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Aleksandra Spalinska

@alexspalinska.bsky.social
5.9K followers 730 following 63 posts

IR theory, world order, non-state actors, hybrid and irregular warfare, new medievalism, postmodernity. Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Charles University; Research Associate, Sussex; and a Visit Fellow, Global Security Programme, Pembroke College, Oxford.

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Reposted by Aleksandra Spalinska
Kseniya Oksamytna @kseniyaoksamytna.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Our article, "Colonial and Anti-Colonial Discourses of Peace in Ukraine", co-authored with two fantastic colleagues, @bohdanakurylo.bsky.social and @yuliaioffe.bsky.social, is forthcoming in @iajournal.bsky.social! While we wait for the proofs, here's the pre-print: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
Colonial and Anti-Colonial Discourses of Peace in Ukraine
This article analyses competing discourses of peace in the Russo-Ukrainian war by asking how they reproduce, enable, or resist relations of colonial domination.
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Dr Bohdana Kurylo @bohdanakurylo.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
“There is no independent Ukraine without an independent Poland, and no independent Poland without an independent Ukraine.” Came across this in Przemyśl during my fieldwork in Poland this summer, where I studied how cross-border infrastructure helps sustain Ukraine through the war.
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Aleksandra Spalinska @alexspalinska.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Thrilled that my book, "Neomedievalism in International Relations: Scattering the International, Elucidating the Empire", has been selected as the IR Book of the Week" by @profpaulpoast.bsky.social! Looking forward to more discussions on medievalism, modernity, the international and empire in IR!
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Aleksandra Spalinska @alexspalinska.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Thrilled that my book, "Neomedievalism in International Relations: Scattering the International, Elucidating the Empire", has been selected as the IR Book of the Week" by @profpaulpoast.bsky.social! Looking forward to more discussions on medievalism, modernity, the international and empire in IR!
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Paul Poast @profpaulpoast.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
IR Book of the Week! "Neomedievalism in International Relations" by @alexspalinska.bsky.social. What's old is new again. Drawing on the work of Hedley Bull, book argues that, from tech firms to militant groups, we could be entering a new, global "Middle Ages"
amazon.com
Neomedievalism in International Relations: Scattering the International, Elucidating the Empire (New International Relations)
Neomedievalism in International Relations: Scattering the International, Elucidating the Empire (New International Relations) - Kindle edition by Spalińska, Aleksandra. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Neomedievalism in International Relations: Scattering the International, Elucidating the Empire (New International Relations).
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Aleksandra Spalinska @alexspalinska.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
It's May Day, and I'm thrilled to say that this week I started my Visiting Fellowship at the Global Security Programme, Pembroke College, University of Oxford 😃 I will be a Visiting Fellow through the Trinity term and the summer. www.globalsecurity.pmb.ox.ac.uk/about-us/our...
globalsecurity.pmb.ox.ac.uk
Global Security Programme
The Global Security Programme ­­(GSP), is based at Pembroke College, University of Oxford
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Aleksandra Spalinska @alexspalinska.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
It's May Day, and I'm thrilled to say that this week I started my Visiting Fellowship at the Global Security Programme, Pembroke College, University of Oxford 😃 I will be a Visiting Fellow through the Trinity term and the summer. www.globalsecurity.pmb.ox.ac.uk/about-us/our...
globalsecurity.pmb.ox.ac.uk
Global Security Programme
The Global Security Programme ­­(GSP), is based at Pembroke College, University of Oxford
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MAKS 26 👀🇺🇦 @maks23.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
🇮🇷🇺🇸 Syrian Kurds warn Iran’s Kurds against aligning with the U.S. to fight Tehran, citing their own experience of being “abandoned” by Washington after years of cooperation, - Reuters
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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Join us live now! snyder.substack.com/live-stream/...
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Geoff Martin @geoffmartin.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Every year I teach Hedley Bull's version of Neomedievalism from the late 1970s. Looking forward to this! "Regional blocs" particularly relevant in the contemporary period.
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Seán Molloy @seanmolloyir.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
It is an excellent idea to expand on one of the more important ways of thinking about IR.
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Filip Ejdus @filipejdus.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
Call for Papers, Contesting Imperialism(s), CEEISA Annual Conference, Sarajevo 17-19 June 2026. Submit your papers or panels until March 2026! Program chairs: Aida Hozić and Dženeta Karabegović ceeisa2026.com
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Aleksandra Spalinska @alexspalinska.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Thrilled to say that my new book, "Neomedievalism in International Relations: Scattering the International, Elucidating the Empire," has officially gone into production with Routledge in the book series The New International Relations, and will be published this summer! 😃😊
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Aleksandra Spalinska @alexspalinska.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Thrilled to say that my new book, "Neomedievalism in International Relations: Scattering the International, Elucidating the Empire," has officially gone into production with Routledge in the book series The New International Relations, and will be published this summer! 😃😊
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European International Studies Association (EISA) @europeanisa.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
🚨 The deadline for #EISAPEC26 abstract submission is tomorrow!
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Duncan Bell @duncanbell.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
NEW BOOK! I'm very happy to say that my new book, Utopia, co-written with Douglas Mao, has been published on-line academic.oup.com/book/62279
academic.oup.com
Utopia
Abstract. Ideal societies, better worlds, more just and peaceful ways of living: these have long been the stuff of human beings’ social dreaming. In this c
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Aleksandra Spalinska @alexspalinska.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Only 10 days to go -- submit your abstracts before it's too late! #EISAPEC26 @europeanisa.bsky.social Our Standing Section on "Exploring World Politics Beyond the State System" (with @jkleinschmidt.bsky.social) examines non-state and societal dimensions of world politics. Deadline: 19 February
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Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
"By “unequivocally” rejecting all analogies, it [the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum] has erected a fence around the Holocaust that ensures that its moral lessons will be forgotten." www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...
nybooks.com
Never Again, Once Again | Peter E. Gordon
A few years ago, in the early summer of 2019, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum declared on its website that it “unequivocally rejects efforts
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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 08/02/2026
Father-daughter relationships can be characterized by emotional distance, Isabel Woodford writes. She reports on what each side has to lose from a strained relationship, and how they can rebuild trust: theatln.tc/Z24T48bO
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Dan Nexon @dhnexon.net · 30/01/2026
🧵Grim irony: boosters of Trump FP from his first term onwards have argued that, unlike this predecessors, he "gets" the transition from unipolarity to multipolarity. But the biggest part of that transition is the availability of alternative "goods providers" to the 🇺🇸 — which means reduced 🇺🇸leverage.
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European International Studies Association (EISA) @europeanisa.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
✅ WS B - The Eastern Mediterranean in International Society: Identifying the Challenges and Opportunities for Building a Regional Order 🔗 Find a full list of workshops and descriptions here: buff.ly/zIxO8WE
WS B - The Eastern Mediterranean in International Society: Identifying the Challenges and Opportunities for Building a Regional Order. Thomas Diez. Ipek Ruacan.
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European International Studies Association (EISA) @europeanisa.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
✅ WS A - Between Fragmentation and Solidarity: Memory and Identity in Post-Communist Central Europe 🔗 Find a full list of workshops and descriptions here: buff.ly/zIxO8WE
WS A - Between Fragmentation and Solidarity: Memory and Identity in Post-Communist Central Europe. Kinga Anna Gajda. Krzysztof Kozbial.
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European International Studies Association (EISA) @europeanisa.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
✅ WS NA - Navigating a Fractured World: UCD and the Current Conjuncture 🔗 Find a full list of workshops and descriptions here: buff.ly/zIxO8WE
WS NA - Navigating a Fractured World: UCD and the Current Conjuncture. Ciaran McCallum. Justin Rosenberg.
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European International Studies Association (EISA) @europeanisa.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
✅ WS CB - Hybrid Security in a Fractured World: The Red Sea and Beyond 🔗 Find a full list of workshops and descriptions here: buff.ly/zIxO8WE
WS CB - Hybrid Security in a Fractured World: The Red Sea and Beyond. May Darwich. Federico Donelli.
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European International Studies Association (EISA) @europeanisa.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
✅ WS H - Memory in World Politics: Forms, Claims, and Mediating Structures 🔗 Find a full list of workshops and descriptions here: buff.ly/zIxO8WE
WS H - Memory in World Politics: Forms, Claims, and Mediating Structures. Daniel J. Levine. Nilay Gencer.
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European International Studies Association (EISA) @europeanisa.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
✅ WS T - The Emotional Architecture of Global Peace: Gratitude, Empathy, and Affective Justice 🔗 Find a full list of workshops and descriptions here: buff.ly/zIxO8WE
WS T - The Emotional Architecture of Global Peace: Gratitude, Empathy, and Affective Justice. Rainer Ricardo. Jolanta Szymkowska-Bartyzel.
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European International Studies Association (EISA) @europeanisa.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
✅ WS WA - Second Atomic Youth? Middle Powers, Nuclear Weapons Proliferation and the Waning of the Liberal World Order 🔗 Find a full list of workshops and descriptions here: buff.ly/zIxO8WE
WS WA - Second Atomic Youth? Middle Powers, Nuclear Weapons Proliferation and the Waning of the Liberal World Order. Lukasz Wyszynski. Mateusz Filar-Szczepanik.
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Steven Seegel @stevenseegel.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Believe your own eyes. Not lies. Witnesses coming forward, with courage, not state propaganda.
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Shifting Sovereignties @shiftingsovs.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
Check out the new Oxford Handbook of Constituent Power edited by Peter Niesen, Markus Patberg @mpatberg.bsky.social and Lucia Rubinelli @luxirubsi.bsky.social global.oup.com/academic/pro...
global.oup.com
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Shifting Sovereignties @shiftingsovs.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
When we started working on Shifting Sovereignties, friends suggested that sovereignty would be an irrelevant issue and out-dated concept by the time the book is being published... we truly wish they had been right. 🤷‍♂️
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Vasabjit Banerjee @vasabjit.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
China has had a purge of top military leaders. Most expect this to hobble Chinese preparations to invade Taiwan. However, I think it also increases the chances that the civilian political leadership wants a more ideologically committed military to do exactly that; perhaps with higher casualties.
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Elizabeth N. Saunders @profsaunders.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Do better. Call your buddy George W. Bush and show up together in Minneapolis. Don’t just write statements. DO something with your megaphone.
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Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
This underestimates how far ICE and CBP's recruitment pool is among GWOT veterans who more professional American law enforcement institutions won't hire, and who are now bringing back to the US practices common among the least disciplined US infantry and SOF in Iraq and Afghanistan
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Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
ICE’s new policy directing agents to ignore the 4th Amendment is one of the most frightening things we’ve seen yet. And there’s no telling where it could end up. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...
open.substack.com
Breaking the Fourth Amendment
Last night, we learned from a report in the Associated Press that ICE, contrary to longstanding Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, is taking the position that it can enter people’s homes without a judici...
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Aleksandra Spalinska @alexspalinska.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
We're halfway there! Submit your abstracts to our Standing Section on "Exploring World Politics Beyond the State System: Spaces, Relations, and Struggles" at #EISAPEC26 by 19 February! @jkleinschmidt.bsky.social and I are looking forward to seeing you in beautiful Lisbon! @europeanisa.bsky.social
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Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
William Whyte, The University: A History in Stone, Silk, and Blood - @harvardpress.bsky.social, August 2026 www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...
hup.harvard.edu
The University — Harvard University Press
A sweeping history of the buildings and materials that have shaped nine centuries of university life, from parchments and silk robes to glass atriums and sprawling parking lots.We often idealize the u...
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Jochen Kleinschmidt @jkleinschmidt.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
The EISA Standing Section "World Politics Beyond the State System" (chaired by @alexspalinska.bsky.social and yours truly) explores non-state and societal dimensions of world politics: e.g. heterarchy, multiplicity, and other novel ontological approaches in IR. Deadline: February 19 #EISAPEC26
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Chatham House @chathamhouse.org · 15/01/2026
Conflicts across Africa, such as in Sudan, the Horn of Africa or the Sahel, remain unresolved as international attention and mediation efforts are stretched or focused elsewhere.
chathamhouse.org
Africa in 2026: Global uncertainty demands regional leadership
Africa can no longer rely on intermittent international attention to safeguard peace, democracy and economic resilience.
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Edward Hunter Christie @ehunterchristie.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
A must-read about the tech oligarchs that support an imperialist approach to Greenland, motivated by its resources and large land mass for all manner of exploitation and experimentation, and not subject to European-style laws and regulations.
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Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Of course Europeans understand the importance of regional identity in Europe, but they are often so focused on the pomp and circumstance of national American global power that they ignore how important sub-national identities are to American political culture
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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
A really nice piece by Walt Frick on the AI as cultural and social technology argument that a bunch of us have been making. I should say that "cultural arithmetic" is based on something I _think_ that I read in @quantamagazine.bsky.social but can't now find ... www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
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Jochen Kleinschmidt @jkleinschmidt.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
euromaidanpress.com/2026/01/09/f...
euromaidanpress.com
Frontline report: Russia’s elite force in Venezuela vanished without a fight - Euromaidan Press
While Cuban troops died protecting Maduro, Russian operatives quietly slipped away, revealing a stunning betrayal.
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Jochen Kleinschmidt @jkleinschmidt.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Interesting. This would fit the narrative of a Trump-Russia deal over Maduro. It does not explain the apparently complete lack of engagement from Cuban & Venezuelan forces, but then we're still lacking many data points here.
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
NATO is a voluntary, mutually beneficial alliance, not a protection racket or extortion scheme. If it’s forfeit land as tribute or no NATO, that effectively means no NATO. The threat itself, even if not acted upon, undermines the trust and credibility that makes the alliance function.
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Gustav Meibauer @meibauir.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
Entirely as literally everyone predicted.
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Aleksandra Spalinska @alexspalinska.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
Winter wonderland in Warsaw ❄️🌨️🩵🩵
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Christian Odendahl @codendahl.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
The leftist group “Vulkangruppe” which claims to have sabotaged Berlin’s power supply is oddly bad at proper German. One detail suggests it was translated from Russian with AI or some such. www.berlinstory.de/news/stromau...
berlinstory.de
Stromausfall in Berlin - kyrillische Fehler im Text? - Berlin Story News
Seit Tagen ist der Strom in Teilen Berlins ausgefallen – eine Reparatur des Schadens wird noch Tage dauern. Das Bekennerschreiben könnte Hinweise auf russische Saboteure geben. Das Ziel wäre nicht mal...
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Aleksandra Spalinska @alexspalinska.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
Clear, cold and bright Christmas Day sky in the Polish countryside ❄️☀️ Merry Christmas, everyone! 🎄🎁 Joy, peace, serenity and hope.
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Shifting Sovereignties @shiftingsovs.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
New article by Taimur Reza on "Vicarious Sovereignty: The Place of Extraterritorial Turkey in the Vision of Bengali Muslims (1890–1917)" www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
Vicarious Sovereignty: The Place of Extraterritorial Turkey in the Vision of Bengali Muslims (1890–1917) | Modern Intellectual History | Cambridge Core
Vicarious Sovereignty: The Place of Extraterritorial Turkey in the Vision of Bengali Muslims (1890–1917)
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