make sure that country is run properly” Imperialist cliche bingo

We are presented with the cheapest of melodramas in the most cliched hyperbolic terms by the shallowest of people.

Wild swings between Venezuela and Washington DC by Trump. Near abroad & inner abroad intimately connected in his head. “We’ve superseded the Monroe Doctrines..”

And 1) it's no good news for the world. Haushofer being who he was. 2) countries traditionally free from major geopolitical anxiety must start to worry

Excellent piece by Julian Borger. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Do you want your geopolitical flexes with or without moralism? Our premium attention economy plan offers basic pyrotechnics and standard Epstein distraction plus convenient domestic law extraterritoriality. It offers exciting hemispheric boss energy that others will admire. Risks apply.

Mamdani’s inauguration, and all its speakers, is a real tonic.

MTV was a big deal when I first arrived in the US, and we’d gather to watch in the graduate dorm lounge. I remember the premiere of U2’s New Years Day video well. But this with Rik Mayall has got to be one of my favorite videos. 👇🏼 youtu.be/tK-vUY6erQU?...

"It’s useless to call for civil debate as “politics in the right way”; politics has moved beyond words. Where there are words at all, they are but a way to express a meme, a vibe, an aesthetic."

Lots of rich ideas about the affective structures that animate Anglo-American politics here. Deserves to be widely read. @ajsecor.bsky.social @benandersongeog.bsky.social www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/777472...

Materialist re-write: “The {reunification} BOILING of our motherland, a trend of the times, is unstoppable” {because of our emissions} www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

In case you missed it, a recording of our Nov 10 event with Laura Field on her book Furious Minds is now available on our YouTube channel. Check it out! @lkatfield.bsky.social @libankerdc.bsky.social @princetonupress.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU5h...

Short new book on Trump's rhetorical skill at mobilizing dark passions, drawing upon classical political theory: Anger, Fear, Domination by William Galston (Yale UP)

Nighttime at the 40 Foot.

The “joys of dehumanization.” Helpful conversation on the jokey sadism of this awful White House.

In the magical kingdom of MAGA World there’s a Donald J. Trump Institute for Peace. ✌️ www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Ireland’s green fields signify a country locked in a high emission way of life. www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025...

I will be speaking on “Fascist Passions: MAGA & Washington DC” at Trinity College Dublin next week. Unfortunately the length of the talk keeps growing…

Fair play to the women artists refusing to allow their music to be the soundtrack to fascist right stripping videos. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/d...

Fascist passion. Definition: pleasurable infliction of violence against fantasmatic ‘enemies.’ Illustration: 👇🏼

Carl Schmitt admirers, Heritage and officials in the Trump administration. No doubt that Trump thinks politics as friend/enemy. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

“It is important to support the negotiation process ... and crucial to support the principles on which Europe stands – that borders cannot be changed by force; that war criminals must not escape justice; & that the aggressor must pay fully for the war he started.” www.irishtimes.com/world/europe...

A work of service to public discourse on an issue that has scarred this island for a hundred years. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

Abuser-in-chief. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/u...

30 years ago this week a US administration pressured a state victimized by larger neighboring state aggression & genocide to accept an unjust illiberal peace. Trump’s Ukraine peace has Bosnia echoes. theconversation.com/the-dayton-p...

Trump’s 28-Point Plan to End Russia’s War in Ukraine is perfectly consistent with the administration’s broader moralized sadism. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/22/w...

Excellent podcast series this.

The Executive Branch threatens to execute the Legislative Branch in the US.

“The Court rejects Defendants’ fly-by assertion of constitutional power, finding that such a broad reading of the President’s Article II authority would erase Congress’s role in governing the District and its National Guard” 👏

Imagine a country whose president understands the moral urgency of decarbonization & climate justice. In Ireland, you don’t need to… www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

What kind of peace did Dayton bring Bosnia? Adis Maksic and I review the 30 years of the Dayton Peace Accords. nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Friday is the 30th anniversary of the initialing of the Dayton Peace Accords. I have been unable to attend the commemorative conference(s) happening in Sarajevo. But I wrote a retrospective on the 30 years (no easy task) with Adis Maksic. It is being published tomorrow in The Conversation.

Great to see Scotland into the World Cup finals. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Now we 🇮🇪 just need to join them.

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...