Jonathan Boff

No, and nasty and evil as the Iranian regime is, it ain’t a threat to the world as terrible as Nazi Germany, either

💯

Iraqis duly rebelled.
The USA was in no position provided to help the rebels and the regime killed tens if not hundreds of thousands of people.

‘the Iraqi people should put [Saddam] aside, and that would facilitate the resolution of all these problems that exist and certainly would facilitate the acceptance of Iraq back into the family of peace-loving nations.’
President George HW Bush, 1 March 1991

‘There is another way for the bloodshed to stop: and that is, for the Iraqi military and the Iraqi people to take matters into their own hands and force Saddam Hussein, the dictator, to step aside… and rejoin the family of peace-loving nations.’
President George HW Bush, 15 February 1991

No but a higher oil price extends Putin’s ability to finance the war

The book examines underexplored crises, draws on new archival material, and includes fresh interviews with decision-makers such as Tony Blair & George Robertson.

Available for $35 if you order directly from Georgetown using the discount code TGUF.
press.georgetown.edu/Book/Transat... 2/2

Another crisis in UK-US relations. How does the alliance survive repeated ruptures?

Greg Kennedy & I brought together 14 brilliant scholars to answer that in Transatlantic Storms in Anglo-American Relations: How the Alliance Weathers Crises.

Out today with Georgetown University Press. 1/2

Trump can’t expect unconditional support one way while only offering an instrumental relationship in the other direction.
That said, Starmer has yet again made a hash of establishing and explaining a clear policy so far and yet again failed to exercise defence leadership in Europe.
2/2

The alliance between 🇺🇸 and 🇬🇧 has always - rightly - operated within the limits of national interests.
Starmer should feel just as free to attach conditions to support to the USA over Iran and the Middle East as Trump clearly feels able to do to helping Europe over Ukraine and Russia. 1/2

One reassuring thing: there is so little money in what we do that the incentives for automation (were that even possible) are very low compared with other professions such as accountancy or law. And by the time they get around to us some giant AI eff up in one of those will have discredited it all

Framing the First World War: How Diverging Views Shaped a Global Conflict Published in First World War Studies (Ahead of Print, 2026)

My review of excellent new book ‘Framing the First World War’ edited by the dream team @draefox.bsky.social @dmorganowen.bsky.social and Michael Finch is now in @fwwsjournal.bsky.social
50 free eprints available here:
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/VRRIQ...

I'm really pleased to see 'Finding and leaving traces: Prehabitation and the presence of the past in the Victorian-era prison' - co-written with Dominique Moran and Jennifer Turner - is now out in @jofhistgeog.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1016/j.jh...

I have questions, no answers, I fear

Book Launch: Charity After Empire British Humanitarianism, Decolonisation and Development

Book launch 3. Matthew Hilton’s Charity After Empire, Tues 24 March 6pm, Arts 2, @qmul.bsky.social, with @rshc.bsky.social, @riakapoor.bsky.social, David Williams, Kavita Datta and Bill Schwarz: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-launc...

They are obviously on US side in the conflict with Iran but will that make them more dependent on 🇺🇸 ? If so, will that translate into them sliding away from 🇷🇺? (Is DJT capable of pushing those buttons???)
Or will they feel they have greater leverage on West now because allies versus Iran?

I am struggling to get my mind around how the attack on Iran and its retaliation affects the Gulf States’ attitude to Russia. Some have been making hay by enabling Putin under the cover of neutrality (while playing a sometimes unhelpful role in places like Sudan and Yemen). Can this continue now?

More ‘Here’s what could happen next’ is definitely what will happen next

It’s still early

Agreed. I was mainly of thinking FRA and the E3 although I realise 🇬🇧 has been Little Satan ever since it was Great Satan

….while the Iranian government is so trapped within its own paranoia that it is unable to distinguish between its enemies and lashes out indiscriminately, even at the risk of building the coalition against itself.
2/2

The contrast between how the regimes in Tehran and Moscow weaponise paranoia is interesting.
Putin uses narratives of encirclement and victimisation to build popular support but in practice subordinates paranoia to realpolitik and fights only those he feels he really needs to… 1/2

It’s a unique gift.

. Underscores the brutal incompetence of the Iranian regime. It deserves everything that’s coming at it.
I just wish it wasn’t coming in such an irresponsible, verging on criminally negligent and illegitimate manner.

Don’t elect Presidents who can’t be bothered to read a book.

He is a very good example of how time lends enchantment. Now remembered with a chuckle as an old-style principled parliamentarian, but in reality an unscrupulous old Stalinist rogue who’d gladly hang his own grandma

Mehr dazu 👇🏼
www.zms.bundeswehr.de/de/mediathek...

For someone who thinks he’s good at cutting deals, DJT sure seems to spend a lot of time giving other people what they want for not much in return

Emergency Exits: Discussion Day The end of the Second World War did not mean peace for everyone; it accelerated the fight for independence across the British Empire. In a major day of discussion and debate from the IWM Institute, a ...

Privileged to speak with talented colleagues today about colonial violence at the Imperial War Museum. I’ve been researching this in the IWM’s archives since 2002 and finally, in 2026, we are discussing the conflicts of the 1940s and 1950s.
www.iwm.org.uk/events/emerg...

If you are going to change regime, it’s a good idea to know what you want the new one to be like and to be able to help it happen.