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globalsociety.bsky.social
Global Society
@globalsociety.bsky.social
1.7K followers 5.2K following 130 posts
Global Society is a journal of international studies published by Taylor & Francis. Editors: Rubrick Biegon, Tom Casier, Hendrik Huelss, Melita Lazell, Alexandre Christoyannopoulos, Peter Marshall

https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cgsj20/current
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globalsociety.bsky.social
Our final monthly pick for November is the #OpenAccess article "Counter-Conduct and the Everyday: Anthropological Engagements with Philosophy" by @olgademetriou.bsky.social (@sgiadurham.bsky.social). Be sure to give it a read!

#CounterConduct #Greece #Cyprus

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
This article critically examines counter-conduct as an analytical tool for understanding minority subjectivity. It revisits the concept within its Collège lecture context and alongside alternative descriptions of opposing governmental power. Its affinities with the anthropological notion of the “everyday” are explored in depth. The anthropological everyday, it is argued, points to nuances that enrich our understanding of the political. Heidegger's notions of “everyday” and “they” are discussed alongside ethnographic insights from Greece and Cyprus. This anthropological-philosophical encounter yields a more meaningful understanding of counter-conduct, as embedded in the everyday, that addresses both its broad scope and its analytic specificity.
November 24, 2025 at 12:24 PM
globalsociety.bsky.social
Our third monthly pick is "The Impact of the Libya Intervention Debates on Norms of Protection" by @sarahbrockmeier.bsky.social (@prif.org), @oliverstuenkel.bsky.social, and Marcos Tourinho (both @fgvoficial.bsky.social). Be sure to give it a read!

#OpenAccess

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Resolution 1973, which authorised military intervention in Libya, marked the first time that the United Nations Security Council explicitly mandated the use of force against a functioning state to prevent imminent atrocity crimes. While some hailed the resolution and the subsequent intervention in Libya as a victory for the concept of the international community's “responsibility to protect” (R2P), others predicted its early death. This article argues for a more nuanced view on the impact of the Libya intervention on the debates on R2P. As we will show, the intervention in Libya demonstrated new areas of agreement and at the same time revealed persisting and new disagreements within the international community on the role of the use of force to protect populations.
November 17, 2025 at 10:43 AM
globalsociety.bsky.social
Our 2nd pick for November is the #OpenAccess article "Organising Global Stratification: How International Organisations (Re)Produce Inequalities in International Society" by @carolinefehl.bsky.social (@prif.org) and @ksailormoon.bsky.social (Duisburg-Essen)!

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The article makes the case for scrutinising international organisations (IOs) as key sites and agents of inequality reproduction and transformation in international society. Drawing on sociological inequality research and institutionalist approaches to International Relations, we argue that IOs reproduce and transform broader stratification patterns in their global social environment through intertwined processes of categorisation and distribution. We propose to capture these twin processes from three observation points, which highlight different material and symbolic practices operating within IOs and at the interface between IOs and their environment.
November 10, 2025 at 10:10 AM
globalsociety.bsky.social
We have a new #OnlineFirst article out in Global Society. "The Ties that Bind?: Affinity and Challenges in Contemporary Brazil-China Relations" is by Pedro Abelin band Margaret M. Pearson (both @univofmaryland.bsky.social). Do give it a read!

#China #Brazil

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
As China’s diplomatic and economic outreach towards the Global South has expanded in recent decades, so too have its efforts to align with important Global South countries and create movement away from US hegemony. Brazil’s relationship with China is emblematic, as it is a big player in Latin America and in multilateral bodies, and due to its historical relationship with the United States. While theories about China’s rise lead us to expect that relations between China and Global South countries such as Brazil should be positive and straightforward due to economic interests, normative identity, and successful diplomatic outreach, empirical studies yield mixed results, with challenges arising from host state domestic politics. We explore how Brazil’s domestic policy preferences, public opinion, and polarisation shape China’s ability to achieve its diplomatic goals in multilateral (focusing on BRICS) and bilateral (especially agribusiness trade) settings. We find that despite an overall strong relationship, Brazil diverges from China’s policies and preferences in important ways, exposing limits on China’s efforts. In addition to tracing major diplomatic statements, we draw on newly collected survey data reflecting Brazilian public opinion on salient issues.
November 7, 2025 at 10:38 AM
globalsociety.bsky.social
Our first monthly pick for November is "Guardians of the Future: International Organisations, Anticipatory Governance and Education" by Susan L. Robertson (@ Cambridge University). Be sure to give it a read!

#OpenAccess #Anticipation #Governance

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
This paper is a comparative analysis of the anticipatory practices deployed by two international organisations (IOs), UNESCO and the OECD, to govern education futures. I show how their coordination of education futures is mediated by: (1) their different histories, missions, resources and geo-political alliances; (2) use of different anticipatory practices; (3) ongoing tensions between the two organisations around who dominates future-making in education; and (4) the challenges to be negotiated when anticipated futures arrive as a problematic present. My argument develops around three moments of crisis as new arenas for what Ann Mische calls “hyper-projectivity” around futures. In each moment I explore the way UNESCO and the OECD engage in, and compete over, framing, shaping and materialising future presents. In doing so, they claim to be guardians of education futures.
November 3, 2025 at 11:09 AM
globalsociety.bsky.social
Our last article in 39(4) is "Exploitation and Trafficking of Women and Girls for Forced Marriage in India" by Arun Kumar Acharya and Sushree Subhlaxmi Behera (both at Sambalpur University). Do give it a read!

#Exploitation #Trafficking #Violence

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Trafficking of women and girls for forced marriage in India is a growing phenomenon. Acute poverty, dowry practices, and precarious family socioeconomic conditions after the COVID-19 pandemic in India have resulted in evidence that young girls are being sold and lured through false promises of employment and good quality of life for the purpose of exploitation. Studying the experiences of 34 Indian trafficking victims, this paper explores and analyses the dynamics of human trafficking for the purpose of marriage and to describe their experiences and health conditions (physical and mental) during the trafficking. Findings revealed that victims were forced to marry before reaching the legal marriage age (18 years), and were subjected to multiple forms of violence, including verbal abuse, threats, physical and sexual violence, which co-occurred in diverse contexts at work and resulted in a wide range of physical health consequences, from head injuries to broken bones and mental health problems. The study concluded on the need for strong implementation of law enforcement in the region to stop the trafficking for forced marriage, including a highly needed intensive awareness program to eradicate patriarchal attitudes and practices on the commoditisation of women, dowry practices, and curb the trafficking network.
October 27, 2025 at 12:38 PM
globalsociety.bsky.social
We have a new #OnlineFirst article out in Global Society. "Who Controls the Digital Agora? Social Media Governance in the European Union, United States, and Turkey" is by Nuriye Çelik (@ Sinop Üniversitesi). Do give it a read!

#EU #US #Turkey #SocialMedia

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
This study explores how the European Union, the United States, and Turkey regulate social media in the face of disinformation, political polarisation, and the erosion of democratic norms. It argues that regulatory responses are not solely technical adjustments but reflect deeper ideological orientations, revealing whether states conceive the digital sphere as a deliberative public arena or as a domain to be governed through security and control logics. Using qualitative document analysis, the research examines 38 key policy and legal documents issued between 2016 and 2024. A thematic and comparative framework is employed across five dimensions: platform accountability, content governance, data privacy, enforcement mechanisms, and user rights. The analysis is informed by Habermas’s theory of the public sphere, Foucault’s concept of governmentality, and broader media governance scholarship. Findings indicate that the EU promotes a rights-based, deliberative model; the U.S. advances a market-oriented logic privileging platform autonomy, while Turkey exhibits a hybrid regime marked by formal pluralism and increasing state intervention. These divergent models not only reflect contrasting political cultures but also reveal how digital governance becomes a key site where state power, democratic values, and technological agency intersect.
October 24, 2025 at 8:36 AM
globalsociety.bsky.social
The sixth article in Global Society 39(4) is by Prapimphan Chiengkul (Thammasat University), titled "Climate Change and Just Energy-Agrifood Transition: A View from Southeast Asia". Be sure to give it a read!

#Justice #Climate #Needs #Conflict

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Discussions about just renewable energy transition tend to focus on helping workers in the energy sector and on creating decent and green jobs. However, given the close interconnections between climate change, inequality, energy transition and the agrifood sector, this article argues that the conceptualisation of just energy transition should be extended to “just energy-agrifood transition”, such that not only principles pertaining to energy justice but also to agrarian justice are considered in a comprehensive manner. From a political ecology and critical political economy perspective, and by drawing on examples from Southeast Asia, the article additionally proposes broad policy guidelines to help advance just energy-agrifood transition. This includes the promotion of universal access to energy and food, technical solutions embedded with progressive socio-economic goals, measures to address negative socio-environmental consequences of food-energy transitions, more egalitarian distribution of green jobs and productive resources, and ground-up approaches to socio-ecologically sustainable agrifood systems.
October 23, 2025 at 8:21 AM
globalsociety.bsky.social
The fifth article of Global Society 39(4) is "“Gender Ideology” as a Strategic Enemy of the Radical Right in South America: The Cases of Bolsonaro and Milei" by Matías Leandro Saidel (CONICET/ National University of Entre Ríos)!

#Gender #Ideology #Neoliberalism

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
This paper analyses the construction of “gender ideology” (GI) as a strategic enemy of the radical right in a context of radicalisation of neoliberalism in South America. Drawing on studies on the radical right and anti-gender movements, the paper suggests that the growing influence of feminist and LGBTQI+ struggles have been contested by the cultural backlash of conservative mobilisations and of the radical right. In that framework, the paper shows the confluence between religious and political anti-gender activism, recovering epistemic, moral, ideological and geopolitical dimensions that explain the erection of GI as a strategic and absolute enemy of the radical right. Then, the paper discusses anti-gender movements as a reaction against advances in sexual and reproductive rights and analyses the similarities and differences between discourses, policies and contexts of Milei and Bolsonaro. Hence, the article discusses how GI has enabled a right-wing intersectionality, which defends racial, gendered and class hierarchies against the movements that challenge them. It concludes by posing authoritarian neoliberalism and radical right-wing populism as a threat to liberal democracy and the rule of law.
October 20, 2025 at 9:14 AM
globalsociety.bsky.social
The fourth article in Global Society 39(4) is "Repression and Alliance Formation: A Gender(ed) Approach to Interethnic Cooperation During Conflict" by Shelli Israelsen (@radboudpol.bsky.social). Be sure to give it a read!

#Repression #Gender #OpenAccess

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
This article explores alliance behaviour among female insurgents. I argue that interethnic cooperation among women affiliated with different ethnic armed groups is affected by whether women share a commitment to gender egalitarianism and the level of repression they face from their male co-ethnics. Building on previous research, I create a typology of women’s alliance behaviour that explains variation in the level of cooperation and the type of alliance women form. I disaggregate gender egalitarianism along three dimensions – shared victimhood, promotion of gender equality and linkages to civil society – to show how women overcome mistrust to create social bonds. Using the case of the Karen Women’s Organisation (KWO), I demonstrate that even in the face of repression, once these bonds are created, they are unlikely to break down. This study adds to research highlighting the role of repression in driving wartime alliances.
October 16, 2025 at 7:39 AM
globalsociety.bsky.social
We have a new #OnlineFirst #OpenAccess article! "The International Criminal Court and Organised Violence" is by Mattia Cacciatori and Timo Kivimäki (both @uniofbath.bsky.social). Be sure to give it a read!

#ICC #Violence #Deterrence

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
This article examines the long-term and short-term effects of all 15 ICC operations by distinguishing between those with and without great power military resources associated with the intervention. The findings suggest that ICC investigations are significantly associated with reductions in fatalities from organised violence, equally in the short and long term. There is an inverse association between resources of deterrence and the reduction of violence: the higher the level of deterrence, the less violence is reduced. To make sense of this, we present illustrative case studies that demonstrate how the ICC’s pursuit of justice can reduce violence – provided this pursuit is grounded in cooperation and dialogue, rather than imposition and deterrence. The findings of this study are significant for their support of the theory of less power-centric, relational, and cooperative conflict management. They also hold practical significance for policymaking regarding when and how to employ the ICC to mitigate organised violence.
October 14, 2025 at 10:28 AM
globalsociety.bsky.social
Our third article in Global Society 39(4) is "Gendered Citizenship: Land Reform, Authority, and the Limits of “Gender Equality” in Liberia and Sierra Leone" by Caitlin Ryan (@rug.nl). It's #OpenAccess, so do give it a read!

#Gender #Equality

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Land reform is frequently framed as a means of regularising access to land and strengthening the rule of law. In conjunction with current campaigns to formalise customary land rights, there is a major push to make these processes more gender equal. In this paper, I analyse two such reforms – the Liberian Land Rights Act and the Sierra Leonean Customary Land Rights Act. I start from the question of “What gendered forms of power are deployed in making claims to authority? Based on research in Liberian and Sierra Leonean communities that have taken part in projects to implement land reform, I explore how gendered forms of autochthony are used as a basis to claim entitlement and authority over land. Drawing on the existing debates on women’s land rights, and on autochthony, I argue for a more explicitly gendered approach to understanding autochthony. The gender provisions of the reforms highlight wider tensions between autochthony, authority, and citizenship. The findings clearly show that entitlement claims to land made through the gendered power of autochthony are not static or anachronistic, but part of dynamic and contemporary processes of contestation that are as much global as they are local.
October 13, 2025 at 3:01 PM
globalsociety.bsky.social
The next. #OpenAccess, article in Global Society 39(4) is "(De)Weaponizing Climate-Induced Recruitment: Prospects of Climate Change Adaptation as a Non-Kinetic Counter-Terrorism Strategy in the Lake Chad Basin Region" by Folahanmi Aina and @jayblux.bsky.social.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
To what extent can climate change adaptation be incorporated into counterterrorism strategies in the Lake Chad Basin (LCB) region? As part of the Lake Chad region counterterrorism strategy, we explore how climate change adaptation can be used to prevent local population recruitment into violent extremism. Over the years, the Lake Chad Basin has been entangled with complex and multivariant challenges, such as climate threats, jihadist extremism, and intercommunal and religious conflicts. These variabilities have adversely affected people's livelihoods and security. This paper provides a complementary approach to counter-terrorism operations in the Lake Chad Basin region. We argue that local vulnerabilities create a favourable climate for jihadist extremist recruitment of vulnerable local populations. In response to climate change, it suggests adaptation measures as a non-kinetic counter-terrorism measure to help mitigate the recruitment of vulnerable populations into violent extremism. Non-kinetic adaptation measures, in a relative sense, employ a non-military approach to minimise the vulnerability and recruitment of the local population that has experienced climate-related shocks into jihadist enclaves. This approach, which has received little attention in the literature, can be integrated into counter-terrorism operations to prevent the recruitment of vulnerable communities whose livelihoods have been destroyed by climate fragility, violent extremism, and forced displacement nexus in the Lake Chad Basin. The paper concludes by advocating adequate mobilisation of resources to promote adaptation strategies and their implementation.
October 8, 2025 at 11:19 AM
globalsociety.bsky.social
Our 1st monthly pick is"Envisioning Human-Machine Interaction in Future Warfare: Defence Industry Narratives on Human Control of Autonomous Weapon Systems" by Thea Riebe, Anja-Liisa Gonsior, Lilian Reichert, & Christian Reuter (all @tuda.bsky.social)

#OpenAccess

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The development of artificial intelligence and autonomous functions in the military domain has an immense impact on technologies being developed by the private defence industry. Defence firms contribute to the narratives and visions on autonomous weapon systems and the future of warfare, e.g. in the form of strategic marketing of their products. However, their role has so far been understudied, especially regarding autonomous weapon systems. As the normative debate revolves around aspects of human control, this work examines the narratives of (meaningful) human control in the marketing of autonomous military systems by defence manufacturers. Based on a comprehensive content analysis of twenty defence firms, we identified three main narratives, which envision autonomy as a military advantage, the role of the human in the future of warfare, and human-machine teaming. Based on the results, we argue that defence companies reproduce and adapt narratives which shape expectations and visions of human control of autonomous weapon systems in anticipation of emerging norms for (meaningful) human control. However, without specifications and verification mechanisms, there is no indication that human control will be meaningful.
October 6, 2025 at 10:23 AM
globalsociety.bsky.social
There's a new #OnlineFirst article out with Global Society, "Macro Determinants of Global Financial Inclusion: Evidence from World Data" by Peterson K. Ozili (@cenbank.bsky.social).

Be sure to give it a read!

#Growth #Finance #Investment

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The study investigates the macro determinants of global financial inclusion using world data from 1999 to 2023 period. The data were analysed using the fully modified ordinary least squares regression estimator, the two-stage least squares regression estimator and the robust least squares regression estimator. The determinants examined are total domestic investment, macroeconomic management frameworks, international trade openness, total population size, consumer spending, and economic growth rate. The findings reveal that population size and trade openness have a positive effect on global financial inclusion through a higher financial inclusion index and commercial bank branch expansion. Total domestic investment and sound macroeconomic management have a negative effect on global financial inclusion through a decrease in the financial inclusion index and a reduction in the number of bank branches and the negative effect is more pronounced in the post-financial crisis years. However, total population size remain a positive determinant of global financial inclusion in the post-financial crisis years. Trade openness and consumer spending increase global financial inclusion during periods of economic prosperity while total domestic investment and sound macroeconomic management decrease global financial inclusion during periods of economic prosperity. In terms of forward-looking orientation, the study finds that a large population and weak macroeconomic management in the present period leads to financial inclusion gains in the future. It is recommended that policy adjustments in today’s population size and macroeconomic management frameworks can help to achieve future financial inclusion targets. The findings contribute to the financial inclusion literature by using world data to offer new insights into the factors that can accelerate global financial inclusion.
September 16, 2025 at 8:41 AM
globalsociety.bsky.social
Our fourth monthly pick is "The Fourth Industrial Revolution, Artificial Intelligence, and Domestic Conflict" by Lance Y. Hunter, Craig Albert, Josh Rutland, and Chris Hennigan (all from Augusta University)! Please do give it a read!

#AI #Conflict

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
An emerging field of scholarship in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and computing posits that AI has the potential to significantly alter political and economic landscapes within states by reconfiguring labor markets, economies, and political alliances, leading to possible societal disruptions. Thus, this study examines the potential destabilizing economic and political effects AI technology can have on societies and the resulting implications for domestic conflict based on research within the fields of political science, sociology, economics, and artificial intelligence. In addition, we conduct interviews with 10 international AI experts from think tanks, academia, multinational technology companies, the military, and cyber to assess the possible disruptive effects of AI and how they can affect domestic conflict. Lastly, the study offers steps governments can take to mitigate the potentially destabilizing effects of AI technology to reduce the likelihood of civil conflict and domestic terrorism within states.
September 11, 2025 at 10:01 AM
globalsociety.bsky.social
Our third monthly pick is "Civilizational Deviation in Collective Mediation: A Comparative Analysis of the Cretan Question and the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict" by Cavit Emre Aytekin (Kafkas Üniversitesi) & Mehmet Akif Okur (Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi).

#Conflict

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
This study explores the phenomenon of “civilizational deviation” in collective mediation processes within international conflicts, where perceived civilizational identities significantly impact outcomes. Comparing the late 19th-century Cretan Question and the 1988–1994 Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, it reveals how civilizational factors obstruct collective mediation processes. In both cases, conflicting parties held perceptions of civilizational proximity or distance to the collective mediators, diverting mediation process from established international peace frameworks. The mediation process in Crete failed to deter separatism driven by religious self-determination, resulting in a peace design incongruent with prevailing international peace framework (Richmond, Oliver P. 2022. The Grand Design: The Evolution of the International Peace Architecture. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2021. Similarly, the OSCE Minsk Group’s efforts in Nagorno-Karabakh faced challenges aligning with normative mandates from the UN peace framework. This analysis illuminates complexities in mediation influenced by civilizational perceptions and highlighting the need to address civilizational deviation for international peace.
September 8, 2025 at 7:42 AM
globalsociety.bsky.social
Our second monthly pick for September is Oliver P. Richmond's (@manchester.ac.uk) #OpenAccess article, "Rescuing Peacebuilding? Anthropology and Peace Formation". Be sure to click the link below and give it a read!

#Peace #Conflict #Neoliberalism

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
International Relations (IR) and related social science disciplines focusing on peace and conflict studies have enabled a bureaucratic understanding of peacebuilding and a liberal form of peace. This has extended into a neoliberal type of statebuilding. There is now an impressive international architecture for peace, but its engagement with its subjects in everyday contexts has been less impressive. An earlier group of conflict researchers, grouped around John Burton and later A.J.R. Groom, have long argued that this is partly because IR has concentrated on elite power, problem-solving methodology and positivist epistemologies. It has failed to understand the dynamics, agency and hybridity of human society and institutions when it comes to peace, or that inequality is conflict inducing. Rescuing peacebuilding from neoliberal epistemological frameworks requires an anthropological and ethnographic sensitivity.
September 4, 2025 at 9:36 AM
globalsociety.bsky.social
Global Society has a new #OnlineFirst publication out by Antonino Castaldo and Marcelo Camerlo (both ‪@ics-ulisboa.bsky.social‬), "The International Dimension of Autocratisation: New Challenges for Democracy".

Do give it a read!

#Autocracy #Russia #China

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Since the 2000s, two parallel phenomena – the “third wave of autocratisation” and the “reaffirmation of authoritarian great powers” – have contributed to the development of the autocracy promotion literature. This scholarship shows conceptual problems and increasingly evident scope issues. These issues arise from neglecting phenomena tied to the more assertive foreign policy of prominent autocracies, including corrosive capital, digital authoritarianism and disinformation, or new surveillance tools. Such factors contribute to autocratisation processes in both democracies and autocracies. Hence, we propose a branching tree typology to map the conceptual space of the international dimension of autocratisation. Our typology tackles both conceptual and scope issues, highlighting the growing relevance of indirect forms of external influence on autocratisation, which we call “indirect democracy prevention/erosion”. Our goal is to stimulate debate among both IR and comparative politics scholars, encouraging innovative approaches to assess the role of the international dimension in contemporary autocratisation processes.
September 3, 2025 at 10:38 AM
globalsociety.bsky.social
The first monthly pick is an #OpenAccess article by Shelli Israelsen (@radboudpol.bsky.social), "Repression and Alliance Formation: A Gender(ed) Approach to Interethnic Cooperation During Conflict".

Be sure to give it a read!

#Repression #Gender #Conflict

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
This article explores alliance behaviour among female insurgents. I argue that interethnic cooperation among women affiliated with different ethnic armed groups is affected by whether women share a commitment to gender egalitarianism and the level of repression they face from their male co-ethnics. Building on previous research, I create a typology of women’s alliance behaviour that explains variation in the level of cooperation and the type of alliance women form. I disaggregate gender egalitarianism along three dimensions – shared victimhood, promotion of gender equality and linkages to civil society – to show how women overcome mistrust to create social bonds. Using the case of the Karen Women’s Organisation (KWO), I demonstrate that even in the face of repression, once these bonds are created, they are unlikely to break down. This study adds to research highlighting the role of repression in driving wartime alliances.
September 2, 2025 at 9:48 AM