A new academic year at Utrecht University — always a highlight. The energy, curiosity, and fresh perspectives students bring to the classroom are what make this work so enjoyable. Excited for the year ahead! You can still join the Existential Risk Workshop on 25 September: www.uu.nl/en/events/wo...

1 MONTH TO GO UNTIL THE "EXISTENTIAL RISK IN THE NETHERLANDS WORKSHOP" If you want to attend as an audience member get in touch with my ([email protected]) Funded "Pathways to Sustainability" Part of the Politics of Environmental Action Project.

Macron has acknowledged that the anticolonial struggle in Niger was a full-blown war. He further recognized that France engaged in some neocolonial meddling after independence. Why? Read my piece (in French) in The Conversation theconversation.com/massacre-de-...

I had the opportunity to speak about the mysterious and tragic plane crash of Dag Hammarskjöld in 1961. The podcast by @BNR has high production value, making it enjoyable to listen to even on a beach or during a walk. www.bnr.nl/podcast/fact...

Thursday 12 June, 16h: a panel conversation with actual real climate change activists who will participate in the next COP. Come to Universiteit Utrecht Library! More info behind the QR code!

Looking forward to celebrating this wonderful book! #anticolonial #extinction #studies [alt text: an image of a mastodon skeleton faces right. A figure riding an elephant sits underneath and left, with two figures (one holding a spear, the other a cane and top hat) to the right.

Talking about my book "The Ideological Scramble for Africa" on "Departures with Robert Amsterdam" podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

Great workshop on the History of Non-Alignment. A collaborative project at the University of Padua History Department.

Great conference on AI. Off to Padova to talk Non-Alignment!

Sign up if you want to attend. Powering up towards the Bonn Climate Change Conference 📅 Date: Thursday, 12 June 2025 🕓 Time: 16:00–18:00

Great to be here! Looking forward to seeing all of you again in the ...... future

We’re so glad Bluesky appreciates The Conversation’s approach to journalism. And we get 3.6x the readership from Bluesky that we get from X. But many people don’t know about us yet – if you think your followers would appreciate our links in their feed, please let them know about us.

For this Earth Day and in celebration of my commitment to the bit that my book makes it to With Love, Meghan I made a step and repeat for it with @uchicagopress.bsky.social gift wrap. You can buy a copy or request your library purchase one, please. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/vi...

Swing by tonight if you have time to hear me ramble about the international politics of climate change

Save the date for the next talk in the "Geneva Environmental Lecture" series! On 8 May, Mark Carey (Oregon) will speak on the very mundane history of icebergs 🧊 More on avalanche.hypotheses.org/gel

This is a major step forward for International Environmental History!

Essay - in Dutch - on the perils of revisionist imperial history ("We also did a lot of good things"). Written together with @gillianmathys.bsky.social , in response to the claims made in "Engelen uit Europa", a book by Hans Van der Jagt. THE LINK: bmgn-lchr.nl/article/view...

Very interesting article by @startswithabang.bsky.social: Ask Ethan: Why are maps of the cosmos always oval-shaped? bigthink.com/starts-with-... A different representation of temperature fluctuations, in this case from WMAP data, using depths and elevations. @pomarede.bsky.social 🧪⚛️🔭

Another day another book review. This time by Matteo Grilli and he actually has some criticism as well, which I will ignore for the sake of "providing readers with unprecedented insights into this period". www.academia.edu/128476338/Gr...

Proud to announce the launch of Routledge Resources Online: The Cold War ! 🌍 You can find the link here: www.taylorfrancis.com/rrocw/?conte... Ruud Van Dijk is the main editor. I am editor for Africa entries. We have a big editorial board. @shafrhistorians.bsky.social @coldwarpod.bsky.social

Join us in the 2025 Policy Workshop ‘The Montreal Moment’ in Middelburg from 5-6 June 2025. Supported by the RIAS in Middelburg and Pathways to Sustainability at @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social @siculovevo.bsky.social www.roosevelt.nl/app/uploads/...

TOMORROW I WILL GO ON STRIKE! LIKE MANY OF MY COLLEAGUES WE RESIST THE DESTRUCTION OF THE UNIVERSITY IN THE NETHERLANDS

"Instead, this is a monumental undertaking requiring the author to chase his sources all over the world, and a major achievement for global diplomatic history." Thank you Burleigh Hendrickson for reading my book. doi.org/10.1080/1466...

It was great being a guest on AJinside @aljazeera.com talk about the AU's summit on reparations aje.io/uojo8v

"the author also has a knack for crisp and effective historiographical summary", but also "The book suffers from three defects." One of the most insightful reviews of the "Ideological Scramble for Africa" by a scholar whose work I admire: doi.org/10.1017/S002...

Thank you so much, @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social for giving me the opportunity to discuss THE IDEOLOGICAL SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA! @cornellupress.bsky.social You can listen to it here: newbooksnetwork.com/the-ideologi...

"Global South still views NATO through a colonial lens" An interview with yours truly (in Dutch) on NATO and its Global South strategy for @Atl_Comm @HumanitiesUU www.atlcom.nl/artikel-atla...

My review of Frank Gerits, The Ideological Scramble for Africa: How the Pursuit of Anticolonial Modernity Shaped a Postcolonial Order, 1945–1966 and Alessandro Iandolo, Arrested Development: The Soviet Union in Ghana, Guinea, and Mali, 1955–1968 ojs.inz.si/pnz/article/...

Happy to end a week (!) of oral examinations with the message that I received the Scowcroft Institute’s O'Donnell Research Grant to do research in the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

Start of a week of oral examinations. Send help

Green energy needs to be profitable, not cheap for a transition to work. We're fucked.

Welcome back to work 2025.

Ik had het genoegen een bijdrage te mogen leveren voor "De jaarlijkse Vraag" van @beste-id.bsky.social "Wat betekent de groeiende kracht van AI voor uw onderzoek of werk?" @UUGlobe @UniUtrecht @NWONieuws Lees mijn antwoord hier: www.beste-id.nl/jaarlijkse-v...

🚨 When we fight, we win! I've put together a thread giving a quick run down of some of the #climate movement's hard won victories from 2024 to inspire us for the year ahead! 🧵 #ClimateActionNow #EndFossilFuels

A beautiful memorial for Jimmy Carter here from @jeffgoodell.bsky.social. I did an event at the Jimmy Carter library in March and just geeked out seeing the solar panels and his famous sweater. The panels were removed by Regan in the following term. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

My piece on Belgian politics in 2023 in Dutch www.montesquieu-instituut.nl/9394000/1/j9...

i recall a time when using a private email server was the single greatest scandal in american history. i guess today’s it’s just tuesday www.politico.com/news/2024/12...

And this is why cutting funding to humanities and social science research (hello Aotearoa New Zealand) while also claiming to be addressing issues like climate change is shooting yourself in the foot, and complete nonsense.

Climate Town! on the most fun aspect of the holidays: garbage! www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG8i...

Hear me rant about Africa for 50 min: open.spotify.com/episode/0umR...

Two more weeks...

I just submitted an article (for review) I worked on for years.

Among a sea of stuff happening at the courts here in town (ICC, ICJ) when it comes to mass violence, there's this, starting Monday. It will probably be one of the most followed and potentially consequential proceedings of our time. Tune in next week. #ClimateChange #ICJ www.icj-cij.org/case/187

At the Shangri-La Dialogues in 2022, Fiji's Chief of Defense noted, "“In our blue Pacific continent, machine guns, fighter jets, gray ships, and green battalions are not our primary security concerns. The single greatest threat to our very existence is climate change.”

an environmental history of the Korean War is long overdue; so, apparently, is an olfactory one from Scene magazine, June 1952

diverging fortunes: at the time when King Leopold was forcing Congo's population to produce rubber, the neighboring kingdom of Kongo, which was still independent, was experiencing a rubber boom, and the majority of the wealth was retained by the African producers. thread with some graphs:

My article on the history of federations with France in the wake of decolonization. An attempt at explaining the french African side of my book, "The Ideological Scramble for Africa" @cornellupress.bsky.social

Climate talks at Baku #COP29 on the verge of collapse as small islands and least developed countries leave the room cause they're not being included in discussions. Many factors contribute to this crisis, but the abysmal multilateral climate leadership of the Azeri COP presidency is remarkable.