Author Archives: Dr Gerard Toal

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About Dr Gerard Toal

Irish born academic living in Washington DC researching geopolitical competition and territorial conflicts in post-Communist Europe. Author of CRITICAL GEOPOLITICS (1996), BOSNIA REMADE (w C Dahlman) and NEAR ABROAD: PUTIN, THE WEST AND THE CONTEST OVER UKRAINE AND THE CAUCASUS (Oxford University Press, 2017).

The Third Debate: Politics is the Enemy of Strategy

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Dr Gerard Toal

The third debate introduced US citizens, and an international audience to a geographic variant of a staple political attack. And, you know, Governor Romney, I’m glad that you agree that we have been successful in going after Al Qaida, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Current affairs, Geography, Iran, Israel, Obama, Rhetoric, Romney, the bomb, World political map | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“Just give me the ball”

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Dr Gerard Toal

In his article entitled “Battle Plans: How Obama Won,” the New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza records the following exchange between Obama and a staffer over Obama’s strong performance in his first debate with John McCain: After Obama’s first debate with … Continue reading →

Posted in Gender, Masculinity, Obama, Romney, Washington D.C. | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Diary: Lectures in Ireland and Istanbul

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Dr Gerard Toal

John O’Loughlin and I gave a lecture “Inside Eurasia’s De Facto States” at Dublin City University to students and faculty on the 28th of September 2012. Many thanks to Donnacha O’Beachain for organizing this well attended event. It was the … Continue reading →

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One of Our Own

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Dr Gerard Toal

Last week our School, the School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech, lost one of our Ph D students in Afghanistan. Born in Egypt, Ragaei Abdelfattah was a naturalized American, devout Muslim and former master planner for Prince … Continue reading →

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Interview with News.Az

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Dr Gerard Toal

To mark the anniversary of the August 2008 war, the English language Azerbaijani web site News.Az conducted a series of interviews with various specialists on the Caucasus. There are interesting interviews with Lincoln Mitchell and Hans Gotbrod. My interview sought … Continue reading →

Posted in Caucasus conflict, Current affairs, Georgia, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

More on the Geographies of Violent Death

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Dr Gerard Toal

The events in Aurora this weekend re-awakened some horrible memories for those associated with Virginia Tech. In discussions on television and elsewhere, ‘Virginia Tech’ has unfortunately joined the litany of names of horrific acts of mass violence perpetrated by deranged … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Congo, Current affairs, Geography, Washington D.C. | Leave a comment

Powerless in DC

Posted on July 7, 2012 by Dr Gerard Toal

Washington DC has been through an eventful few weeks, and the action is not all at the White House, Supreme Court and in Congress. A ‘microburst’ weather storm left many residents without power on the 21st of June (including our … Continue reading →

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Geographies of Massacres

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Dr Gerard Toal

A government under severe pressure from rebels unleashes violence that results in a massacre of families, women and children especially. This is the horror scene we’ve seen for the last few weeks in international affairs. But its is hardly confined … Continue reading →

Posted in Current affairs, drones, Syria, Yemen | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Orientalism and War

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Dr Gerard Toal

A new edited volume, Orientalism and War, edited by Tarak Barkawi and Keith Stanski, will appear soon published by Columbia/Hurst. Asked to blurb it, I took some time to read the chapters, some of which I found to be intellectually … Continue reading →

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Mladic Goes on Trial

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Dr Gerard Toal

In early September 2004 I flew to the Hague for an academic conference from Istanbul (where I remember watching the horror at Beslan unfold on BBC TV). I took a day off from the conference to visit the ICTY court … Continue reading →

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