Susan Brewer-Osorio

Calling on engaged civil society to meet this moment defending our democracy… each in our own way, reach out to neighbors, find one thing you can do this week— who can make a poster and put it in your window, facing the street, sharing your support for democracy? What will your poster say?

Chart of cumulative protests reported from Jan 22 - Feb 28, 2017 vs 2025:

Technically, USIP is not part of the White House chain of command, and DOGE should have no authority to tell them to do anything or demand entry. The statute spells out processes for the president to remove members of the board of directors, but doesn't give the WH any direct control over operations

Spare a thought for your green-card holding and naturalized colleagues, many of whom are now doing risk-benefit calculations before speaking on anything that could be considered remotely political

I was excited about the prospects of an IAF grant to support a collaboration with community-based coffee cooperatives in Colombia. We’ll keep looking for funds, but this was a disappointing setback. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Collective Reintegration and Gender Relations among Ex-Combatants Lessons from Colombia Female combatants often experience empowerment during armed conflict that is seldom preserved after a peace deal. Empowerment of women fighters is associated with gender equality practices within a...

Excited to share my article, Collective Reintegration and Gender Relations among Ex-Combatants Lessons from Colombia, published in International Peacekeeping. I analyze how collective reintegration of FARC in Colombia shaped gender relations among ex-combatants.

www.tandfonline.com/eprint/HG7MK...

Political scientists: Please consider applying to the APSA Virtual Research Group Workshop, “Advancing the Use of Computational Tools in Political Science.” to learn about Large Language Models (LLMs) for data collection. More info: connect.apsanet.org/vrm2025/2025.... Deadline is February 14th.

What Just Happened: Unpacking Exec Order on National Emergency at the Southern Border An expert explainer on the Executive Order Declaring National Emergency Southern Border and deployment of troops.

Want to understand what's truly happening with the Executive Order 'Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border'?

And the legal constraints/challenges ahead in courts and inside the Pentagon?

I am grateful to @marknevitt.bsky.social for lending his expertise on this.⬇️

A must read.

I mean, it’s been pretty obvious for a long time that a nazi salute was coming. I’m not letting anyone off the hook for having the bumper sticker…

It is a sad day for Columbia and us all when a respected scholar is pushed to "retire" because of attacks from within and outside the university. What does academic freedom mean under these conditions? Genuinely asking here, bc these kinds of attacks are not going to end with Katherine Franke

Está invitado para CIENCIA EN ESPAÑOL

I am hosting an event where University of Arizona scientists will speak about their science in Spanish. It is meant to be a community event with a Zoom option, so share with family too!

events.trellis.arizona.edu/en/f44lNu67/...

#CIENCIAENESPAÑOL

Yes, it seems like neighbors are going to be an issue. But, I’m encouraged by your guarded optimism!

What are your thoughts on how the regime might evolve? Any reason for hope?

Syrian opposition grants army soldiers amnesty after fall of al-Assad The new administration is promising to uphold state institutions after capturing the capital, Damascus.

The ousting of a brutal dictator gives hope, but I worry for Syria. History teaches that revolutions by force do not lead to democratic outcomes. Russia, China, Mexico, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua...all popular revolutions that culminated in authoritarianism.

www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...

EVERYONE NEEDS TO HEAR THIS!

Women NATIONWIDE can still receive safe, effective and affordable medication abortion services via the #ASafeChoice Network of physicians.

Please share 🙏🏼.
social.demcast.com/s/Y4YK58sE

Article title and abstract

What if the majority of people denied asylum in the United States are:

a) Telling the truth,
b) In real danger of persecution, and yet
c) Still denied asylum on legal technicalities?

That's the bombshell finding of a landmark new study. bclawreview.bc.edu/articles/317...

If people are looking to get involved. Find your local Indivisible Group. I know our local is going to start having meetings beginning in January. indivisible.org

There were resistance movements against Pinochet’s regime, against the Nazis, and against the Apartheid regime in South Africa. In the face of annihilationist regimes resistance succeeded.

They succeeded because people found myriad ways to work together, and didn’t give in to hopelessness.

“If a percentage of what the United States spends on war were dedicated to peace and development, that would address the underlying causes of migration,” she said.

Vigilantes are back harassing churches, humanitarian groups, and the Casa Alitas migrant shelter in Tucson. They're trying to break into places and posting videos on X tagging Musk.

Thanks for making this starter pack! I recommend adding @javierosorio.bsky.social.

Started / Going

Some do have mandatory military service- Colombia, Israel, though often with many exemptions. But, we don’t need that because we have a large and expensive military without conscription, and we aren’t at war, and if we were it’s likely we’d rely on war technologies to reduce boots on ground.

If we apply the most widely accepted definition of what a democracy is (see Dahl, Polyarchy), then we absolutely are. However, I would agree we’ve experienced significant backsliding, are currently a weak democracy (at the federal level), and teetering on electoral authoritarianism/one party rule.

It’s not unusual for democracies to have mandated voting, with (usually soft) penalties for not participating. It’s absolutely the norm to have automatic voter registration at adulthood.

The government of El Salvador used to track the number of disappearances in the country, which showed them rising proportionally to the drop in homicides. Then they stopped counting, and closed the disappearances office. Its old Twitter link is now vacant: x.com/desaparecidoFGR

A working list of researchers, practitioners, and organizations working on transitional justice, please let me know if I missed you or anyone else who should be added! bsky.app/starter-pack... Some overlap with but narrower focus than my other list on humanitarian aid, peacebuilding & development.

After Trump Win, Brazil Needs to Step Up Rights Diplomacy While the United States has often fallen short of its stated commitment to defend democracy and human rights globally, under President-elect Donald Trump it seems poised to hit a new low.

Authoritarian politicians may feel empowered by Trump's win.

Other leaders should step up and defend human rights.

Brazil can play a key role as a Global South democracy and host to G20, BRICS & COP. But it needs a consistent foreign policy.

My piece:

www.hrw.org/news/2024/11...

Follow the account and repost this if you’re interested! Tag @polviolencepapers.bsky.social when sharing your working paper on armed conflict, civil war, insurgency, terrorism, extremism, or post-conflict state/society to get it reposted.

Two of our fur kids 🐶🐶