Starting in an hour!

Our discipline, Conflict Studies, is in trouble. Wolfram and I try to explain the reasons. Comments welcome!

Le but: "d’unifier les positions des États africains face aux anciennes puissances coloniales: la France, le Royaume-Uni, la Belgique, de l’Allemagne, Portugal, l’Espagne ou l’Italie (...) de présenter une démarche collective au niveau du continent auprès des instances internationales" #AfricanUnion

If Europe keeps placating its own far right, how can it possibly stand up to Trump? European leaders have been pulled to the right on migration, the climate crisis and Israel. Their weakness is undermining the democratic principles on which the EU was built.

#NewPaper: "Europe’s overt submission to #Trump is emblematic of a broader malaise", write our Acting Co-Director @onethuthree.bsky.social and Senior Policy Fellow @jannikjansen.bsky.social in their latest Policy Position, first published in @theguardian.com. 👉 www.delorscentre.eu/en/publicati...

Job Alert! We're still looking for a **Post-Doctoral researcher for our Governing Jihad in Africa Project**, with a focus on violence and counter-violence:

- 3 years
- based in Paris/Bordeaux
- starting date: Jan 2026
- deadline: 15 Sept 2025

Vacancy (English): drive.google.com/file/d/1oLPb...

African Union urges adoption of world map showing continent's true size The African Union has backed a campaign to end the use by governments and international organisations of the 16th-century Mercator map of the world in favour of one that more accurately displays Africa's size.

African Union urges adoption of world map showing continent's true size

www.reuters.com/world/africa...

Europe on Gaza: Words Are Not Enough | International Crisis Group A rising chorus of European states have condemned Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip after months of siege and bombardment. While much depends on Washington, European leaders have levers at ...

Europe’s inaction on Gaza will go down not only as among its gravest moral failings in recent memory. Benjamin Netanyahu is driving Israel to ruin. Words alone will not stop him.
www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-...

Research in the Sahel has become extremely difficult. This doesn't stop excellent scholarship and reports from being published, authored by super bright people. Here's a flurry of recent, fascinating stuff 👇

Mali: Army, Wagner Group Disappear, Execute Fulani Civilians | Human Rights Watch Mali’s armed forces and the allied Russia-backed Wagner Group have committed dozens of summary executions and enforced disappearances of ethnic Fulani men since January 2025.

Whether ethnic categorisations should be used has been a big debate in the small Sahel analysis bubble since at least 2019. HRW is making a clear choice for using them and I think they're right. In Burkina and Mali, the targeting of civilians by the security forces is partially racially motivated

»Es wird der Tag kommen, an dem wir uns alle fragen müssen, welche Verantwortung wir dafür tragen.«

»Der Selbstbetrug ist grenzenlos.«

www.spiegel.de/ausland/gaza...

Normalisierung Israels Gewalt in Gaza: Tödliche Abstumpfung Das Berichterstatten über Gaza ist zum Verzweifeln, die meisten Le­se­r:in­nen sind abgestumpft – auch deshalb, weil die Politik nichts unternimmt.

Die Lage im Gazastreifen wird immer schlimmer, aber medial ist sie schon längst zur Pflichtveranstaltung verkommen. Denn das „Schlimmer“ kämpft gegen die kurze medialen Aufmerksamkeitsspanne an”. Mein Kommentar @taz.de
taz.de/Normalisieru...

"Politics is Largely About Defining Problems, Not Just Solving Them": Interview with Cas Mudde Anya Pearson interviews Professor Cas Mudde, one of the world's leading experts on the far right.

"Politics is largely about defining problems, not just solving them."

Anya Pearson interviews @casmudde.bsky.social‬ on political extremism and populism in Europe and the United States.

politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/politic...

Hallo Rechtsstaat, können wir nochmal kurz über ordnungsgemäße Verfahren sprechen? Frage für die Demokratie.

"None of the four have been convicted of a crime, and yet the authorities are seeking to simply throw them out of the country."

update: sadly not for the remote #Sahel folks.

The symposium I've been waiting for! Is it online though @ufsahelresearch.bsky.social ?

Out with a whimper: "Private military companies, such as Russia’s Africa Corps and Turkey’s Sadat, are likely to benefit. So are countries offering to hire out their own soldiers" #Sahel

Added some new people to the list go.bsky.app/FD75pM7

Happy for this alternative - hi again Sahel bubbel! follow this awesome crowd for all things west-africa 👇