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Connor O’Brien

@connorpobrien.bsky.social
478 followers 1.9K following 17 posts

Politics PhD @Cambridge_Uni, alumn @UniMelb. International political economy, global environmental politics, and Australian FP. Like/share ≠ endorse

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Department of Politics & International Studies, Uni of Cambridge @campolis.bsky.social · 17h
📄 New in Perspectives on Politics by POLIS PhD candidate @connorpobrien.bsky.social: ‘Good Governance as Responsible Sovereignty’ 🏛️ Reconstructing Francis Deng’s contributions to conflict management & global governance: 🔗 www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #PolSci #IntRelations #OpenAccess
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Shifting Sovereignties @shiftingsovs.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
New article by Connor O’Brien on "Good Governance as Responsible Sovereignty: Francis Deng and the Conflict–Development Nexus" www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
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Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · 03/08/2026
#OpenAccess from @poppublicsphere.bsky.social - Good Governance as Responsible Sovereignty: Francis Deng and the Conflict–Development Nexus - cup.org/4fIyOSk - @connorpobrien.bsky.social #FirstView
A group of people seated together, featured beneath the title "Perspectives on Politics" in bold letters. The image is overlaid with the hashtag "#OpenAccess."
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Connor O’Brien @connorpobrien.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Thrilled to have published my first journal article with @poppublicsphere.bsky.social ! It draws from my doctoral thesis on the diplomatic and intellectual history of the good governance agenda.
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Dr Alina Utrata @alinau27.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
Wonderful to have a contribution among these incredible and thoughtful scholars trying to make sense of the Silicon Valley technology elite and corporate forms of power and sovereignty 👇👇
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Christy Thornton @llchristyll.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
Heading up to Boston for our 2025 @hpe-project.bsky.social grantees research conference. This year’s theme is ‘Two, Three, Many Developmentalisms,’ and we have keynotes from Sarah Bellows-Blakely and Joel Suarez.
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Connor O’Brien @connorpobrien.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Very grateful for the opportunity to receive feedback from the @hpe-project.bsky.social community on my doctoral project, after receiving a HPE summer grant to conduct further archival and interview research in Geneva and Paris
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Dr Alina Utrata @alinau27.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Had a great time chatting with Connor O’Brien about little known financial tool called debt for nature swaps, the colonial history of sovereign debt and finance systems, and why finance guys are trying to offshore the planet. open.substack.com/pub/alinautr...
open.substack.com
Why Finance Guys Are Trying to Offshore the Planet
COP30: A Conversation with Connor O'Brien
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Connor O’Brien @connorpobrien.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Very grateful for the opportunity to receive feedback from the @hpe-project.bsky.social community on my doctoral project, after receiving a HPE summer grant to conduct further archival and interview research in Geneva and Paris
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Foreign Policy @foreignpolicy.com · 21/07/2025
The AUKUS review poses a fundamental challenge to the U.S.-Australia relationship, and Australian foreign policy generally. Three books consider the future of the alliance itself.
foreignpolicy.com
If AUKUS Is Toast, What Should Australia Do Next?
Amid Elbridge Colby’s review of the submarine deal, three books consider the future of the alliance itself.
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Connor O’Brien @connorpobrien.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Great to publish this @foreignpolicy.com review essay on the future of Australian foreign policy
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Connor O’Brien @connorpobrien.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
Australia is far too small to shape the regional balance of power via military means, and its defence spending will remain a rounding error in comparison to the US and China This is the inconvenient truth ignored by many pro-AUKUS commentators www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpre...
lowyinstitute.org
Australia should stop pretending to be a military hegemon
With its defence spending akin to a rounding error in comparison to China and the US, Australia must find other ways to exert power.
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The Lowy Institute @lowyinstitute.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
“Australia is particularly well placed to shape the medium- and long-term economic determinants of the regional distribution of power,” writes Connor O’Brien in The Interpreter. www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpret…
lowyinstitute.org
Australia should stop pretending to be a military hegemon
With its defence spending akin to a rounding error in comparison to China and the US, Australia must find other ways to exert power.
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Connor O’Brien @connorpobrien.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
As the debate about Australian defence commitments and AUKUS heats up, it’s worth questioning what all this spending is meant to be for To boost regional ties, Australia should instead be prioritising decisive multilateral action on trade, sovereign debt, and climate finance
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
"After first emerging in the interwar years, offshore tax havens proliferated during the era of decolonization. Postcolonial self-determination prompted the flight of imperial capital to offshore jurisdictions, many of which were current or former British dependent territories."
phenomenalworld.org
Offshoring the Planet | Connor O'Brien
A battle for jurisdictional control lies at the heart of the global green transition.
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Connor O’Brien @connorpobrien.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Thanks @phenomenalworld.bsky.social for publishing my essay ‘Offshoring the Planet’
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
"Debt-for-nature swaps and carbon credit trading represent the expansion of the offshore phenomenon as a logic of global South statecraft." NEW, Connor O'Brien on jurisdictional control over biodiversity and climate finance
phenomenalworld.org
Offshoring the Planet | Connor O'Brien
A battle for jurisdictional control lies at the heart of the global green transition.
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Connor O’Brien @connorpobrien.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
In my @phenomenalworld.bsky.social essay ‘Offshoring the Planet’, I explore how the offshore world is reshaping the global green transition (a 🧵1/7) t.co/8j7i8iXAIk
t.co
https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/offshoring-the-planet/
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Connor O’Brien @connorpobrien.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
In my @phenomenalworld.bsky.social essay ‘Offshoring the Planet’, I explore how the offshore world is reshaping the global green transition (a 🧵1/7) t.co/8j7i8iXAIk
t.co
https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/offshoring-the-planet/
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Connor O’Brien @connorpobrien.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Thanks @phenomenalworld.bsky.social for publishing my essay ‘Offshoring the Planet’
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Cambridge Review of International Affairs @cambridgecria.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
🚨CRIA is soliciting special issue proposals that contribute to scholarly debate and which examine pertinent and topical theoretical, empirical and methodological questions ⬇️ Deadline: 11 June
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Cambridge Review of International Affairs @cambridgecria.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
On 28 May, CRIA is running an ECR workshop on 'The Global Politics of the Green Transition'! Abstract submissions close on 7 April.
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
"Whatever the economy is, its reality does not exist independent of our ability to account for it." NEW: An adapted excerpt from The Real Economy by Jonathan Levy, out now from Princeton University Press.
phenomenalworld.org
The Real Economy | Phenomenal World
No discipline in the humanities or social sciences today has a convincing theory of the economy. Long preoccupied with honing methods, the core of the discipline of economics has abandoned investigati...
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Cambridge Review of International Affairs @cambridgecria.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
CRIA is hosting a roundtable on 'Concept Formation and Historical IR' (SA30) to kickoff our presence at the 2025 Chicago International Studies Association conference @isanet.bsky.social. Come along to The Barbershop (Blackstone Hotel) from 8:15am for a great discussion!
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Connor O’Brien @connorpobrien.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
Excited to be joining @alktaif.bsky.social as co-editor of the Cambridge Review of International Affairs @cambridgecria.bsky.social CRIA welcomes submissions on international affairs topics from across the social sciences!
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Benjamin H. Bradlow @bhbradlow.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
My new essay with @akentikelenis.bsky.social on green technology transfers in @phenomenalworld.bsky.social. www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/tec...
phenomenalworld.org
Transfer and Transition | Benjamin Bradlow & Alexandros Kentikelenis
Technology transfer is a necessity for a just global green transformation
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LSE Political Theory @lsepoltheory.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Our Emeritus Professor Anne Phillips has a joint review of the recent books on (in)equality by Paul Sagar, Darrin M McMahon, @brankomilan.bsky.social sky.social and @laywilliams.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/eprint/S9TIH...
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Dr Alina Utrata @alinau27.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
If the suspense was killing you, never fear! The episode with @rowenasquires.bsky.social is now available! We discuss the depiction of outer space colonialism in children's animation — from WALL-E, to Treasure Planet, to Disney's ex-Nazi rocket scientist open.substack.com/pub/alinautr...
open.substack.com
The Final Fun-Tier: WALL-E, Treasure Planet and Disney’s Nazi Rocket Scientist
A Conversation with Rowena Squires
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Jens van 't Klooster 💸💸💸 @jvtk.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Scary stuff by @laurielaybourn.bsky.social and @jamesgyke.bsky.social on the climate-inflation doom loop: As climate disruption kicks off, prices go up, central bankers hike and angry voters derail democratic systems, setting the stage for more disruption. theconversation.com/a-doom-loop-...
theconversation.com
A ‘doom loop’ of climate change and geopolitical instability is beginning
Climate change is driving inflation and instability, which harms climate action. But it’s not too late to escape the doom loop.
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James Goodwin @jamesgoodwin.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Check out my latest with @beaubaumann.bsky.social at @lpeblog.bsky.social: Legislative institutions and procedures will either work for or against the broader progressive agenda. It's time for LPE scholars to give more attention to fixing Congress. lpeproject.org/blog/what-do...
lpeproject.org
What Does LPE Have to Say About Congress?
In recent years, the LPE movement has generated compelling positions on the limits of the courts and the promise of the administrative state. Yet it is striking how little it has had to say about…
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Dr Alina Utrata @alinau27.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
This is an absolutely insane story - a must read!
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Jessica Green @greenprofgreen.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
I don't think climate policy folks have really wrestled w. how to deal with the IMMENSE concentration of wealth in the global economy. It creates a vicious feedback among "liberal" democracies. Gov’ts are beholden to firms that "support" their economies – in an increasingly volatile fashion. 1/2
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Juanita Uribe @uribejuanita.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Excited to share my new paper “Governing on par with states” published #openaccess in RIS @risjnl.bsky.social. I examine how private actors have shifted from entities to be regulated to being viewed as necessary part of solutions to global problems. 1/5 ⬇️ doi.org/10.1017/S026...
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Jessica Green @greenprofgreen.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Prospects for #climatefinance at #COP29 do not look good. Deadlock can provide an opportunity for issue linkage. It’s time to get creative and think outside the #UNFCCC box. Developing countries have options. They should swing for the fences. 🧵
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Kate Mackenzie @katemac.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Every time I see StanChart in this space I want to remind people of what the CEO said about carbon markets in 2021 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
StanChart Says Debt Discounts Make Africa Ripe for Nature Swaps
The deep discount at which many African countries’ debt trades makes the continent a prime location for debt-for-nature swaps, according to a banker who helped conclude the first execution of the inst...
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