@thomaseason
Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Aston University. Does Interpretivist Research on Foreign Policy Analysis. Currently working on Political Myth in diplomacy and foreign policy. thomaseason.co.uk
Earlier this week I took two of our amazing @astonpress.bsky.social students to a model COP climate negotiation organised by @mybisa.bsky.social at Chatham House.
They did a great job representing the EU in the simulation, and learnt a great deal about international diplomacy and COP. #ClimateSim
Oh turns out itβs on preorder.
Loving the blurbs from early readers:
βOften laugh out loudβ;
βMonty Python meets le CarrΓ©β;
Fun, fascinating and absurd;
βSpy thrillers have nothing on Fakersβ
Canβt wait to share it!
www.amazon.co.uk/Fakers-Top-S...
Had the pleasure of attending my second Graduation ceremony at Aston University yesterday with my wonderful colleagues.
As ever, big congratulations to our PIR graduates! Also a big thanks to my colleagues for being so kind, generous and supportive in my second year here. It is a very good job!
In all clips of the young Reform Councillors they all do the little Farage bounce and string puppet arm movements while talking to camera. Theyβve clearly watched no end of his videos and have tried to style their delivery on him. Heβs their reference point of how to do political communication.
Increasingly certain of my opinion that βdemocracyβ and βalgorithmic social mediaβ cannot coexist in the long term
New Publication Alert! Myself and @lesliewehner.bsky.social present our new paper: Policy, roles and domestic contestation: Germany and the United Kingdom as allies of Ukraine. Available in @irjournal.bsky.social.
doi.org/10.1177/0047...
More @nottspolitics.bsky.social jobs. We are seeking to appoint 3 Teaching Associates in Politics and International Relations. These full-time, fixed-term posts are available from 1 September 2025 until 30 June 2026.
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Had a very similar experience with LNER last year coming back from an event with @adefty.bsky.social. Used to enjoy train travel, now dread it!
Poster which states 'new publication from Dan Lomas' with book cover
π Congratulations to @nottspolitics.bsky.social' Dr Dan Lomas @sandbaggerone.bsky.social on the publication of his new co-edited book 'Intelligence, Security and the State: Reviewing the British Intelligence Community'
Read more here π tinyurl.com/bddnkdas
@uonresearch.bsky.social
π @NottsPolitics are looking for a fixed term Teaching Associate in Security Studies.
Fancy joining us? Applications close on 28th April 2025.
More details here β¬οΈ
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMN031/t...
Finally hit the big time and got a review back that accused me of not engaging enough with my own work, or understanding what it did.
Not only is this crass, it is highly significant.
RadosΕaw Sikorski is perhaps the most Atlanticist major politician in Europe.
And this is how he is now being publicly treated by US/Musk.
They do not want us to be their friends, they do not want us to be their allies.
Tax rises will be unpopular, but I will keep arguing to the hilt that if you were going to do it, DO IT NOW.
Trump dragging the US into appeasement and kleptocracy; Ukraine being abandoned, Europe on the edge. The case for tax rises and even radical reform is now, whilse these are at the forefront.
The US has a fascist government.
A lot of people are going to have to get used to the reality that America is no longer our closest ally.
Letβs start a bottom up movement on this - if youβre asked to be a discussant, either decline and say the panel will be better without it, or agree but then just go to Q&A on the day.
No one wants to listen to what the discussant thinks about every paper on the already overrunning panel.
Also seems foolish for others to believe the US cares enough about the mineral deal to defend Ukraine militarily for it.
If this isnβt a humiliation for Britain and its decision to send troops and βstand shoulder to shoulderβ with the United States in every war theyβve fought since 1990 then I donβt know what is.
Petition to scrap discussants from conference panels, just eats onto Q&A.
He was a very strange choice for this job
Come and join my research team at Aston University! We are hiring a Post-Doctoral Research Assistant for a new ESRC funded project on βDisaster Impact, Risk Reduction and Regime Type in Southeast Asiaβ. More details: jobs.ac.uk/job/DLV236/p...
Had a great time presenting our paper βMyth Diplomacy: Ukraineβs use of myth as a diplomatic tool following the Russian invasionβ at #ISA2025. Very happy it went down so well with the Public Diplomacy scholars.
Will be around all week so if you see me do come over for a chat or drop me a message.
That said, for reasons youβve all said, especially for other parts of the world, it does seem like intelligence cooperation is less likely to have the rug pulled under it than other areas of security cooperation, like procurement, where some unpicking is now in our interest.
I guess trust is where my concerns lie, 1) to what extent will bureaucratic changed impact those lower down the chain and break connections and relationships? 2) what happens when the leadership are pro Russian and interests no longer align? We probably donβt know enough on this yet.
Interesting, thank you
Yeah...
I'm not sure the US is going to scramble F-35's and the 101st Airborne to defend their partial ownership stake in an as yet hypothetical Lithium mine that won't generate any minerals for at least a decade.
It is helping me understand why there is such little resistance to issues Europe considers existential. BBC reports on the problems of far right politics on the US with much more urgency and gravitas than Iβm seeing here.
Currently in the US and struck by how little Fox, CNN and MSNBC are talking about what happened. It is there, but just one of many other news stories, no real gravity attached. Also struck by how much they all platform the view Zelenskyy was at fault and/or should apologise and sign the mineral deal
The US does seem to be in a very different place to Europe on how they talk about these issues. Fox is what youβd expect, but even CNN just had a talking head argue that Zelenskyy should apologise and sign the mineral deal. No reflection anywhere on the damage to the US image internationally.