Ragnar Hjalmarsson

YouTube video by Marcel Orange - la Compil des Bleues (English version)

This is such an absolutely amazing ad for women soccer. ❤️

5/5 That also means rebuilding public trust through transparency: publish the threat assessment underpinning the new security and defence policy, and make a policy-based action plan publicly accessible. Minutes here: bit.ly/46vvZQA

#NordicSecurity #Iceland #SecurityPolicy #Resilience #NATO

4/5 The practical agenda is mostly domestic: treat civil protection and resilience as a core pillar; focus on what Iceland can control; and be prepared to push back more firmly in Washington when needed.

3/5 Two readings of the moment . One: fractures are real, but the chair is not broken and support for cooperation still runs deep in the US system. The other: rupture has already happened. If the alliance wobbles, Iceland wobbles. What matters is what Moscow and Beijing believe about US guarantees.

2/5 One core point: it’s counterproductive to treat NATO membership and the US Defence Agreement as two separate pillars. Their credibility is intertwined, and ultimately depends on political will and perceived interests in Washington at any given time.

1/5 Iceland’s defence posture is often described as settled: NATO + the US Defence Agreement. Our Varða roundtable asked a blunter question: are those guarantees merely fractured or already broken? (Link in 5/5.)

Varða Briefing #3: The Greenland Shock The Greenland shock and the questions it has made more urgent in Reykjavik; Iceland-Germany defence tempo, Nordic-Baltic cyberplatform and more.

A view from next door to Greenland.
A brief analytical note on the shock, strategic signalling, and the implications for Iceland. Written for Varða.
varda.beehiiv.com/p/var-a-brie...

#Greenland #HighNorth #Iceland #SecurityPolicy #Geopolitics

Just switch to watching women’s football 💪🏼

Welcome, American foreign policy scholars to the world of Russia experts in late 2021 and early 22, when so many people could not bring themselves to believe that a war would happen simply because it made no sense, there was no real threat, the President wasn't *that* crazy and didn't roll that way

Though not as fashion forward

Can the Church Evolve? | Fintan O’Toole The big question for Pope Leo XIV is whether he will complete Pope Francis’s mission to make the Catholic Church less tyrannical.

"What matters most in democracies...is not the pope’s teaching. It is his mode of leadership. Shorn of its temporal power and its ability to command obedience, the papacy is a display of manners. The pope acts out an idea of what good authority looks like."

eight leatherbound books all titled "FERNS" volumes 1 through 8

Everyone in the past was neurotypical, which is how we got things like this single-author, eight-volume encyclopedia of ferns

Iceland scientists want to drill a hole straight into a reservoir of molten magma about a mile underground. It could generate limitless energy. This will be the first time a group purposefully drills into a magma chamber, the pool of molten rock in the Earth's crust.

If Iceland succeeds in this and weaponises the magma, Iceland can become NATO’s security guarantor with an extended magma deterrence.

Tired: nuclear deterrence
Wired: magma fælingarmátt

Massive congratulations Maurits! And Antwerp, what a lovely place to live -wishing you and your family a good transition.

Another interesting observation from Rawls

A funeral for the word ‘leadership’

Meme

Giving US researchers a new home Amid growing pressure from the US government, Hertie School President Cornelia Woll co-authors op-ed arguing that German institutions have the opportunity to support world-class researchers.

Spiegel? www.hertie-school.org/en/news/deta...

In September 2023, I spent a week in Greenland on a study trip. I still remember the discussions with political representatives. They all spoke of their high regard for the US. And that is exactly what the Trump administration is now destroying. They had so much soft power there, all gone.

Blown away by this erudite book by @valentimvicente.bsky.social 🤯 An exceptional combination of theoretical sophistication and empirical breadth and depth.

His theory of normalization not just helps explain recent rise of far right but also warns for overestimating strength of democracy.

Kotti is always magic 💫

Normalized and monetized

Germany has swung to the right. What does that mean for the country – and Europe? Our panel responds Friedrich Merz’s CDU/CSU may have won the German election, but all eyes are on the far-right AfD after its huge gains, say Fatma Aydemir, Katja Hoyer and others

"...the anti-immigrant campaigns of both centrist parties...did not win over any far-right voters. Nor did they inspire their core voters. To do that, they will need their own ideas and priorities, which means looking beyond immigration (which was only the third most important issue for voters..."

and Iceland... : )

Google Egg Cyborg

Careful what you wish for! If every night were like this, the Earth would have stopped spinning—meaning no sunrise, total climate collapse, and, well… let’s just say ‘night eternal’ wouldn’t be as poetic as it sounds.

Out of ideas: The emptiest of slogans “More for you, better for Germany” and the German flag. #SPD is cooked.

Norms don't just "erode;" democracies don't just "slide."

It's conscious destruction and direction.

Actors have agency.

Which means: One can hold particular people accountable.

"Processes," not so much.