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: Syria
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
The Saddest Place: Beslan Plus 9
Nine years ago the siege of School Number 1 in Beslan, North Ossetia ended in disastrous circumstances with 336 people killed, almost two hundred of them children. The mundane ramshackle ruins of the gutted school buildings are deeply affecting reminders … Continue reading
Posted in Beslan, chemical weapons, Obama, Putin, Syria
Tagged anniversary, Beslan, chemical weapons, G-20 summit, Putin, Syria
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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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Airstrikes and Affect over chemical weapons use in Syria
It looks like the US and some allied countries, possibly France and the UK, are making preparations for limited military strikes against the infrastructure of the regime of Assad in Syria. No doubt this action will spark outrage among some, … Continue reading
Posted in Affect, Bosnia, Current affairs, genocide, Syria
Tagged chemical weapons, John Kerry
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Should the United States Save Syria?
Yesterday afternoon I attended a debate organized around this question. The event was the first organized by a new ‘decision tank’ in Washington DC, the McCain Institute. Named after Senator John McCain, organized in collaboration with Arizona State University, and … Continue reading
Posted in Current affairs, John McCain, Syria, US Senate, Washington D.C.
Tagged Robert Kagan
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Geographies of Massacres
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