I fear we might see a new alignment between a radical right death cult and a rural revivalist "simplicity" drive, which views collapse and a return to "organic" communities as a solution to decadent urbanism. A century ago this convergence led to a very bad place. www.monbiot.com/2023/10/04/t...

The Cruel Fantasies of Well-Fed People

The astonishing story of how a movement’s quest for rural simplicity drifted into a formula for mass death

monbiot.com

Hi #POIR3970 Global Environmental Politics students - I'm excited to share that Macquarie Uni IT have created a Bluesky block for ilearn. For the next 14 weeks I'll be sharing content for our unit to this block. If you're on bluesky and want to post here please use #POIR3970.

Bored in today's #POIR2030 lecture? Google image search for "Anzac day" and count how many rows of images before you see a woman or a person of colour.

"Hormuz does not yet signal the end of this hydrocarbon dollar complex, which has always been a combustible mix of power and volatility. But it does reveal the structural changes that would be needed for a hegemonic transition." Absolute banger from @mona-ali.bsky.social

The Reckoning • EQUATOR

Hormuz and the end of American hegemony

equator.org

🚨New online: discussion paper by Christopher Wright, "How a no new coal mining treaty could align climate and coal mining interests ahead of COP31". ⬇️ www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.... #AcademicPublishing #AcademicSky #InternationalRelations

This week we look at structural theory in #POIR2030. Here's structural realist John Mearsheimer interviewed by Tom Switzer on why the war against Iran does not advance US national interests: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLa9...

IRAN: A war without end? | Professor John Mearsheimer

YouTube video by Switzerland with Tom Switzer

youtube.com

Vibecoded this "World Politics Compass" questionare for my #POIR2030 Theories of World Politics class (thanks Anthropic) www.worldpoliticscompass.com We're in a lovely interregnum where AI will make nice things for teaching, but hasn't yet taken my job.

Also relevant to US/Iran: this broadly structural realist 2007 paper by @proftalmadge.bsky.social on Iranian threat to Strait of Hormuz. NB: drone boats have since lowered costs of harassment, so Talmage's timeline for reopening Strait likely needs revision. www.caitlintalmadge.com/uploads/8/5/...

In any normal week this would be a huge story. France moves toward extending a nuclear umbrella over European allies-- a major sign of declining credibility of US extended deterrence. www.defensenews.com/global/europ...

Macron opens door to deploying French nuclear forces to European allies

The plan is a “major evolution” of France’s deterrence posture, the president said in a long-awaited speech at the Île Longue naval base in Brittany.

defensenews.com

Trump wrecked US diplomacy on purpose and now it’s making everything harder because he doesn’t understand that diplomacy is a tool of war. It’s not the opposite of war! goodauthority.org/news/trump-a...

Trump and Rubio dismantled U.S. diplomacy. It’s making the Iran War harder.

Since the start of 2026, President Donald Trump has taken the wheel of American military power and pressed hard on […]

goodauthority.org

Lpeterp@lpeterp.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Threats & bullying rather than diplomacy or working with our allies. Oh, yeah, we have none now except Israel and they're a frenemy at best.

This was such a fun and interesting conversation!

Toby Buckle@polphilpod.bsky.social · 2y ago

"I've always found a strange optimism in the worldly perspective of The Discourses . . . worldly orders rise and decline, sometimes die. And yet the world does not come to an end" @aejm.bsky.social www.politicalphilosophypodcast.com/ra

Podcast for #POIR2030 students: Realist @stephenwalt.bsky.social outlines why he characterises Trump's United States as a "Predatory Hegemon": www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/ame...

America the Predatory Hegemon

A Conversation With Stephen M. Walt

foreignaffairs.com

Podcast for #POIR2030 students: Realist Stephen Walt outlines his account of how the US became a "Predatory Hegemon: www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/ame...

America the Predatory Hegemon

A Conversation With Stephen M. Walt

foreignaffairs.com

"President Trump may get lucky and find that his attacks achieve some outcomes that serve US interests. But it is hard to envision that the net result will be an improvement in US or world security."

Trump’s war on Iran: grave dangers and, at best, limited benefits

As with the 2003 Iraq war, the path to conflict with Iran has been paved with false statements. Pandora’s box is now open: The consequences of the US and Israeli attack on Iran will be lasting but…

thebulletin.org

Shannon Brincat and Juan Zahir Naranjo Cáceres: "The joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran represent a further erosion of the international legal order. Under international law, these attacks are neither preemptive nor lawful." theconversation.com/neither-pree...

Neither preemptive nor legal, US-Israeli strikes on Iran have blown up international law

With the latest strikes on Iran, The international legal order is now in free-fall.

theconversation.com

Hi #POIR2030 Theories of World Politics students - I'm excited that Macquarie Uni IT have created a Bluesky block for ilearn. For the next 15 weeks I'll be sharing content for our unit to this block. If you're on bluesky and want to post here please use #POIR2030 and I'll repost you to the class.

“Coercion-as-habit is domination stripped of hegemonic obligation. No public goods, international order, or attempt to manufacture consent. Just the power to kill, wielded for the sake of nonsense—libido, spectacle, oligarch payola.” www.un-diplomatic.com/p/coercive-b...

Coercive Bombing Doesn’t Work!

Every indicator-and-warning light is blinking red: The US and Israel are about to unleash a massive terror campaign on Iran from the air.

un-diplomatic.com

‘Albanese told Reuters she had “received offers to open bank accounts in so-called fiscal or tax havens,” but declined, saying that would conflict with her ethical principles and wouldn’t resolve “the illegality of the U.S. sanctions against me.”’ www.reuters.com/investigatio...

In Trump’s war on global justice, court staff and U.N. face terrorist‑grade sanctions

Trump’s sanctions on U.N. expert Francesca Albanese and the International Criminal Court froze assets and disrupted war crimes investigations. The clash is part of the broader campaign by his administ...

reuters.com

If Australia and Indonesia agreed to end new thermal coal mines, it could drive the green transition - @aunz.theconversation.com theconversation.com/if-australia...

If Australia and Indonesia agreed to end new thermal coal mines, it could drive the green transition.

If the biggest coal exporters banned new coal mines, they could drive the shift to renewables – and benefit while they do it.

theconversation.com

Is a treaty to end thermal coal mine approvals possible? Sounds counterintuitive, but Chris Wright argues the treaty's cartel-like logic might win industry support for climate goals. New piece in @theconvo-bot.bsky.social explores why Indonesia + Australia alone could shift the global market.

If Australia and Indonesia agreed to end new thermal coal mines, it could drive the green transition.

If the biggest coal exporters banned new coal mines, they could drive the shift to renewables – and benefit while they do it.

theconversation.com

“…the task is to rationalize growth: to expand and develop the forces of production so that they might better enable and express the fundamental end of animals like us. In other words, our freedom.” thepointmag.com/politics/rad...

Radical Eudaimonism | The Point Magazine

The choice is not between growth and degrowth but capital growth and rational growth.

thepointmag.com

Feel like a man throwing a homemade IED into a large crowd at an invasion day rally should be bigger news

Maher Mughrabi on the new "mafia world order"... www.smh.com.au/world/north-...

Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ is a sham designed to give the US ultimate control

The choice facing Anthony Albanese and other world leaders is between international law and a “mafia world order” in which the US plays landlord and arbiter.

smh.com.au

This is beyond the pale. Trump's "board of peace" is a sham to formalise the genocide, and against all intl law. The Albanese govt has no right to make Australia complicit.

Global CO2 emissions are showing signs of levelling, thanks to a slight decline in net land-use change emissions offsetting continued growth in fossil emissions. The trends are way off compared to the 1.5C scenarios with no or low overshoot assessed in the IPCC. Details: bsky.app/profile/glen...

Glen Peters@glenpeters.bsky.social · last yr.

Just your regular reminder of where global CO2 emissions are tracking compared to scenarios that keep warming to below 1.5C in 2100, with "no or low overshoot" (maximum temperature around 1.6C). journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... C1/

Hanging onto every bit of good news The river has come alive in the Klamath with wild Chinook salmon. The wider ecosystem is healing. This most powerful story of Indigenous-led #rewilding after the largest dam removal in US history keeps getting better. lostcoastoutpost.com/2025/oct/9/o...

One Year After Klamath Dam Removal, 'There's Just Fish Jumping All Over the Place': Scientists Describe Improvements to Water Quality and Wildlife

lostcoastoutpost.com

Alan Kohler's analysis of Australia's 2035 target: New CSIRO modelling suggests Australia's new targets are difficult to achieve, and even if they are, we won't be fine. #POIR3970 www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Farmland for forests may be the net zero trade-off

The problem with an emissions reduction target is that its mere existence implies it is achievable and that if we do achieve it, we will be fine. The truth is more complex.

abc.net.au

#poir3970 as promised, here’s conservative UK PM Margaret Thatcher speaking about Climate Change in 1989. youtu.be/aSrBO4_qPzo?...

Thatcher GlobalWarming

YouTube video by Uppsalainitiativet

youtu.be

Is global warming accelerating? Over at The Climate Brink I argue that the consilience of evidence from surface temperatures, climate models, forcing changes, ocean heat content, and earth energy imbalance all point toward yes: www.theclimatebrink....

The great acceleration debate

Why the consilience of evidence points toward acceleration

theclimatebrink.com

Grok showed up in my Tesla this morning, and started speaking to me without me trying to trigger it. I saw a tab called "conspiracy theories", clicked it and asked Grok about climate change. This is what Elon Musk is telling Tesla drivers about climate change.