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Luke Cooper

@lukecooper100.bsky.social
1.3K followers 882 following 344 posts

Associate Professorial Research Fellow in International Relations (IR) at LSE IDEAS, managing LSE Ukraine programme. Book: Authoritarian Contagion. Find me on SubStack: mafiapoliticsglobaldisorder.substac…

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Reposted by Luke Cooper
Laurie Dunkin Wedd @ldw1.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Remember the dotcom bubble? bsky.app/profile/ldw1...
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Luke Cooper @lukecooper100.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Will the AI bubble burst and what will the aftermath look like? I wrote up a mini lit review on the blog focusing on google’s plan for world domination :) mafiapoliticsglobaldisorder.substack.com/p/scoping-th...
mafiapoliticsglobaldisorder.substack.com
Scoping the AI bubble: Google’s strategy and the new capitalism
Or why, when boom turns to bust, these sectors may become even more oligopolistic.
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Luke Cooper @lukecooper100.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Andy Burnham makes a genuinely historic speech for a Labour Prime minister, a real break with 40 years of economic policy. And a striking political contrast to Blair’s 2005 speech that infamously said even debating econonc globalisation was like arguing over “whether autumn should follow summer”.
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Richard Carr @richardcarr.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
There’s a specific tone and lane here that’s abhorrent
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Tony Yates @t0nyyates.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Very nice piece
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Priyamvada Gopal @priyamvadagopal.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
We are asking for accountability at Cambridge. This is an institutional story as much as anything else. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Cambridge dons demand accountability over Jason Arday appointment
Exclusive: Academics say university must take responsibility for ‘grotesque racism’ unleashed and hold independent inquiry
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Luke Cooper @lukecooper100.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Good piece. “There is a real risk of this case being used to undermine black academics and others in positions of seniority. For all the talk of preferential treatment… it remains true that there are documented, systemic barriers for black students”. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The takedown of Jason Arday has overjoyed the right, and must be a wake-up call for the left | Jason Okundaye
The Cambridge academic has rightly now resigned. But that won’t end the targeting of senior black figures or the lazy way institutions promote faux equality, says Guardian columnist Jason Okundaye
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Restore on 9% got 30% of the joint Reform/Restore vote (up from 16% of their cumulative vote in Makerfield)
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Healey's fiscal buffer down to £7 bn from £25 bn (FT) due to Iran. He is also going to lose £12-13 billion when revising future immigration estimates down. (I don't think is already part of this drop to £7bn)
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Anthony Painter @anthonypainter.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
We're just at the end of your last ten year plan. Not gonna lie, the results ain't that great.
DAVID FROST

I too have a 10-year plan – but unlike Burnham's, mine works
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Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
🔴 NEW: Palantir Co-Founder Peter Thiel and Reform UK’s Cambridge University Recruitment Pipeline Project Revealed By @nafeez.bsky.social, @peterjukes.bsky.social and @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social The world-renowned academic institution has nothing to say in response to a six-month investigation…
bylinetimes.com
Palantir Co-Founder Peter Thiel and Reform UK's Cambridge University Recruitment Pipeline Project Revealed
The world-renowned academic institution has nothing to say in response to a six-month investigation by Byline Times raising serious concerns about the safeguarding of students and foreign influence at Cambridge University. Why?
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Luke Cooper @lukecooper100.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Christ. In just a few days of heat wave, Paris suffered astonishing loss of life (especially when you consider London, whose data isn’t exactly encouraging, is quite a bit bigger).
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Sobering to see in one chart how June temperature records have been broken this year in so many European countries www.ft.com/content/5f06...
June temperature records tumble across
Europe
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Marcel Dirsus @marceldirsus.com · 08/07/2026
The Daddy Trump strategy has run its course. I don't want to go as far as saying that it was a complete failure because there was a time when Ukrainians needed America a lot more, but whatever merit it may have had, that's over. Trump is weaker than he seems, he can't afford to fight us all
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Luke Cooper @lukecooper100.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
I’ve written an article with Alex Sobel about what we learnt at the recent #UkraineRecoveryConference and why Ukraine’s experience at wartime governance reform and mixed state-market economy provides a useful lens on what the incoming Burnham government is calling “Manchesterism”.
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Nick Dearden @nickdearden.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
‘For all the eyewatering numbers, the defence plan actually imposes austerity on the armed forces, whilst showering defence firms with huge revenues, sacrificing soldiers’ pay and conditions to benefit our wasteful military industrial complex’ 👇
mafiapoliticsglobaldisorder.substack.com
Burnham should scrap the Defence Investment Plan and start again
While champagne corks pop among shareholders in Britain’s privatised defence sector, Labour’s plan means austerity for the armed forces and soldiers’ pay and conditions.
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Luke Cooper @lukecooper100.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
I read the Defence Investment Plan - and thought it was a bit of a disaster. It imposes austerity on the already hollowed out armed forces, while showering vast amounts of money on an unreformed UK defence sector. A rentiers’ charter that Burnham should scrap👇👇👇👇👇👇 open.substack.com/pub/mafiapol...
open.substack.com
Burnham should scrap the Defence Investment Plan and start again
While champagne corks pop among shareholders in Britain’s privatised defence sector, Labour’s plan means austerity for the armed forces and soldiers’ pay and conditions.
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Political Quarterly @politicalquarterly.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Read our 10-year Brexit retrospective virtual issue with @robfordmancs.bsky.social @olliheath.bsky.social @psurridge.bsky.social @robertsaunders.bsky.social @lukecooper100.bsky.social @christabelcoops.bsky.social @albertpweale.bsky.social and more politicalquarterly.org.uk/collections/...
politicalquarterly.org.uk
Brexit at Ten: A Retrospective
Ten years after the Brexit referendum, The Political Quarterly marks this significant anniversary with a virtual issue bringing together a selection of articles that have analysed the origins, impact ...
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Tony Yates @t0nyyates.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
As well as being just, this is also clever, as North Korean troops will recognise the new route to defection, NK leadership and loyal officials will recognise the risk, and the fighting efficiency of those sent there will be reduced by the effort of trying to guard against defection.
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Luke Cooper @lukecooper100.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
A podcast post on my substack. I spoke to @stellathegreek.bsky.social who was in the Makerfield constituency last week, about the atmosphere on the ground, what went wrong for the Starmer government and what might come next. substack.com/@lukecooper/...
substack.com
Will Burnham win? Is Starmer toast?
A podcast post with Substack royalty the Human Carbohydrate
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Sally Brooks @sallyhbrooks.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
The conversation we should be having about national security and defence - paper by Mary Kaldor and @lukecooper100.bsky.social here: rethinkingsecurity.org.uk/2025/06/16/o...
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Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights @lphr-lawyers.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Nine countries including the UK, France, and Australia are to announce a package of sanctions this week designed to deter companies from from becoming involved in the E1 development, a proposed West Bank illegal settlement that would split West Bank in two www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
theguardian.com
UK readies sanctions against Israel to deter proposed illegal West Bank settlement
Move comes as 137 Labour MPs sign letter demanding ‘urgent, concrete action’ to stop settler violence
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Luke Cooper @lukecooper100.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
I’m feeling strangely furious with the people answering “don’t know” in this poll. Faced with ultra racist definition of Englishness, “hmm yeah have to think more about that one”.
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NBC News @nbcnews.com · 01/06/2026
NEW: The Trump administration signals it is backing off the creation of a $1.8 billion fund announced by the Justice Dept. that could send money to allies of President Trump deemed “victims of lawfare and weaponization.”.
nbcnews.to
Trump administration appears to back off $1.8 billion ‘anti-weaponization’ fund after rare GOP backlash
The Justice Department said Monday it will abide by a court ruling that blocked the fund as the White House seeks to restart stalled legislation to fund ICE and Border Patrol.
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Luke Cooper @lukecooper100.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Yesterday Blair achieved something rather unusual: he somehow managed to unite the Labour Party.
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Tarik Abou-Chadi @tabouchadi.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
2% of LE26 Labour voters consider voting for Reform at the next election. Less than 1% of Reform voters consider Labour. Yet, Labour continues to target exactly those voters. Literally, politics for the 1%. Meanwhile, 42% of Lab voters consider the Greens. After already having lost tons to them.
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YouGov @yougov.co.uk · 21/05/2026
YouGov's study of the 2026 local elections shows that just 46% of 2024 Labour voters who went to the polls remained loyal, with more backing the Greens (22%) than Reform (6%) two weeks ago The Conservatives retained 55% of their 2024 voters, with 33% switching to Reform yougov.com/en-gb/articl...
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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
As we look at a rapid and extreme contraction of the university sector, lots of good advice and discussion in the quotes of - and replies to - this post. As the HE world we've known comes to an end, there will be many very painful choices ahead. So we should support each other and share wisdom. ☹️
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Luke Cooper @lukecooper100.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Thomas Massie says in his concession speech that the republican primary contest in Kentucky (a state of 4.5m people) is likely to have cost $35m - about equivalent to what the UK Labour spent in the 2024 general election. Source: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...
podcasts.apple.com
Trump gets “forever” immunity on his past tax affairs
Podcast Episode · Americast · 20 May · 31min
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APPG for Fair Elections @appgfairelections.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
🚨 Over 50 leading academics have sounded the alarm on the UK's voting system ⚠️ In an era of multi-party politics, First Past the Post risks “random and arbitrary” results like never before 🗳️ The experts' letter warn Ministers they must address this to stem growing instability and distrust
politicshome.com
Over 50 Academics Warn That Voting System Is Not Fit For Multi-Party Politics
Dozens of academics have written to the government to warn that the current voting system risks producing distorted results on an 'unprecedented' s...
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Labour4PR 🌹🗳️ @labour4pr.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
"Labour must remember and reassert what it is we are here to do: address inequality – economic and political... political equality at the ballot box is fundamental to delivering equality everywhere else in society." ✍️ @alexsobel.co.uk in @labourlist.bsky.social labourlist.org/2026/05/labo...
labourlist.org
' After these Local Elections there can be no doubt: Labour’s future lies in electoral reform' - LabourList
First Past the Post is the biggest example of the Status Quo in UK politics.
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Ryan MacMullen @dogpatchryan.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Makes me really quite nauseous thinking about the stakes here.
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Luke Cooper @lukecooper100.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Is there any precedent for a by-election explicitly designed to overthrow the sitting prime minister? This is a massive roll of the dice by Burnham in a Reform-friendly seat, setting up a what is surely the most consequential by-election ever mafiapoliticsglobaldisorder.substack.com/p/the-most-c...
Burnham as king of the north
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Christoph Harig @charig.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Celebrating a new addition to the "Thomas L Friedman Hall of Fame" www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/o...
Dear NATO Members: I get it. You despise President Trump for all the right reasons. He has walked away from Ukraine. He has threatened to seize Greenland and annex Canada. He has coddled Vladimir Putin. He is eroding America’s democratic institutions and norms. He insulted each of you so much that the German chancellor recently barked back that Trump’s America was being “humiliated” by Iran. I get it.

Now get over it.

Get all your navies together and proceed to the Persian Gulf immediately to join the American armada to make clear that Iran will never, ever be allowed to decide who shall pass and who shall not through the Strait of Hormuz. And, if it insists on trying to do so, it won’t just be taking on the United States and Israel, it will be taking on the entire Western alliance
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Luke Cooper @lukecooper100.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Do you remember how many government resignations it took to get rid of Boris Johnson? It was 62 (!) including a record of 40 in 24 hours. I wonder if Starmer is holding out to try and break BJ’s record 🤔
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Natalie Sedacca @nataliesedacca.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
New article from me analysing the provisions on workplace harassment in the Employment Rights Act 2025 and their contribution to remedying gaps in protection, which have been highlighted since the #MeToo movement and the ILO's 2019 violence and harassment Convention academic.oup.com/ilj/advance-...
A screenshot of the article's title and abstract, which can be read at the link
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Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Increased possibility of more EU sanctions against West Bank settlers following change of Hungarian govt www.politico.eu/article/eu-e...
politico.eu
EU to approve sanctions on Israeli settlers, says Kallas
The breakthrough comes days after Péter Magyar replaced Viktor Orbán as Hungary’s prime minister.
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Luke Cooper @lukecooper100.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Over the weekend an exchange of memos once again failed to end the Iran-cum-US blockade of the Strait. So who is going to blink first? My money is on Trump doing a TACO. My post on Substack: open.substack.com/pub/mafiapol...
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Luke Cooper @lukecooper100.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
$72bn to fight an illegal war and tank the global economy open.substack.com/pub/populari...
open.substack.com
The real cost of the Iran War: $72 billion for the first 60 days
Popular Information crunches the numbers. The official accounting is at least $47 billion too low.
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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
NEW from me: many of our universities are now in a dying fall. A new global-national-regional-local split is opening up, which could choke off progress on almost all the Government's plans. Do they have a plan? Nope, nothing, not a clue. 👇 isrf.org/blog/whats-t...
isrf.org
What’s the future for our universities?
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Luke Cooper @lukecooper100.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
The United States govt are not so much “blinking first” but putting their hands in front of their eyes and begging for it to stop.
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Luke Cooper @lukecooper100.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
I've signed up to Substack, I'm going to use to flesh out ideas on the bad guys taking over the world and what we might do about it. This first post is about why we shouldn't rationalise the actions of the mad king as a grand strategic effort to uphold American hegemony substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com
Policy and power in the court of king Trump
The starting point for analysing Trump has to be that there is little strategic logic to his actions in the genuine geoeconomic challenges facing American power
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Luke Cooper @lukecooper100.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
💯👇 💯👇 💯👇 💯👇 💯👇 Really great and timely piece by George. Illegal fly tipping has become a terrible problem on London’s streets. The rise of this criminal industry, enabled be the hollowing out of the state, should be a national scandal.
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
This is the largest oil supply shock in history in mb/d The enemy gets a vote. Iran is now delivering pain to Trump via multiple paths (1) Gulf Kings (2) Financial meltdown (3) AI tech oligarchs (4) Fuel, fertilizer, food disruptions Read our Polycrisis Dispatch: buttondown.com/polycrisisdi...
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Glyn Moody @glynmoody.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
how long before there are riots in the streets around the world as a knock-on consequence of #trump's insane #iran misadventure
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Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Around 7000 Americans were killed on Iwo Jima and 19,000 wounded, and it was part of a campaign that ended with a nuclear weapon being used, so maybe not the wisest comparison.
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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
The rise of Hitler salutes and chats on college campuses is reminiscent of the 1959-1960 swastika outbreak that spread all across the US and the world. newrepublic.com/post/207877/...
newrepublic.com
College Republicans Chapter Sues School for Right to Make Nazi Salute
The student group has filed a lawsuit after its suspension from campus.
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