Professor Government and International Affairs
Virginia Tech, VTRC Office 6-020,900 North Glebe Road,Arlington, VA 22203, USAPopular Categories
Abkhazia August War Bosnia Bosnian war Caucasus conflict Critical Geopolitics Current affairs De Facto States Democracy ethnic cleansing Five Day War forced displacement genocide Geography Geopolitics Georgia Nagorno-Karabakh Nagorny Karabakh nationalism Obama Political Borders Political Geography Putin Radovan Karadzic South Ossetia Syria Uncategorized war crimes Washington D.C. World political mapBlogroll
- Duck of Minerva US IR scholars on contemporary international affairs
- Geographical Imaginations 2020 Historic posts on war & space by Derek Gregory
- Political Geography Specialty Group Political Geography Specialty Group, Association of American Geographers
- Political Violence at a Glance
- Progressive Geographies Thinking about place and power
Professional Affiliation
- Government and International Affairs The Government and International Affairs program at Virginia Tech
- The School of Public and International Affairs School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech
Research Projects
- The De Facto States Project The De Facto States Project
Critical Geopoltiics
- Short Public Affairs Articles in 2023.
- Public Opinion in Frontline Ukrainian Cities in 2022
- Six months of bloody war in Ukraine
- New Research: Ukrainian attitudes toward territorial compromises.
- Articles in The Irish Times on the Ukraine Crisis and War
- Research on public opinion in the Donbas on the eve of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
- New Research on Public Attitudes in the Contested Donbas/s Region
- Public Outreach Articles on New Research Findings 2020
- Re-visiting Blame Attribution around the MH17 Tragedy
- First Look at Geopolitical Orientations
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Category Archives: Political Geography
Introduction: Virtual Special Issue on Russian Geopolitics
Elsevier has placed a number of its political geography articles on Open Access, in a Virtual Special Issue on Russian Geopolitics. Most, but not all, are from Political Geography. Below is the text of my introduction to the Issue, which was … Continue reading
Social Survey Research in De Facto States After Crimea
I’m very happy to announce that I’ve a new home office, as a year long house extension project has come to an end. I will seek to renew my writing for this site, though I’m conscious that time spent writing here and … Continue reading
Bosnia by the Black Sea? Could Crimea be another BiH?
I have an op ed on this topic on the Open Democracy Russia website under the title “Could Crimea Be Another Bosnia?” http://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/gerard-toal/could-crimea-be-another-bosnia-republika-srpska-krajina For Bosnia specialists, below is the source I used for the opening quote. Specialists will know I … Continue reading
Global Conflicts. My Online Course Syllabus
I’ve been teaching ‘global conflicts’ at Virginia Tech for over twenty years, initially as an undergraduate course called “Geography of Global Conflicts.” In 1995, I offered the course online for the first time. The course has evolved considerably … Continue reading
‘Land for Peace’ in Nagorny Karabakh? PUBLISHED
My latest publication, with Dr John O’Loughlin, from the De Facto States Research Project, funded by the US National Science Foundation, is “Land for Peace in Nagorny Karabakh? Political Geographies and Public Attitudes inside a Contested De Facto State” which … Continue reading
Posted in Abkhazia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Caucasus conflict, Current affairs, De Facto States, ethnic cleansing, forced displacement, Geography, Nagorno-Karabakh, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Nagorny Karabakh, Political Borders, Political Geography, World political map
Tagged academic research, conflict, Nagorny Karabakh, public attitudes, social survey, spatial perceptions
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My interview with Bosnia’s Dnevni Avaz
Just after my return from Ireland two weeks ago, the largest daily newspaper in Bosnia-Herezegovina, Sarajevo-based Dnevni Avaz, got in contact for a feature interview in their weekend supplement. The resultant feature, entitled “Bosnia is Not a Failed State” was published on … Continue reading
The PKK, Kurdish Nationalism and the Future of Turkey, 7 November 2013: Conference Program
Kurdish Conference Program available here International Conference The PKK, Kurdish Nationalism and the Future of Turkey Thursday November 7, 2013 VIRGINIA TECH NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION 1021 PRINCE STREET ALEXANDRIA, VA 22314 RSVP IS REQUIRED: kurdishandturkish@yahoo.com Tel: 202-378-8606 kurdishandturkish@yahoo.com http://turkeyandkurds.blogspot.com/ Organized … Continue reading
Posted in conference, Current affairs, Kurds, nationalism, PKK, Political Geography, Turkey
Tagged Alexandria Virginia, conference, Kurds, PKK, Turkey
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Inconvenient Truths about the Syria Crisis
The time for more detached scholarly research on the interstate conflict over responding to the Syrian civil war, and war crimes therein, will come later. Clearly the 21 August chemical weapon attacks intensified this conflict greatly. The affective geopolitical complex … Continue reading
Chemical Warfare and Place: Lessons from Halabja
As the United States and France consider military strikes in retaliation against the Assad regime it is worth recalling the use of chemical weapons by Saddam Hussein’s regime in Halabja, north east Iraqi Kurdistan on 16 March 1988. It is … Continue reading
Posted in Beslan, Critical Geopolitics, Current affairs, genocide, Halabja, Iraq, Kurdistan, Political Geography, Syria, war crimes, World political map
Tagged chemical weapons, Halabja, place
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Inside South Ossetia article published
The article “Inside South Ossetia: a survey of attitudes in a de facto state” has just been published by Post-Soviet Affairs (now owned by Taylor & Francis). This article is based on a research field trip conducted in 2010 and … Continue reading
Posted in August War, Caucasus conflict, Current affairs, De Facto States, ethnic cleansing, Five Day War, forced displacement, Geography, Geopolitics, George Bush, Georgia, nationalism, Political Geography, Saakashvili, South Ossetia, World political map
Tagged de facto states, south ossetia
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