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Category: Russia

Russian athletes and sports during a time of war

Russian athletes and sports during a time of war

I really enjoy speaking with Sportschau, which I think is the most influential sports program on German television. To their credit, they feature the work of Robert Kempe, who does great work on sports and politics, and who pursues difficult stories with nuance and integrity. It’s a hard combo but I think he does it admirably. In this segment, he investigates the impossible situation of having Russian and Belarusian athletes participating in global sport while the Russian state pursues its…

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The Hard Edge of Soft Power: My keynote at the (Il)liberal Nation Projection symposium

The Hard Edge of Soft Power: My keynote at the (Il)liberal Nation Projection symposium

Vitaly Kazakov at the University of Manchester invited me to give one of the keynotes at a symposium he organized. Over two intense and enjoyable days, we explored various national projection strategies from illiberal and democratic states across different contexts, channels, and platforms. It was interdisciplinary, relevant, and exciting. A real honor to attend. I wrote a short twitter thread about it: My keynote explored the uncomfortable connections between the Russian mega-event decade and the war in Ukraine. Here’s a…

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German sport TV is amazing: Talking about Russian sport, authoritarian politics, and western complicity on Sportschau

German sport TV is amazing: Talking about Russian sport, authoritarian politics, and western complicity on Sportschau

I was invited to speak on Sportschau Sunday Night, which was a wonderful experience. I was surprised by how political and involved they were. I wish I could link the report, but unfortunately it’s geoblocked to German territory, so unless you live in Germany, I’m afraid I can’t share. I caught it live from Switzerland and it was great. I felt honored to participate in a project that was so incisive and timely. I thought it was really well done…

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Postcolonial Ukraine and Russia’s Imperial Ambition. Open lecture at University of Zurich

Postcolonial Ukraine and Russia’s Imperial Ambition. Open lecture at University of Zurich

It’s not easy to talk about the war, as it implicates my family – deeply – in a variety of dimensions. But I was grateful that Benedikt Korf (Political Geography, UZH) invited me to talk to his bachelor students about this. It turned into an open lecture and a full house, which was very nice to see, despite the circumstances. It was an honor, truly. And it felt good to be able to speak about it in a professional sense,…

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An extremely happy new year to you and yours

An extremely happy new year to you and yours

So I published a book! It looks like this: And I know it’s not perfect by any means, and I’d love to have a go at bringing some of the chapters more in line with my current thinking. But that’s the way this game is played, and I have to admit that I am overjoyed at holding an actual copy in my actual hands. You can get a copy here, at the fine and wonderful publisher. Or, if you’d like,…

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Book review: Global Finance, Local Control – by Igor Logvinenko

Book review: Global Finance, Local Control – by Igor Logvinenko

I love book reviews. I love reading them and I love writing them. Reading them is great – in a world where so much amazing research is published every day, it seems impossible to keep up. But book reviews help make that work easier. Frankly I wish ordinary academic articles would have a digest like this as well. Sure, it’s depressing that our world is so rapid that we aren’t given the time to sit back and enjoy reading articles….

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Between the minor and the intimate. New publication in Geopolitics!

Between the minor and the intimate. New publication in Geopolitics!

I’m extremely happy with this article. It was a tough road but a valuable one. The seed was planted by the excellent Michele Lancione, who I was lucky enough to meet at a workshop in Neuchâtel in 2019. Michele introduced me to his approach to micropolitics and minor ethics, which he’d written about back in 2017. I’d missed that article, unfortunately, but was deeply moved and inspired by his talk and by our later conversations. After our meeting, I returned…

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Russia, Marseille, and the Geopolitics of Sport at Many Scales

Russia, Marseille, and the Geopolitics of Sport at Many Scales

Note: this is the second time (!) something like this has happened. As before, I was approached to write a commentary for a non peer-reviewed expert journal – a different one this time. As before, and I still have no idea why, the editor never wrote back after commissioning and receiving the piece. Did I write to check in? Of course. Has there been any response? Not the slightest. Rather bad form. I don’t let it ruin my day, but…

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A quick example of pernicious Russophobia

A quick example of pernicious Russophobia

I’ve been attacked from all sides for making comments about contemporary Russia and Russian politics. I’ve been told that I’m in the pocket of Putin, or at the very least a naive “useful idiot”. Simultaneously, that same comment led others to tell me that I am Russophobic, a blind westerner who does not understand anything, and that I am contributing to anti-Russian views. One of the biggest challenges I have is to criticize what I think needs to be criticized,…

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The powerful innovation of video abstracts

The powerful innovation of video abstracts

I know I’m not the only one a bit overwhelmed at times by the amount of good, interesting, and important academic work there is coming out. Just about every day I get another content alert from a journal I like, and there’s usually at least one or three that I really want and need to read. This means that I often have to read selectively. I don’t like this, actually. It’s much nicer to sit and be with a paper…

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