iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by David Blagden

University of Exeter News @uniofexeternews.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

"this is a useful bit of extra money that will help to sustain the current programme; it’s not a massive splurge that will allow the services to meaningfully increase their numbers of soldiers, ships or aircraft" - @blagdendavid.bsky.social on #defencespending www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

theguardian.com

New spending on drones and lasers will ‘revolutionise’ UK defence, says Reeves

Chancellor says new money will help turn Britain into a ‘defence industrial superpower’

021

Reposted by David Blagden

Council on Geostrategy @congeostrategy.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

‘The choice has been made, and so now the Navy – and the citizenry it protects – must hope that yet more cuts in the present lead to a better future force before that future turns violent,’ writes @blagdendavid.bsky.social, @exeter.ac.uk #BigAsk #BritainsWorld

britainsworld.org.uk

Is Britain right to sacrifice capability today for ‘jam’ tomorrow?

The Big Ask | No. 15.2025

012

Reposted by David Blagden

University of Exeter News @uniofexeternews.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

"The choice has been made, and so now the Royal Navy must hope the cuts borne in the present are offset by a superior fleet in future … and that that superior fleet arrives before future risks turn into present dangers" - by @blagdendavid.bsky.social thecritic.co.uk/losing-our-s...

thecritic.co.uk

Losing our ships | David Blagden | The Critic Magazine

Earlier this month, the UK Ministry of Defence finally confirmed what had long been expected — that the Royal Navy’s last two amphibious assault ships, HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark, will be sold to a…

011

Reposted by David Blagden

Adam Humphreys @adamhumphreys.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

It was a pleasure to speak to Exeter SSI and @cais-exeter.bsky.social yesterday about my new book Causal Inquiry in International Relations (open access: fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/...). Thanks to @blagdendavid.bsky.social and @profalexp.bsky.social for organizing

fdslive.oup.com

053

Reposted by David Blagden

University of Exeter News @uniofexeternews.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

"The US and Israeli governments – plus the governments of other states that could yet get dragged in – now have choices to make about whether to strike again when the question of Iranian capability advancement returns in future" - @blagdendavid.bsky.social www.newstatesman.com/internationa...

newstatesman.com

There won't be a 'final victory' for Iran or Israel

Washington, Tehran and Jerusalem still have choices to make about whether to strike again.

011

Reposted by David Blagden

Andrea Ghiselli @andreaghiselli.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

I’ve never participated in such kind of events. So, thanks to the students behind the Exeter Debating Society for the invitation to share the stage with @blagdendavid.bsky.social and talk international politics!

021

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

One downside (among many) of the USA's descent into hostile revisionism towards allies is that those allies are less likely to listen when Americans make good points.

093

Reposted by David Blagden

Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

This is an excellent speech by the new Chancellor of Oxford University, William Hague. Lots of good jokes, but also a staunch defence of what a university should be. We're going to need a lot of that in the years ahead.

727253

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

The indefatigable Patrick Porter and I have a piece in The Critic on flaws in the Chagos deal, progressive realism, and how a superior version of the latter - that could yet dodge the pitfalls of the former - is still there for the taking. thecritic.co.uk/has-the-chag...

thecritic.co.uk

Has the Chagos Islands deal killed progressive realism? | David Blagden and Patrick Porter | The Critic Magazine

Whatever happened to progressive realism? As you may recall, that was the foreign policy doctrine declared by the incoming Labour government’s foreign secretary, David Lammy. The short answer is that…

042

Reposted by David Blagden

Tony Juniper @tonyjuniper.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

The @Telegraph excels itself today with the claim that @NaturalEngland is ‘ideologically wedded to concept of conservation’. This is our job, & we do it as a matter of legal requirement. Would be odd for a conservation organisation to do anything else. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02...

telegraph.co.uk

Natural England accused of favouring rewilding over saving farmland

Calls for body to be scrapped for being ‘ideologically wedded to concept of conservation and removing food production from the countryside’

2441498

Reposted by David Blagden

Gregory Koblentz @gregkoblentz.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

This is not the right way to do denuclearization, however you define it. www.npr.org/2025/02/13/n...

031

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

P.S. Yes, there *is* a 'steelman' case for the deal (trying to be as empathetic as possible)...it's just countered by a hefty set of downsides.

010

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

(Obviously, there are plenty of more right-coded objections to this deal...but since those on the right already tend to be more persuaded, since it's not their team pushing it, thought it worth having out some potential problems from the opposite perspective)

110

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Or, put more bluntly: want to do free breakfast for school children? Rebuild the NHS while keeping it public? Improve our crumbling infrastructure? Build homes for young people? Great! So why make it easier for opponents to gut all that in 2029 by surrendering to foreign revisionists?

110

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Overall then, even if your inclination is towards normative alignment with international law (dubious here) and decolonisation (which this deal isn't), how far are you willing to jeopardise progressive domestic goals to hand UK Chagossian citizens' homeland to an imperial power...and pay to do so?

110

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

11. Even if you're a staunch believer in international law, the case is tortuous here. It comes down to Chagos having previously been administered from Mauritius, for mere efficiency's sake, while both were UK colonies. So, ironically, the basis for the legal claim is...colonial.

120

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

10. The Faragists (again). In the same week that one (admittedly marginal) poll placed Nigel's fanclub first, why would you gift them a MASSIVE stick with which to beat Labour on charges of being unpatriotic / anti-British? Especially after so much work to shed that taint.

110

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

9. Russia and China. Ok, you may not relish 'great-power competition' etc. But one is currently conducting ethnic cleansing in Eastern Europe, the other has a >million Uyghurs in concentration camps. So any progressive foreign policy should prize bases from which to counter them.

130

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

8. Trump. Worried that America's mad king could prove a menace? The UK has few levers more potent vs the US than Diego Garcia. But give BIOT away and - best-case - the UK becomes an extraneous middle-man. Tragicomic outcome is UK cedes sovereignty, then Mauritius sells DG to the US.

120

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

7. £18bn (yet again). You may hope that it doesn't cut through. But Reform, the Conservatives, and even the Lib Dems will be trying to make sure it does. The opponents of every single Labour incumbent in 2028-29 will be pointing at the nearest pothole and saying "£18bn would fix that".

130

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

6. £18bn (again). That number is politically deadly. Yes, the public finances Labour inherited were in a parlous state. But if this deal goes through, that line's done for. Every single thing that's cut / wasn't funded will be hit with "but you found £18bn for Mauritius".

130

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

5. £18bn. Or some inflation-uplifted version of £9bn. Either way, it's massive. Yes, it'll be spread over time, and subsidised by the US (unless Trump's US cuts UK out - see below). But even so, you could do a massive amount of social good with even part of that figure.

120

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

4. The Chagos Marine Protected Area is currently one of the world's largest and most important. Yet Mauritian interest in the islands is overtly economic (hence holding out for an even larger payment than the original deal). So, that nature reserve's getting ransacked.

130

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

3. Real atonement for the UK's heinous original act of forced depopulation would therefore be to enable the islanders/descendants to return to the archipelago, if they wanted to - even at significant (but still <£18bn!) expense - not just handing the issue to another state.

120

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

2. That different imperial power has behaved illiberally. Most obviously, by criminalising dissent against its sovereignty claim, including by those overseas...which, perversely, could to lead to Chagossians who've voiced such dissent facing sanction if they attempt to return.

120

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

1. It's not actually decolonisation. It's giving the Chagossian homeland to a different imperial power that never previously governed the islands, and which has - at least in recent years - treated the Chagossians worse than the UK.

140

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Probably not the most popular first foray on here, but - under the urgings of people I respect - here's something done elsewhere... The Left-Wing Case Against the Chagos Deal 🧵

2195

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Ha, thanks man. Trying to keep the jowls out of shot...

010

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

I finally pulled my finger out and got on here...happy Thursday, acquaintances old and new!

10949

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Thanks for the warm welcome! Even if my recent takes on that particularly thorny box of frogs do precede me... 😳

010

David Blagden @blagdendavid.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Thanks for the warm welcome! Finally pulled my finger out and got around to it...

021

Reposted by David Blagden

Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Excellent news. Do follow @blagdendavid.bsky.social on U.K. defence and security policy. Among other things, he has a lot to say about the Chagos Islands Deal.

5276

Reposted by David Blagden

Jamie Gaskarth @jamiegaskarth.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Good to see @blagdendavid.bsky.social on here! Well worth a follow if British foreign/defence policy is your bag.

174