Conventional wisdom says that US foreign military training builds influence abroad, but is it true at the individual level? U.S. trained officers **are** more likely to grant a U.S. request, but expect reciprocity. New paper at #JCR with @ilkerkalin.bsky.social journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

New paper w/ @carlammm.bsky.social in JCR! 🎉 Q: Does U.S. military training actually create influence with foreign officers? (Short answer: Yes!) Using interviews & a survey experiment with Turkish officers, this paper provides an answer: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

From Training to Influence: The Role of U.S. Military Training in Turkish Officers’ Decisions - Ilker Kalin, Carla Martínez Machain, 2026

How does U.S. military education build influence among foreign officers? This study proposes two theoretical pathways from training to influence. The extrinsic ...

journals.sagepub.com

Early in my PhD, a colleague finishing his (highly rated) dissertation told me he was stuck on the introduction. After years of hard work, he could no longer find an argument for why any of it actually mattered. This stuck with me ever since. A🧵 about this paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We are delighted to present the new editorial team of the @ejpgjournal.bsky.social ! Led by @grahn.bsky.social and @maarja.bsky.social as co-EIC, the six-strong team represents a new generation of gender and politics and LGBTQ+ politics scholars who will take the journal forward from July 2026.

Does far-right legislative representation change the descriptive make-up of candidate lists among mainstream parties? Using a RDD with registry data from Sweden, this paper led by @grahn.bsky.social provides an answer doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

My first piece for Stockholm University's Institute for Turkish Studies: The Next Big Middle East Conflict? The Turkish-Israeli Rivalry www.su.se/english/divi...

With roles in NATO and the Organization of Turkic States, Hungary and Turkey occupy a unique space in EU security talks. @szerlasz.bsky.social outlines the transactional aspects of bilateral ties, like TurkStream, and the more abstract bonds, like shared heritage. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiSM...

Our article wt @laniganamanda.bsky.social is out in Political Research Quarterly! Using a natural experiment & interviews, we find that police recertification reform in Massachusetts prompt a recalibration of officer behavior, though not a full transformation. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

journals.sagepub.com

For those of you at #APSA2025, come check out our panel today at 4 PM. Lots of papers about troop deployments, foreign military training, and other foreign policy tools! @ilkerkalin.bsky.social

See my latest blog post for @ecprtheloop.bsky.social Based on fieldwork and interviews with activists, I argue that the isolation of LGBTQ+ activists not only undermines solidarity, but also weakens democracy and plays into the hands of repression. Read the full post here:

The Loop@ecprtheloop.bsky.social · last yr.

🏳️‍🌈 In Turkey, gender and sexual minorities are increasingly targeted by the state. 🪧 But minorities are also isolated by opposition groups that purport to champion democratic values. ⛓️ @ilkerkalin.bsky.social argues this weakens democracy, and reinforces repression 👇 bit.ly/44RNXeE

🏳️‍🌈 In Turkey, gender and sexual minorities are increasingly targeted by the state. 🪧 But minorities are also isolated by opposition groups that purport to champion democratic values. ⛓️ @ilkerkalin.bsky.social argues this weakens democracy, and reinforces repression 👇 bit.ly/44RNXeE

In the United States and beyond, democratic backsliding threatens to reverse recent gains in LGBTQ rights, writes @arimshaw.bsky.social‬. To protect marginalized groups, policymakers and activists must “build up institutional safeguards that can withstand this wave of illiberal pressure.”

The Global Threat to LGBTQ Rights

The fate of legal protections is tied to the fate of democracy.

foreignaffairs.com

Our latest issue is now available! Check it out👇 www.allazimuth.com/issues/

My colleague, Bogdan Ianosev, is conducting a non-commercial psychology study exploring how musical preferences relate to personality, morality, and worldviews. You can take the survey by using the QR code or this link: gsbscognition.limequery.com/412177?lang=en Please participate & share!

ETC skriver om Institutet för Turkietstudier vid Stockholms universitets gästforskare @ilkerkalin.bsky.social:s forskning. Ilker visar att inte nog med att ickevålds-metoder är två gånger så effektiva som våldsamt motstånd, de når också resultat mycket snabbare. www.etc.se/utrikes/ny-s...

Ny studie: Icke-våldsamt motstånd mer effektivt än våldsamt

Över en treårsperiod lyckades 51 procent av de icke-våldsamma kampanjerna.

etc.se

Icke-våldsamma motståndsrörelser är betydligt mer framgångsrika än våldsamma, enligt en ny internationell studie från Stockholms universitet.

Ny studie: Icke-våldsamt motstånd mer effektivt än våldsamt

Över en treårsperiod lyckades 51 procent av de icke-våldsamma kampanjerna.

etc.se

I had an interview wt @etc.se about our new study on the duration of nonviolent vs violent resistance, conducted together wt @firuzesezgin.bsky.social & others. I talk about what factors help accelerate success & what this might mean for ongoing protest movements today. www.etc.se/utrikes/ny-s...

Ny studie: Icke-våldsamt motstånd mer effektivt än våldsamt

Över en treårsperiod lyckades 51 procent av de icke-våldsamma kampanjerna.

etc.se

New policy brief from @golafs.bsky.social & me for SUITS: Turkey may be at a turning point. With the PKK disbanded and constitutional reform back in play, the stakes—for both peace and democracy—are high. We look at what’s changed since 2011, and what’s now at risk. www.su.se/institute-fo...

The Peace Process and Constitutional Reforms in Turkey - Institute for Turkish Studies

SUITS Policy Brief 2025:2 (May) examines the likelihood of pro-Kurdish reforms in Turkey and discusses the role that domestic and external actors could play.

su.se

CfP is out for the upcoming conference I co-organise with @bilgeyabanci.bsky.social & Sonia Alonso Sáenz de Oger in Bilbao this coming October. Those working on radical right movements, conspiracy theories, and societal violence, send an abstract here 👇 agenda.deusto.es/en/conferenc...

In fact, @ilkerkalin.bsky.social, one of my colleagues, JUST published an article comparing the effectiveness of nonviolent & violent movements. It turns out that nonviolence "outperformed violent movements by a 2-to-1 success rate in obtaining objectives."+ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

When I argued the other day that nonviolent protests are not the most effective way to protest against democratic backsliding, some people got very angry. Contrary to what many of them argued, I wasn't making stuff up to defend the status quo. I study politics in an autocratic regime: Turkey.+

Here’s my piece from last week comparing Le Pen’s political ban and İmamoğlu’s case: Both sides are using each other to justify their actions—Le Pen calls her conviction politically motivated, drawing parallels to Erdoğan’s tactics, while Turkish officials cite her case to argue that prosecuting ++

Our society needs other platforms for social networking, exchange and debate, such alternative networks and services have emerged (cf Fediverse). They can strengthen our democracy on the basis of open and recognised standards in decentralised structures. savesocial.eu/en/

🇬🇧

Saving social mediaas a democratic force Nina George, Schriftstellerin, Ehrenpräsidentin European Writers’ Council (EWC) Foto: Heike Blenck Rocko Schamoni, Schriftsteller, Regisseur, Musiker, Künstler...

savesocial.eu

1 / Going into what’s expected to be a big weekend of protests around the US, my team at the Crowd Counting Consortium (@djpressman.bsky.social, Soha Hammam & Chris Shay) has issued our monthly data release. TLDR: protest in the US is growing at an impressive pace. A few key highlights:

Lately I've seen many references to the 3.5% rule. A few years ago I pulled together this Q&A on potential uses and misuses of this statistic. www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/defaul...

Elite defection is not a good sign for Ankara: t24.com.tr/haber/akp-li...

When soft power is no longer enough to i) garner popular legitimacy, ii) manufacture consent, and iii) gain loyalty, iron fist is inevitable to remain in power.

LGBTİ+ dernekleri: 'Sen, ben, o, biz, siz, Hepimiz Hedefteyiz!' LGBTİ+ dernekleri, aralarında İBB Başkanı Ekrem İmamoğlu’nun da bulunduğu gazeteci, siyasetçi ve sanatçıların gözaltına alınmasına tepki gösterdi. Açıklamanın tamamı şöyle:

LGBTİ+ dernekleri: 'Sen, ben, o, biz, siz, Hepimiz Hedefteyiz!'

LGBTİ+ dernekleri, aralarında İBB Başkanı Ekrem İmamoğlu’nun da bulunduğu gazeteci, siyasetçi ve sanatçıların gözaltına alınmasına tepki gösterdi.

marksist.org

An *incomplete* crowdsourced list of cities with protests in Turkey today: Adana Ankara (multiple) Antalya Artvin Bursa Çorum Denizli Elazığ Eskişehir Hatay İstanbul (multiple) İzmir (multiple) İzmit Kırıkkale Konya Manisa Muğla Rize Samsun Şanlıurfa Trabzon Yozgat Feel free to add to it below!

Adam Schwarz@adamjschwarz.bsky.social · last yr.

A huge anti-Erdoğan protest tonight in Istanbul, defying a four day national ban on protests, to denounce the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu. "Break down those barricades without harming the police. Take to the streets and squares", Ozgur Ozel, an opposition leader, told protesters.