iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Edward Goldring @edwardgoldring.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

“Teaching Autocracy and Autocratic Politics” is now out. To my knowledge, this is the first book that considers how instructors can teach about autocracy in a university setting. www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/tea...

e-elgar.com

Teaching Autocracy and Autocratic Politics

‘This is a terrific and thoughtful book about a question our field has overlooked: how to teach the politics of authoritarianism well. Filled with creative ideas and practical tools, it will be invalu...

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Amy Remeikis @amyremeikis.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Being a freelancer means this would be all his own gear and he’s now going to have to cover the costs of repair/replacing anything damaged himself. Insecure work costs workers in so many different ways.

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Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

The world is so much poorer for not having Jon Kudelka in it

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Steven Heydemann @stevenhyde.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Will not be mourned or missed. But he will be remembered as a mass murderer.

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Anita Gohdes @argohdes.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

I always learn so much from reading @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social 's work - and you should too. Here she writes about AI and disinformation surrounding the protests and atrocities in Iran: www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

theatlantic.com

How Doubt Became a Weapon in Iran

AI manipulation, and the very suspicion of it, serves those who have the most to hide.

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Carla Winston @carlawinston.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Just gonna draw everyone's attention to these three:

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Michael Hanna @mwhanna.crisisgroup.org · 12/12/2025

A real throwback with Marc in FP writing about the MB and designation. As a frequent critic of the Brothers, I would just add that words should have meaning, particularly when they are tied to legal consequence. Holding noxious political/religious views is quite obviously not tantamount to terrorism

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Mohamad Bazzi @mbazzi.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

“Like millions of Syrians in the diaspora, I had resigned myself to the idea that I may never see my birth country without Assad in charge. But an 11-day rebel offensive led by Ahmed al-Sharaa changed all of that” — powerful, personal essay by @hhassan.bsky.social on anniversary of Assad's fall

time.com

What Syria Achieved One Year Ago

I still remember the euphoria I felt the morning Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime was toppled, writes Hassan Hassan.

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Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

A reminder that seven years ago almost to the day, the CIA determined that Mohammed Bin Salman ordered the killing of @washingtonpost.com journalist Jamal Khashoggi. I hired and worked with Jamal for a year. www.washingtonpost.com/world/nation...

washingtonpost.com

CIA concludes Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination

Audio recordings, intercepted phone calls and other intelligence link Mohammed bin Salman to killing that Saudis say was conducted by rogue elements.

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Syria Notes @syrianotes.org · 14/11/2025

Prosecutors say a Syrian security official accused of torture hid in plain sight in Europe for years, protected by Israeli and Austrian intelligence agents. On Wednesday, Brig. Gen. Khaled al-Halabi, 62, was indicted and charged. @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/w...

nytimes.com

War Crimes Indictment Reveals a Hard Road to Justice for Syria

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Adam Scharpf @ascharpf.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Many dictatorships use foreign helpers to influence democracies. In our new study, we examine why, when, which authoritarian regimes employ Western PR firms - a particularly important type of foreign helper. Study + summary are open-access 👇 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

tandfonline.com

Dictatorships and Western Public Relations Firms: Evidence from the United States

Why and when do dictatorships use Western public relations (PR) firms? About 80% of post-World War II dictatorships have enlisted US-based PR specialists. The emerging literature has provided no sy...

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Anita Gohdes @argohdes.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

We are hiring a PhD student to join us at the @hertiesecurity.bsky.social (start Sept. 2026)! If you want to conduct research on topics related to digital authoritarianism, state repression, contentious politics or social movements online, then this job might be for you!

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Australian Journal of International Affairs @austjia.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

🚨Delighted to announce the winner of the Boyer Prize for best article published in the AJIA in 2024. Warm congrats to @liammoore.bsky.social for this paper analysing the complexity of 🇦🇺relations with Pacific states. #OpenAccess www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.... #AcademicPublishing

ABSTRACT
I argue the instrumental, paternalistic strategic culture often adopted in Australian foreign policy circles is counter-productive, preventing Australia from having productive and sustainable relationships with Pacific states. If Australian officials want to follow through on rhetorical commitments to enhance Australia's relationships in the Pacific, Australia must actively recognise the agency Pacific states have and place itself within this community of actors. Australia often positions itself as part of the 'Pacific family, but to be a collaborative member of this family it must go beyond headline commitments and fundamentally reconsider the evolving agency of small Pacific states and how this shapes Australia's interactions with them. We can understand this through the lens of normative communities.
Revisiting
constructivist International Relations theory, I reexamine who is included and excluded in the communities of actors that norms apply to. This has particularly significant implications around norms of climate change action and mitigation. Australia has historically tried to water down agreements and slow-role actions in this space. The ongoing bid to host COP31 perhaps offers an opportunity to both show leadership on climate-related issues and to reconfigure assumptions around Pacific agency and address the effects this has on Australia's relationships in the Pacific.

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Tim McLellan @timmclellan.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Private consultants are taking control of how public universities are evaluated and run. My submission to the Senate university governance inquiry raises concerns about the impact of Nous Group and their dodgy UniForum data on our universities. www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStor... A thread

Image shows a screenshot of the conclusion of the linked Senate inquiry submission. This text can be found on page 10.

The text is too long for alt text, but here is the first three quarters of the text:

Conclusion

Over the past decade, Nous Group’s UniForum data has quietly taken on the status of authoritative benchmark for the quality of a range of professional and academic services performed by public universities in Australia and across the world. This authoritative status is performed through scientific-looking graphs and scientific-sounding jargon designed to imply UniForum data is generated through rigorous methods and backed by expert consensus. This performance of authority is significant: it lends UniForum data an air of credibility and facticity that makes acting upon its results irresistible.

When one begins to open the black box and examine how UniForum data is actually produced, however, it becomes difficult to justify the degree to which Australian university executives are relying upon it in their decision-making. My analysis is based on a review of publicly available documents, and it is therefore possible that Nous or its clients would point to things not in the public domain that address some of the conceptual and methodological flaws that I have highlighted in UniForum. But the fact that the underlying UniForum data and methodology is not in the public domain is itself one of the key causes for concerns. When the stakes are so high, it cannot be acceptable for Nous Group and its clients to simply tell university staff and governing councils, ‘trust us, these numbers are based on rigorous methods and analysis.’ The lack of rigor, external scrutiny, and transparency in UniForum’s underlying data and methodology would be a cause for concern in any public institution, but it is especially concerning in the context of universities where rigorous, transparent, and accountable knowledge production is a core part of what we do. ...

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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

The amount of shit I got for this segment at the time was astronomical, and it was all from people who now stalk CVS employees to get them fired for insufficient online sadness. Cheering on political violence is both evil and not new, an outgrowth of an internet intentionally dismantled years ago.

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 15/09/2025

The Washington Post is a disgrace. You cannot stop ideas by firing the people who speak them. You can, however, temporarily hide them from yourself.

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Abu Aardvark @abuaardvark.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

Assassination with no limits - me on Israel’s shocking bombing of Qatar. I’m old enough to remember Israel trying to assassinate Khaled Mishal in Amman a few years after signing a peace treaty with Jordan so I’m not THAT shocked. But this is big, and bad. abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io/assassinatio...

abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io

Assassination With No Limits

Early in my academic career I spent a lot of time in Jordan. I still remember the shock across the country and King Hussein’s palp rage when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized an assassinati...

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Mai El-Sadany @maitelsadany.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

President Trump has just announced that Princeton University PhD student Elizabeth Tsurkov who was kidnapped in Baghdad in March 2023 and held by Kata'ib Hezbollah has been released and is now at the American Embassy in Iraq.

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Government and Opposition @govandopp.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

On #FirstView - "Digital Authoritarianism and the Global Technology Industry: Evidence from #Iran" - t.co/rvTrjmucvi by @daraconduit.bsky.social

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Global Responsibility to Protect journal @globalr2p.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

GR2P has an exciting double special issue on #Syria coming up, guest edited by @daraconduit.bsky.social from Uni of Melbourne and Yasmine Nahlawi from Dar Justice. It features Syrian authors and practitioners. Rread the introduction online at lnkd.in/gqvR6j6d @degruyterbrill.bsky.social

lnkd.in

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

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Anna Stavrianakis @annastavrianakis.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

In the current geopolitical and higher ed context, the publication of this special forum on "technologies of armed violence" is very dear to my heart: academic.oup.com/isagsq/issue... /1

academic.oup.com

Volume 5 Issue 2 | Global Studies Quarterly | Oxford Academic

Global Studies Quarterly is a fully open access journal that publishes original and innovative scholarship within the broad spectrum of topics, subfields, approaches, and metho...

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

The last day on which a majority of the Supreme Court’s justices had been appointed by Democratic presidents was May 14, 1969. One of the things we do in the legal academy is support our claims with facts.

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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 27/02/2025

Just finished up at RightsCon. The human rights world is absolutely reeling from the senseless cruelty of the Musk/Trump regime, but it was also extremely good to be reminded that there’s a lot of brilliant people around the world who refuse to bow down to dictators, whatever the odds.

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ARC Tracker @arc-tracker.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

The ARC Board has proposed a major shake-up of the National Competitive Grants Program ▶️ www.arc.gov.au/engage-us/co... I've only skimmed so far, but they propose reducing 13 grant schemes to 6, with intent & scope in the table👇 Submissions are being accepted in response until 13 April. Get to it!

Table from page 25 of the proposed restructure of ARC grants. Back text on white background, with the table delineated by a dark blue header row and alternating light and very light blue rows.

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Aron Lund @aronlund.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

On the one hand, the world desperately wants Syria to succeed, the war to end, and refugees to return. On the other hand: "The humanitarian response for Syria is significantly underfunded, having secured less than 10 per cent of the $1.2 billion needed through March." reliefweb.int/report/syria...

reliefweb.int

Syrian Arab Republic: Humanitarian Situation Report No. 1 (As of 12 February 2025) [EN/AR] - Syrian Arab Republic

Situation Report in Arabic on Syrian Arab Republic and 1 other country about Agriculture, Camp Coordination and Camp Management and more; published on 12 Feb 2025 by OCHA

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Michael Jennions @mikejennions.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Australian Researchers, If you want to support @arc-tracker.bsky.social being awarded a Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science, sign this letter of support. forms.gle/WxfVjk9JaGpn... Q: "Are they eligible?", A: "Let's find out" Sign, repost & send the link to colleagues. Word of mouth. Do it!

forms.gle

Letter of Support for nomination of @ARC_Tracker for a Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science

In signing this form you endorse the proposal to nominate @ARC_Tracker for a Eureka Prize in the category 'Leadership in Science'. The list of signatories will be appended to the nomination form. I wi...

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Government and Opposition @govandopp.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

New on #FirstView - "Digital Authoritarianism and the Global Technology Industry: Evidence from Iran" - tinyurl.com/5pmra43b by @daraconduit.bsky.social

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Timothy E. Kaldas @tekaldas.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

What happened in Syria will have reverberations across the region. As the 2019 uprisings reminded us, the Syrian people remind us once again; these kleptocratic repressive regimes are often hollow & despised by many of their own agents. Their fragility is regularly underestimated.

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Katrin Travouillon @ktravouillon.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

"Despite incredibly difficult days with increasing pain and medical complications, Emma retained her identity as an active scholar, supervisor, colleague and friend. This was Emma’s commitment to us, and to a better, more peaceful, more empathetic & thoughtful world" polsis.uq.edu.au/article/2024...

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Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Given fears that there may be new chemical attacks in Syria, here's a thread on some of the chemical munitions used in the past by the Syrian government. First, there's been two primary agents use, chlorine gas, and sarin, each associated with specific munitions.

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Dara Conduit @daraconduit.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Hey @benleruth.bsky.social, I’m getting some bearers replaced at our place this week. Do you want the old ones? 😱

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Thomas van Linge @thomasvlinge.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

#Syria: as the rebels retake land that was lost to them 5 to 9 years ago they find portraits of the regimes and their leaders which have been occupying the region in the meantime. Of course those portraits don't stay long.

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Jasmine K Gani @jasminekgani.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Today (online): 2024 BRISMES Annual Lecture "Witness to Genocide - In Conversation with Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah" Friday 29 November, 18:00-19:30 GMT. Event free & open to all, but registration required: brismes.ac.uk/events/annua... @nicolapratt.bsky.social

Brismes Annual Lecture with Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah 18.00 - 19.30 GMT. Click on link to register.

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Marc Owen Jones @marcowenjones.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Just a reminder that the deadline for the attached call for papers for the Propaganda Forum in Critical Studies in Media Communication is December 13! This issue is coordinated by me and @emmalbriant.bsky.social . Check out the CFP here docs.google.com/document/d/e...

media.tenor.com

a man is peeking out from behind a grassy hill and says `` did somebody say propaganda '' .

ALT: a man is peeking out from behind a grassy hill and says `` did somebody say propaganda '' .

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Shahar Hameiri @shaharhameiri.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

PLEASE SHARE: New PhD scholarship opportunity to work with me on my ARC-funded project examining how states and societies in Asia and the Pacific are responding to the emerging Cold War between the US and China. Details on how to apply are in the link. study.uq.edu.au/study-option...

study.uq.edu.au

The Politics of Development Financing Competition in Asia and the Pacific

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Carly Goodman @carlygoodman.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Deleting twitter felt fine in the end but it’s hard to overstate how much it mattered in allowing me to make a career. It feels so silly to say.

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Marc Owen Jones @marcowenjones.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Starter pack for those working on misinfo, disinfo, information integrity, digital authoritarianism, propaganda etc. Definitely a work in progress, reply if you want to be added! go.bsky.app/V4Po9wB

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Andrew Zammit @andrewzammit.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

ABC News - Academic says Australian spy agency asked her to report on Chinese students: amp.abc.net.au/article/1046...

amp.abc.net.au

Academic says Australian spy agency asked her to report on Chinese students - ABC News

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Stefan Müller @stefanmueller.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

BlueSky Starter Pack on Irish Politics and Political Science I have compiled an initial list of researchers and journalists working on Irish politics, as well as Irish political scientists abroad and political scientists based in Ireland. Who’s missing? 👋 ➡️ bsky.app/starter-pack...

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