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Gerard Toal

@critgeopolitics.bsky.social
4.7K followers 909 following 941 posts

Political Geographer from 🇮🇪 Slow knowledge producer

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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Simon Kuper on Gianni Infantino: the Swiss son of poor Italian immigrants may be exactly the FIFA president that most national football federations want. Free link as.ft.com/r/946066a2-f...
as.ft.com
Why Fifa’s Infantino is so hard to topple
As challengers emerge, patronage continues to underpin a tenacious presidency
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Our Critical Geopolitics seminar turns to this book tonight: highly recommended & relevant. Manchester City & Infantino's FIFA tenure indicative symptoms of a deeper societal & geopolitical challenge.
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Reposted by Gerard Toal
Hanna Notte @hannanotte.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
UK! I'm excited for my book tour next week & for discussing We Shall Outlast Them with amazing journalists and scholars. Events include the Frontline Club (with Catherine Belton & Emma Burrows) & Waterstones (with Arkady Ostrovsky) Full list below and at hannanotte.com/events/
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Never figured that these lads would be channeling Latour but no less than modernity is their subject it appears. My daughters are dead keen to hear the album especially the Rosalia collab.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
share.google/hHBvktokv8r3...
share.google
"But the fools, the fools, the fools!" - Pearse funeral oration re-enacted at Glasnevin
Pádraig Pearse speech at O’Donovan Rossa’s graveside ended: “Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.”
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Every Irish schoolchild learns about how the British executed a wounded James Connolly in a chair in 1916. Live-streaming such an event is a gift to his cause. “The fools, the fools…”
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
The book to read on the subject global.oup.com/academic/pro...
global.oup.com
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Great to hear the chorus of boos aimed at Man City, exposed serial cheaters in the Premier League. The fruit of allowing petro-states to buy clubs to sportswash their reputations.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
To dub Trump’s foreign policy “transactional” is to rationalize and elide its deeply fecked up psychological foundations.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Always siding with the abuser, not seeing the abused. That’s his persistence psychological disposition.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Every accusation a confession, as if his unconscious is telling us it knows he’s the terrible president who should be impeached & removed from office. www.irishtimes.com/world/europe...
irishtimes.com
US president Donald Trump says it is time for Ukraine to get rid of Zelenskiy
Extraordinary intervention came after Russian strikes killed at least 20 people in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Ukraine’s got cards. The era of cosy deals between “great powers” is over.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Wow! Another direct Republika Srpska connection to Trump's White House. For an impoverished entity, it sure has a lot of cash to spread around DC.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
They have been exposed and traumatized by Russia’s merciless war for more than 4 years. So how many Ukrainians exhibit the symptoms of PTSD? 31%+ according to the first article from a new comprehensive cross disciplinary panel study 👇🏼
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
When is there shame and why in Trumpland? I’m somewhat surprised that the corruption surrounding MAGA & the RS raised an eyebrow & merited a dictation to Natalie to post. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/07/u...
nytimes.com
Before Midterms, Trump Distances Himself From His Political Advisers’ Work Overseas
President Trump wrote on social media that the advisers, James Blair and Chris LaCivita, serve as “outside consultants” for his political operation.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I have completely given up submitting to NSF. Grant writing takes enormous effort & coordination. It’s difficult to land a grant in the best of times. With this lot, its rational to devote effort elsewhere.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
“we cannot dig up coal, ship it overseas, watch it drive climate change, and then pretend the consequences have nothing to do with us and won’t be felt by us,” www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Hunter Valley community group wins landmark high court climate change case over Mount Pleasant coalmine
Ruling on Mount Pleasant coalmine shows ‘we cannot continue to dig up coal … and pretend the consequences have nothing to do with us’, group says
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Bob Dole set a different course but was fine with the Islamophobia card when needed. And he welcomed all retainers when he set up shop on K Street.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
The GOP connection to the RS goes back to the very beginning, when Milosevic had US apologists in the Republican Party. I remember seeing James Jatras appear as a defense witness when Milosevic was at The Hague.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I’m in awe of the brazen purchase of influence by Dodik in Republika Srpska, and his ability to attract our finest swamp creatures. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/06/u...
nytimes.com
Amid Midterm Crunch, Trump Advisers Took Time to Help Russia-Aligned Government (Gift Article)
James Blair and Chris LaCivita, who are leading the president’s congressional campaign operation, traveled to Republika Srpska to provide election advice.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I presented last winter on 'authoritarian aura farming' on H Street in 2020 at Trinity College but haven't written it up yet.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Authoritarians fear public places of protest, desiring only monuments to their glory. The battle for DC space is ongoing. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
Inside Trump's Plan to Fence Off a Historic Protest Site
The president’s proposal to enclose a park in Washington could alter how the space has been used for generations.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Of course the reporter didn’t talk to any actual geographers for the piece, so a cliched chessboard “constraints and opportunities” vision remains doxa. 🥱🥱🥱
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
“In our lifetimes, though, since globalization gained momentum in the 1990s, technology has often eclipsed geography.” But it’s just a feeling, a time-space compression effect. And it’s wearing off as we come in for a hard landing on Earth (as Latour foresaw we would).
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
“Guess who’s back, back again” www.nytimes.com/2026/10/05/b...
nytimes.com
War With Iran Is Forcing the World to Reckon With Geography’s Power
Trade blockages in the Persian Gulf have reminded the world that there are forces as great as or greater than technology and globalization.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Exactly what I was looking for 🙏
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Well I certainly can’t refute his claims in depth but I do think someone should given its influence beyond academic circles. It’s insufficient to cancel him or label him a propagandist (though I think he’s not innocent on this front).
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
I had a conversation with him years ago, at ASN before 2022, and have the same impression as Maria. He’s sincere, a bit neurodiverse & too drawn to conspiracy. There’s also a personal bias at work concerning resentment over a property seizure. Not surprising his work appropriated by propagandists.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Is there a detailed refutation of Ivan's work that engages the same granular empirics he does? I have never found his definitive "false flag" conclusion persuasive but the empirics of his claim deserve debate. The propaganda war always seems to overwhelm scholarship on this.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Thank you for seeing it through to publication. I am sorry for your loss Roland and want you to know that her work and your joint work is being read and appreciated by students and teachers. 🙏
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The Irish team wear black armbands in honor of the dead killed in the conflict. Tonight UEFA has approved the Israeli team mirroring this to honor those murdered on 7 October.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
When Ireland play Israel tonight the Irish team will bow their heads during the Israeli national anthem. The terrific article below explains how discomfort and ritual can produce change in world politics.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Hawking conspiracism.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
newyorker.com
Jared Kushner’s Dollar Diplomacy
Jared Kushner represents the kind of Washington figure for whom public office serves as a means to extraordinary wealth.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Crazy this paragraph was written 6+ years ago. And today there's an article on Kushner's "dollar diplomacy" in the latest edition of the New Yorker.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Its really interesting to listen to this book discussion today, especially John Ikenberry's remarks (minute 47-50) on how US hegemony can be renewed. All the strengths he lists are now in question. youtu.be/0z3R8W6vOW4?...
youtu.be
Alexander Cooley and Daniel Nexon: "Exit from Hegemony" (Princeton RWO)
YouTube video by Reimagining World Order
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
My Critical Geopolitics seminar tonight is revisiting this 2020 book by @cooleyoneurasia.bsky.social & @dhnexon.net. Both its theory & its Trump analysis still resonate. But we're much further along the unravelling road they describe. I understand there's a second edition in the works.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The framing of this article is an incitement to geopoliticization… But it’s a striking example of how we don’t really live in a “spheres of influence” world but one of dense extractive relations and systems
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“awarded 80 concessions that cover land roughly the size of Northern Ireland to Chinese miners” “Strategic foothold… gold” www.ft.com/content/4526...
ft.com
Gold-rich Nicaragua hands Chinese miners rights to a tenth of its land
Dozens of mining concessions deepen Beijing’s strategic foothold as it tussles with US for influence in Central America
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Reposted by Gerard Toal
Alex Dukalskis @alexdukalskis.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
My department - @ucdpolitics.bsky.social - is hiring two PERMANENT posts in any area of politics, international relations, theory, or development studies. Please apply if you are on the academic job market, and if you're not, please do us a solid & spread the word! Deadline NOV 9.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The International Criminal Court would indeed be a worthy Nobel Peace Prize winner. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Forget the famous names. Here is who actually deserves this year’s Nobel peace prize | Haakon Gjerløw
The betting markets favour the US president and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. But the most vital work to secure peace is being done by those far from the spotlight, says Haakon Gjerløw, acting director of the ...
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Two debacles playing out in Ireland presently, one on Gervaghy Road, one over the Ireland-Israel football match. Conflict entrepreneurship par excellence.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Masterful thread on the politics of conflict narratives in the Armenia-Azerbaijan reconciliation process.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
But as the Economist & other journalism recently underscores jet powered Shahids & more abundant missiles are inducing a new round of space-time compression in this awful war.
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
And this: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com
Domination by destruction: Russia’s antiurban way of war - Martin Coward, 2026
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has foregrounded its distinctively antiurban way of war. Historically, Russian warfighting has been intertwined with antiurban viol...
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This is helpful on the general question and is open access. share.google/OqXWmVWmnliw...
share.google
For a Feminist Geopolitics of Aerial Bombardment and Place Annihilation in the Drone Age
In its attention to urban aerial bombardment in World War II, geographer Kenneth Hewitt’s work charts the annihilation of place while carefully centering the devastation of civilian life therein. F...
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Academia is slow knowledge but one piece from March on "frontline cities" by E. Bataeva, a Ukrainian professor, deserves attention. share.google/B2Unsi0glHD4...
share.google
Front Line and Frontline Cities During the Russian–Ukrainian War in the Context of Border and Urban Studies
This article elaborates on the concept of the front line in the context of border studies and consider the societal peculiarities of Ukrainian frontline cities compared to other Ukrainian cities at...
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
That second line is from @economist.com briefing on 19 September 2026. Geographers have been thinking about the shifting geographies of targeting and war violence for some time. One theme is how the "frontline" is an evolving techno-geographic-material complex, now a "kill zone"
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Ukraine moves further toward the "everywhere war." "Where the war was once split between contested battle lines at the front and the weary but mostly safe cities farther back, drone innovations are now blurring the distinction. It is becoming harder to know where the battle area starts and stops."
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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
A decent appraisal of the ethics & politics of U2. We begrudge their success too much. U2's Irishness has gifted them moral clarity on many issues. If Ed Sheeran were Irish he wouldn't be as lost as he is.
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