🎙️ @sebastianvanbaalen.se and his team are conducting the most extensive study of election boycotts to date. In a new podcast episode, we discuss why political parties or candidates choose to drop out of elections and what they hope to achieve by doing so. Listen: www.podbean.com/eas/pb-m8txn...

Publication-ready causal diagrams from R — that fills a real gap. Most people end up in TikZ or drawing tools for DAGs. Having it in one package means the diagram stays in sync with the analysis code. Congrats on the CRAN release!

📦 Happy to announce that the causalplot R package for making publication-ready causal diagrams is now available on CRAN. It now also includes an app version that can be launched through R Studio and requires no coding. github.com/sebastianvan...

GitHub - sebastianvanbaalen/causalplot: Create Causal Diagrams Using A Simple Convencience Function

Create Causal Diagrams Using A Simple Convencience Function - sebastianvanbaalen/causalplot

github.com

🆕 Together with @krishogl.bsky.social, I’m excited to share several new outputs from our joint research project on the actors of electoral violence. 🧵 A thread... #polisky #conflictsky

Yes everything is terrible but let’s not lose sight of the fact that someone has written the Headline to End All Headlines.

📦 Happy to share (an updated version) of the 𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘁 R package for making causal diagrams using a simple convenience function. The package features a range of pre-defined and customizable templates, now also for the classic 2x2 typology. Suggestions welcome! #rstats 🔗 github.com/sebastianvan...

GitHub - sebastianvanbaalen/causalplot: Create Causal Diagrams Using A Simple Convencience Function

Create Causal Diagrams Using A Simple Convencience Function - sebastianvanbaalen/causalplot

github.com

Intrastate armed conflicts have increasingly internationalized. In TraCe Working Paper No. 7, Frederik Schissler, @felixbethke.bsky.social, @hannapfeifer.bsky.social, Constantin Ruhe, @reginesonja.bsky.social & Jonas Wolff systematically assess this trend. 👉 www.trace-center.de/publikatione...

📦 I got tired of constantly battling TikZ or Word for decent causal diagrams, so decided to do something about it. Here is a first public version of 𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘁, an R package for creating clean, publication-ready causal diagrams with minimal effort. #rstats github.com/sebastianvan...

GitHub - sebastianvanbaalen/causalplot: Create Causal Diagrams Using A Simple Convencience Function

Create Causal Diagrams Using A Simple Convencience Function - sebastianvanbaalen/causalplot

github.com

Important piece from @yguichaoua.bsky.social @wlacher.bsky.social. As someone who is wondering whether she should continue to teach "International conflict management" rename the class "conflict making" or eliminate it, I'd like to offer a friendly critique. 1/11 dissentmagazine.org/article/the-...

The Demise of Conflict Studies - Dissent Magazine

An entire industry specializing in mediation, peacekeeping, disarmament, and transitional justice has become largely obsolete.

dissentmagazine.org

Developed a new #RStats package to access sub-national boundary spatial data (UN OCHA COD and geoBoundaries datasets) from the excellent fieldmaps project. Using #DuckDB and #geoarrow to efficiently query remote parquet and convert to sf #RSpatial #GIS github.com/epicentre-ms...

Excellent text by Henrique Garbino on why leaving the Ottawa convention is a bad idea! ⤵️ theloop.ecpr.eu/are-landmine...

Are landmines legitimate self-defence? The folly of leaving the Ottawa Convention

The Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel landmines is under serious challenge. In 2025, six state parties — Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Ukraine — began the procedure to withdra...

theloop.ecpr.eu

This is absurd. But to be honest, we all should have left academia.edu ages ago because of their spamming. Their "AI-generated professional podcasts" of papers are another very good reason to delete your account. Good riddance!

Prof Katherine Schofield 🇬🇧🇦🇺🇪🇺@katherineschof8.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Oh this is BAD. The new TOC from academia dot edu. You grant us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license, permission, and consent to use your Member Content and your personal information (including, but not limited to, your name, voice, signature, photograph, likeness…

New publication alert: "Legacies of Repression and Resistance in Early 20th Century Europe", at Comparative Political Studies. With @andrearuggeri.bsky.social and @apvjustino.bsky.social journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Legacies of Repression and Resistance in Early 20th Century Europe - Andrea Ruggeri, Laia Balcells, Patricia Justino, 2025

Authoritarian and violent experiences affect the institutional settings of post-dictatorial regimes. However, we still lack a comprehensive knowledge on how loc...

journals.sagepub.com

🆕 Excited to see this article by @maureenfubara.bsky.social out. Drawing on 100+ interviews across Nigerian states, she shows how access to rents shapes whether leaders rely on armed groups or ordinary citizens for perpetrating electoral violence. doi.org/10.1177/0022...

Armed conflicts involve governments, rebel groups, militias, communal factions, and foreign forces — all interacting in complex ways. The result? A web of violence that can feel overwhelming to understand. That's why we launch the Conflict Networks Explorer peaceobservatory.com/conflict-networks

My article "Unstable Concepts, Unresolved Controversies" was attributed to an issue. It explores how conceptual issues emerged as consociationalism and centripetalism were brought together under the label power-sharing – and proposes ways to address these issues. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Unstable Concepts, Unresolved Controversies: Reassembling Power-Sharing, Consociationalism, and Centripetalism

After half a century of research, the literature on institutional design for ethnic conflict management is still in search of a scientific consensus. This article argues that underlying conceptual ...

tandfonline.com

🆕 📣 Making my BlueSky debut to share some exciting news: the first solo-authored publication from my PhD dissertation, published last week 🔓 open access in @gsqjournal.bsky.social: academic.oup.com/isagsq/artic... A thread 🧵:

Really cool work out by @andresuribe.bsky.social and colleauges on estimating the prevalence of criminal governance in Latin America ⤵️

Perspectives on Politics@poppublicsphere.bsky.social · 12mo ago

NOW OUT ON FIRSTVIEW!! #Criminal #Governance in #Latin #America: Prevalence and Correlates By @andresuribe.bsky.social, Benjamin Lessing, Noah Schouela & Elayne Stecher doi.org/10.1017/S153...

Now out: new article w/ @niloufersiddiqui.bsky.social - "Conceptualizing Election-Related Violence" - takes stock of the rapidly growing literature on election violence, identifying points of agreement and disagreement across studies on how the concept is defined and disaggregated into sub-types.

Conceptualizing Election-Related Violence

Electoral violence has become an increasingly common manifestation of political violence around the globe. Reflecting the growing significance of this form of violence, there has been a sharp rise ...

doi.org

it's wild that R, the ubiquitous statistical computing language, was co-created by a Māori prof (Ross Ihaka) — and yet the vast majority of scientists who use R don't know this is like inventing the toaster. possibly the largest impact of a single member of an indigenous community on modern science

'Vacations.' The word is 'vacations.'

New study by @matthewcebul.bsky.social & J. Pinckney asks “How do nonviolent alternatives affect international support for violent rebel groups?” Surveys across 30+ countries find “alternative resistance options consistently reduce support for armed rebellion…” journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Nonviolent alternatives reduce external support for rebel groups: Evidence from two cross-national survey experiments - Matthew Cebul, Jonathan Pinckney, 2025

How do nonviolent alternatives affect international support for violent rebel groups? Armed rebellions are often sustained by outside sympathy and support, whic...

journals.sagepub.com

How does rapid urban growth affect the risk of electoral violence in African cities? In a new article (open access in World Development), I find that cities growing more rapidly were at higher risk of electoral violence. doi.org/10.1016/j.wo... (1/9)

Joakim Medin: ”Jag är ännu mer motiverad att fortsätta bevaka auktoritära krafter, hur sådana makthavare fungerar. … Jag har i många år skrivit om hur mänskliga rättigheter kränks och det här gör mig bara ännu mer övertygad om att det är fortsatt viktigt.”

Joakim Medins första ord hemma: ”Trycket över bröstet försvann så fort vi lättade från marken”

”Egentligen skulle jag ha varit i Polen för att skriva om det viktiga presidentvalet i helgen. Men det sket sig.”

etc.se

This new article on rebel leader training and the duration of civil wars by @tappeortiz.bsky.social in Journal of Peace Research looks very interesting! ⤵️ journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Trained to rebel: Rebel leaders’ military training and the dynamics of civil conflicts - Juliana Tappe Ortiz, 2025

Rebel leaders can prolong civil wars. Although past research has examined how rebel groups have shaped civil wars, little attention has been paid to rebel leade...

journals.sagepub.com

🔈 Very enlightening interview with @chenoweth.bsky.social on civil resistance against the Trump administration. Both a great primer on civil resistance research and a good analysis of the current challenges and opportunities! ⤵️ podcasts.apple.com/se/podcast/w...

Protests, Political Violence and Its Alternatives with Erica Chenoweth

Poddavsnitt · Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast · 2025-05-06 · 58 min

podcasts.apple.com

PEN Sweden (@pensweden.bsky.social) member Joakim Medin stands trial in Ankara tomorrow on spurious ‘insult to the president’ grounds. We urge #Türkiye to drop all charges and to release him immediately. Read more ➡️ www.pen-international.org/news/trkiye-... @etc.se

Türkiye: Free PEN member Joakim Medin  — PEN International | Promoting Literature & Defending Freedom of Expression Worldwide

‘By prosecuting Joakim Medin, a Swedish national, the authorities of Türkiye are clearly seeking to muzzle the foreign press and intimidate all journalists into silence. We urge the authorities to end...

pen-international.org

Several people injured in Uppsala after reports of gunfire, police say

Several people injured in Uppsala after reports of gunfire, police say

Police say people ‘have been found with injuries that indicate gunfire’ after loud bangs heard in Swedish city Swedish police said on Tuesday that several people in the city of Uppsala in eastern Sweden had been found with injuries that indicated gunfire after loud bangs were heard in the city. The police said in a statement that they had received calls from members of the public who said they had heard noise that sounded like gunfire in the centre of the city. Continue reading...

theguardian.com

Liverpool FC ❤️❤️❤️

I dag har Joakim suttit fängslad av den auktoritära turkiska regimen i tre veckor på diffusa, fabricerade anklagelser. Hans fall är redan på väg in i medieskugga och Sverige gör för lite offentligt. Turkiet har klarat av den inledande fasen då kritiken var som starkast och kan nu sitta stilla.