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Aleksandra Spalinska

@alexspalinska.bsky.social

IR theory, world order, non-state actors, polity formation, new medievalism, postmodernity. Assistant Professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Research Associate at the University of Sussex, and a Visiting Fellow at the European University Institute.

5,617 Followers  |  679 Following  |  42 Posts  |  Joined: 24.09.2023  |  2.1351

Latest posts by alexspalinska.bsky.social on Bluesky

This year the Standing Section on World Politics Beyond the State System (co-chaired with @jkleinschmidt.bsky.social) has 12 sessions, including two RTs! Panels cover heterarchy, societal multiplicity, the New Cold War, private and substate actors, and insurgency!ย 

See you in Bologna! #EISAPEC25

20.08.2025 09:53 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 9    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

My new article on โ€œConceptual Entrapmentโ€ is out online-first with @EuroJournIR!
Proud of this one: critical concept studies, autoethnography & soft power all come together to reflect on the researcherโ€“concept relationship.

Take a look here!

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

20.08.2025 17:55 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 6    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

To explore other sessions in our section, please check out the conference programme! Each year we have more ๐Ÿ˜ƒ๐Ÿ˜Ž
@europeanisa.bsky.social

20.08.2025 09:53 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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The second RT, organised and chaired by Justin Rosenberg, will address the problem of "Thinking the International" with Sebastian Schindler, Pinar Bilgin, Oliver Kessler, and Rob B. J. Walker! Thursday, 28 August, at 11.00-12.30.

20.08.2025 09:53 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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We would like to highlight the RTs: first, we will discuss the "Spaces, Relations and Struggles of Ukrainians in International Theory" with Bohdana Kurylo, Cornelia Baciu, Olena Snigyr, Mateusz Filary Szczepanik, Victoria Vdovychenko, Jochen Kleinshmidt, and me. Wednesday, 27 August at 11.00-12.30.

20.08.2025 09:53 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

This year the Standing Section on World Politics Beyond the State System (co-chaired with @jkleinschmidt.bsky.social) has 12 sessions, including two RTs! Panels cover heterarchy, societal multiplicity, the New Cold War, private and substate actors, and insurgency!ย 

See you in Bologna! #EISAPEC25

20.08.2025 09:53 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 9    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Mam gdzieล› obu prezydentรณw i tego byล‚ego i tym bardziej przyszล‚ego . Za to wieczรณr dzisiaj byล‚ cudny

05.08.2025 20:16 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 59    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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The International Affairs summer reading list 2025 There is nothing quite like spending the summer lost within the pages of a great bookโ€Šโ€”โ€Šor ten. Every year, Book Reviews Editor Marianaโ€ฆ

โ˜€๏ธ The wait is over: our summer reading list 2025 is here!

Explore our recommended selection of books, reviewed in International Affairs, to keep you company this summer: medium.com/internationa...

30.07.2025 14:50 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 24    ๐Ÿ” 13    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 2
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Welcome to the Era of Great Power Stupidity The U.S. is throwing out all its goodwill while Russia and China seem determined to shoot themselves in the foot. The reason why is simple: stupidity.

No bigger concepts than "Great Power" and "multipolarity". This piece highlights how the two intersect...to disastrous results

www.worldpoliticsreview.com/us-trump-rus...

04.07.2025 12:29 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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In Foreign Policy, Being Smart Is a Pretty High Bar The idea of โ€œsmart powerโ€ seems especially relevant today. But foreign policy choices usually donโ€™t boil down to obvious outcomes.

Great Power stupidity might be unavoidable, simply because the international system is complex. Even when it is "rational", it can still not result in "smart" decisions.

www.worldpoliticsreview.com/foreign-poli...

04.07.2025 12:29 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

With the holiday, no new column this week.

Instead, here's a ๐Ÿงต highlighting some of the @wpr.bsky.social pieces I've written so far this year and how they can be used to teach International Relations concepts.

04.07.2025 12:29 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 8    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Looking forward to hearing you, indeed on a powerful panel on planting, eating and resisting together with Mariia Banko speaking on cooking, solidarity and resistance, Saltanat Shoshanova on the queeering of traditional food rituals and Maya Hayda on artistic engagements with seeds and displacement

24.06.2025 18:07 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Transnational Infrastructures and the Transformation of Global Orders This book offers a multidisciplinary insight into the significance of infrastructural change for global orders.

New book on #infrastructure and #international_relations out now - including my reflections on how infrastructural development has enabled (re)formations of #international_society. Check it out! @iratut.bsky.social @unituebingen.bsky.social
link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

30.05.2025 14:08 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 8    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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Delighted to say that at the upcoming RUTA Conference
(@associationruta.bsky.social)I will present my poetry project, "A Song of Sunrise and Blood: Cartographies of Terror, Endurance and Revival"! It covers my poems on Ukraine, mapping wartime terrors, grief, and resilience through verse. See you!

24.06.2025 10:13 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 6    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
photo of a protest, one poster reads 'stand with ukraine'

photo of a protest, one poster reads 'stand with ukraine'

๐Ÿ“š New ๐Ÿ‘‰ "From individual to collective: Vernacular security and Ukrainian civil society in wartime"

@bohdanakurylo.bsky.socialโ€ฌ draws on a four-year study (2018โ€“22) of civic engagement in wartime Ukraine, examining through a vernacular security lens

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

28.05.2025 15:36 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 7    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Happy to share my chapter on Zelenskyy's populist aesthetics of security in the Routledge Handbook of #Populism and #ForeignPolicy. Many thanks to editors @davidcadier.bsky.social, @achryssogelos.bsky.social & @sdestradi.bsky.social

@lsemethodology.bsky.social

www.routledge.com/Routledge-Ha...

12.06.2025 11:35 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 12    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Photographer: โ€ždo you want the BISA banner?โ€œ - Me/ :
โ€žno weโ€˜re enoughโ€œ (because, look whoโ€™s next to me!)

What an honour to finally meet this absolutely brilliant mind Iโ€˜ve been admiring for over two years now @bohdanakurylo.bsky.social

@mybisa.bsky.social #BISA2025

20.06.2025 17:41 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 9    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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UN collusion with the Taliban is betraying Afghan women Once again, the world has failed Afghan women and girls. 15 August 2024 marks three years of devastating attacks on women's rights, and freedom of movement under the gender-apartheid Taliban regime. L...

๐ŸŽ‰ Congratulations to our winners of the Loop Best Blog prize 2024, @priscyll.bsky.social and Lida Ahmad!
๐Ÿฅ‡ Read their winning article selected by our jury Benjamin Carver, @alexspalinska.bsky.social and 2023 prize winner, Brandon Mack.
#SupportAfghanWomen
โžก๏ธ ow.ly/W6zz50W3gpU

13.06.2025 08:50 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 5    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

Publication Alert ๐Ÿ“

New article with @lucasschramm91.bsky.social in @wepsocial.bsky.social

It contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of differentiation in the EU. Case studies from EMU & Schengen show how issue-specific incentives lead to atypical integration patterns.

09.05.2025 12:16 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 7    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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The very presence of Crimean Tatars on their ancestral land is an act of resistance. How will the next generation, born and raised under occupation, define its reality, and what is the most desirable future for Crimea? Join us for a webinar with Emine Ziyatdin, Maria Shynkarenko and Suleiman Mamutov

13.03.2025 17:39 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 12    ๐Ÿ” 6    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 3

The lack of expertise on East-Central Europe - or perhaps more precisely the lack of recognition that expertise is actually needed - across sectors, from the media to arts to academia, is often breathtakingโ€ฆ including the too often terrible pronunciation of peopleโ€™s names once it gets to spoken word

10.03.2025 21:20 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 16    ๐Ÿ” 5    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

We're still looking forward to seeing your abstracts! Deadline: 20th March. #EISAPEC25

See you in Bologna! ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

@europeanisa.bsky.social

12.03.2025 21:42 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Our Standing Section at EISA conference (co-chaired with @jkleinschmidt.bsky.social)explores non-state and societal dimensions of world politics: non-state actors, limited statehood, channels for foreign influence, policies and practices at the intersection of hierarchy and anarchy. #EISAPEC25 1/4

23.01.2025 16:39 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 7    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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The sociology of sovereignty: politics, social transformations and conceptual change Sovereignty is a crucial and contested concept in International Relations (IR). As Terje Rasmussen's book shows, it is also dynamic and constantly evolving

๐ŸŽ“ Check out @alexspalinska.bsky.social's review of Terje Rasmussen's "The sociology of sovereignty: politics, social transformations and conceptual change" in International Affairs
doi.org/10.1093/ia/i...

07.03.2025 13:29 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Thank you! Unfortunately, it's not available at this moment. Currently I'm working on the book based on my dissertation. Hopefully, it will be published next year.

22.02.2025 20:20 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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To oszaล‚amiajฤ…ce zdjฤ™cie uchwyciล‚o eteryczne piฤ™kno kultowego efektu โ€žfirefallโ€ w Parku Narodowym #Yosemite, gdzie ล›wiatล‚o sล‚oneczne lub ksiฤ™ลผycowe oล›wietla Horsetail Fall, sprawiajฤ…c, ลผe ล›wieci jak roztopiona lawa. Magia natury w najlepszym wydaniu.

23.01.2025 19:39 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 269    ๐Ÿ” 22    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 13    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

The EISA @europeanisa.bsky.social
conference is scheduled for 25th-29th August 2025.

23.01.2025 16:41 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

3. Struggles: conflict, collaboration, persistence, survival and securitization among the state, non-state and societal actors. That includes related struggles in IR theory such as attempts to debunk statism and Eurocentrism.
See you in Bologna! Abstracts due by 20th March.

23.01.2025 16:39 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

2. Relations: dynamics, developments, strategies, and patterns of interactions and coexistence among state, non-state and societal actors. The contestation and the dynamics of the international beyond the state system.

23.01.2025 16:39 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

We explore beyond-the-state world politics through:

1. Spaces: the outside(s), frontiers, boundaries, liminal spaces, "uncharted" terrains beyond the state power. Spatiality and territoriality beyond the modern state system; the international as a relational and liminal space.

23.01.2025 16:39 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

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