📣 We are hiring - please share! 👉 1-2 Postdoctoral Fellows with specialization in political data science or comparative politics as part of the ERC project “Authoritarian Threats to Scientific Knowledge” (AutoKnow)- PI Tore Wig. 📅3-4 years ⏳September 10, 2026. 🔗 www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Postdoctoral Fellow  (303060) | University of Oslo

Job title: Postdoctoral Fellow  (303060), Employer: University of Oslo, Deadline: Thursday, September 10, 2026

jobbnorge.no

❗️From mass arrests to transnational repression: Six years of crackdown in Belarus 6 years ago, thousands of Belarusians took to the streets demanding free, fair elections and an end to state violence. The authorities responded with an unprecedented campaign of repression that continues to this day.

In “How to Combat Transnational Repression,” published in @jodemocracy.bsky.social, Citizen Lab researchers @sanstis.bsky.social and @mmichae1sen.bsky.social write about the lack of accountability for perpetrators of transnational repression. Read: www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/how...

How to Combat Transnational Repression | Journal of Democracy

Authoritarians actively threaten, intimidate, and murder exiles and opponents wherever they find them. While justice for victims is hard won, it is possible. Here is how democracies can push back.

journalofdemocracy.org

the joke going round is that Ukraine requested these be donated to Russia instead

Conor Gallagher@conorgallagher.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Ukraine refuses Irish offer of armoured combat vehicles www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026...

Ukraine warns Belarus of ‘consequences’ over drone equipment ft.trib.al/fDs7msI

Ukraine warns Belarus of ‘consequences’ over drone equipment

Volodymyr Zelenskyy threatens to remove relay stations in the country used by Russia unless Minsk acts within a week

ft.trib.al

Free to read: Simon Schama's 2025 appreciation of David Hockney, who has died at the age of 88 ft.trib.al/VJxZ4Sv

Simon Schama on the pleasure-giving, life-affirming art of David Hockney

Britain’s most popular living painter has maintained an unfashionable commitment to optical delight

ft.trib.al

40 years ago today, the Charnobyl reactor accident occurred. On April 15, poet and translator Julia Cimafiejeva and historian David Roger Marples discussed the disaster's impact on Belarusian society and the late Soviet Union. Watch the recording now: youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Osteuropakunde e.V.@dgoberlin.bsky.social · 6mo ago

40 Years After Charnobyl - From Personal Experience to Collective Memory 📆April 15, 6pm 📍online 🔗 https://dgo-online.org/kalender/berlin/2026/40-years-after-charnobyl/

Happy to have contributed to this BBC story examining patriotic education in Russia, following on the success of Talankin's Oscar-winning documentary "Mr Nobody Against Putin." Linking to the more substantial Russian version (English version is linked in the next post): www.bbc.com/russian/arti...

Фильм Таланкина о патриотическом воспитании получил «Оскар». Но работает ли пропаганда в школах? - BBC News Русская служба

В фильме «Господин Никто против Путина», основанном на съемках уроков «патриотического воспитания» в провинциальной школе, показана картина милитаризации российского образования при кажущемся равнодуш...

bbc.com

Diana Fu, Rich Nielson, and I argue that ethnography and an ethnographic sensibility remain essential to understanding the political world, even (or maybe especially) in an era of digitization and AI. Think we're Luddites? Have a look bsky.app/profile/annu.... www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Ethnography and Ethnographic Sensibility in Political Science

In an era when artificial intelligence and chatbots make it enticing to interface with an entirely digital field site, immersive ethnographic practices and an ethnographic sensibility remain indispens...

annualreviews.org

It was good to see this Spotlight on #Belarus in main programme of #MSC2026. We discussed the different US and EU approaches to sanctions & (non-)engagement with Lukashenka, the link betweeen democratic Belarus & #Ukraine and strategies of the Belarusian opposition in exile. See link ⬇️

Zentrum für Osteuropa- und internationale Studien (ZOiS)@zois.bsky.social · 7mo ago

The theme of US-Europe relations hovers over the #MSC2026. What this means for #Belarus was one of the questions discussed today by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Kęstutis Budrys and Peter Welch in a panel chaired by ZOiS director @gwendolynsasse.bsky.social. securityconference.org/en/msc-2026/...

Check out our easy-to-use dashboard, which allows you to draw maps, time trends, and other vizualisations on governments and cabinet ministers from across the world 👇

𝙅𝙖𝙘🍩𝙗 𝙉𝙮𝙧𝙪𝙥@jacobnyrup.bsky.social · 8mo ago

We are happy to release the Paths to Power Dashboard. It is the perfect tool for politics nerds! You can find it here: ptp.isv.sv.uio.no/ptp/ It allows you to explore governments from 1966-2021 using the PtP and WhoGov datasets. See examples below. The app has been programmed by Stuart Bramwell.

AUCD Ad Astra Doctoral Scholarship: Authoritarian Politics #ECPRMemberJobs 🎓 Minimum grade of 2.1 (GPA: 3.6) in a relevant Master's degree 🇮🇪 @ucddublin.bsky.social ⌛ Friday 6 February buff.ly/ETcFg6G #PolSciJobs #PoliSky #AcademicSky

#Belarus: RSF reveals the existence of a previously unknown spyware tool, used since at least 2021 by the KGB against journalists. Installed after the physical confiscation of phones, #ResidentBat constitutes a grave violation of press freedom. RSF calls for a ban on these surveillance technologies.

Exclusive: RSF uncovers new spyware from Belarus

Reporters Without Borders (RSF)’s Digital Security Lab (DSL), working with the Eastern European organisation RESIDENT.NGO, has uncovered a previously unknown spyware tool used by the State Security Co...

rsf.org

How important it was to see familiar names, while we are still waiting for the confirmation of each name among those who were freed today. BYSOL is organising an emergency fundraising campaign to support Belarusian political prisoners. If it’s safe for you, please donate bysol.org/en/bs/sro4na...

Kriszta Satori@fulelo.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Belarus has freed 123 prisoners, including prominent opposition activist Maria Kolesnikova ( #Kalesnikava ) after the US agreed to lift sanctions on the country. Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales #Bialiatski is also among those who have been released www.bbc.com/news/article...

❗️123 people, including political prisoners, were pardoned in Belarus on December 13. Almost of them were forcibly deported to the territory of #Ukraine. spring96.org/en/news/119263

Here’s how Maria Kalesnikava is meeting Viktar Babaryka and Maksim Znak after they unjustly spent more than five years behind bars. I am crying from happiness. Such a relief to see them and others free!

Trump’s Special Representative for Belarus John Coale announced after meeting Lukashenko that Washington will lift sanctions on Belarusian Potash. It’s the second step in the Trump Admin’s easing strategy after sanctions on the airline Belavia were lifted. zerkalo-access.space/news/economi...

США снимают санкции с беларусского калия

«Мы снимаем санкции, освобождаем заключенных. Мы постоянно говорим друг с другом».

zerkalo-access.space

We have a new author interview up on Peripheral Histories? This time, we spoke with Aleksandra Pomiecko about her fascinating new book 'Bound By Exclusion and Violence: A History of Belarusian Armed Struggle in the Twentieth Century' www.peripheralhistories.co.uk/post/bound-b...

Bound by Exclusion and Violence: A History of Belarusian Armed Struggle in the Twentieth Century

In Bound by Exclusion and Violence: A History of Belarusian Armed Struggle in the Twentieth Century (published by University of Toronto Press, 2025) Aleksandra Pomiecko follows a group of Belarusian n...

peripheralhistories.co.uk

Must read FT piece today on neutral Ireland, the soft underbelly of European defence By @judewebber.bsky.social and @helenwarrell.bsky.social

How Ireland became the weak spot in Europe’s defences

With few ships and limited intelligence-sharing, some say the country cannot hope to protect itself or its infrastructure

ft.com

Now on FirstView ft. Alixandra Yanus & Phillip Ardoin! "We analyze referencing patterns from 1990-2024 and uncover a decline in book references and a rise in journal article references. This has implications for students, the discipline, and libraries." Read more: doi.org/10.1017/S104... #polisky

Smuggling, circumventing sanctions and trafficking - these strategies have been instrumentalised by the autocratic government, furthering Russia's ambitions of destabilisation. However, the costs of EU border closures shift to ordinary Belarusians, who have to bear the increased costs of EU mobility

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 11mo ago

Lithuania says it will shoot down smuggling balloons from Russia’s ally Belarus

Data from the #AcademicFreedomIndex reveals declining levels of #academicfreedom across authoritarian and democratic contexts. Over the past decade, in fact, global academic freedom levels have shrunk at an accelerating pace. Read why in #Free2Think2025: www.scholarsatrisk.org/resources/fr...

I wrote for Eurozine on the lingering imperial geographies that define our understandings of Ukraine and eastern Europe.

Eurozine@eurozine.bsky.social · last yr.

Imperial Russia saw the nation as the sea into which all the other Slavic cultures flowed. The idea persists today in way the region is studied in the West. Ukraine scholar @uilleamblacker.bsky.social pleas for institutional reform: www.eurozine.com/russia-is-no...

Public Service Announcement: if what's happening in Alaska makes you sick, a donation to Ukraine would improve your health

UNITED24 - The initiative of the President of Ukraine

UNITED24 was launched by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the main venue for collecting charitable donations in support of Ukraine. Funds will be transferred to the official accounts of...

u24.gov.ua

My first publication is now online at @jeas-journal.bsky.social ! @alexdukalskis.bsky.social and I apply quantitative text analysis to Xinhua articles containing the terms "so-called" & "所谓" to explore the ideas the Chinese govt wishes to discredit for different audiences doi.org/10.1017/jea....

Journal of East Asian Studies@jeas-journal.bsky.social · last yr.

#OpenAccess - The Use of ‘So-called’ as a Propaganda Device in China - cup.org/46GOmmL "findings inform scholarship on comparative authoritarian propaganda and Chinese propaganda specifically" - @linettelim.bsky.social & Alexander Dukalskis #FirstView

The European Political Science Society is now accepting paper & panel proposals for its annual conference! 📢 Call for Papers: EPSS 2026 – Belfast
 🗓️ June 18–20, 2026
 📍 ICC Belfast
 📬 Deadline: Nov 7, 2025 🧵

Warum Belarus und die belarussische Gesellschaft einen festen Platz in geopolitischen Überlegungen haben sollten - für Die Presse durfte ich einen Gastkommentar schreiben. www.diepresse.com/19887613/das...

🇵🇱⚖️🗳️ The rule of law repair process in Poland just got incredibly more difficult. I expect President Nawrocki to be even less cooperative than Duda, as Nawrocki will work hard for a PiS parliamentary election victory. Tough times ahead. 1/

Excited to announce the FirstView (and Open Access) publication of my latest article in Nationalities Papers @nationalitiesp.bsky.social: Russian Propaganda from V to Z: Projecting Banal and Everyday Nationalism in Unsettled Times A brief intro 🧵(1/6) doi.org/10.1017/nps....