Marius S. Ostrowski

AMOC Collapse Visualisation Map The interactive map that shows you the effects worldwide of climate change scenarios and the AMOC current collapsing

imagine being an adaptation planner in the UK and you are told, "well, the most likely thing that will happen is your country will get way hotter with a sharp increase in extreme temps... BUT there's a chance the AMOC could break in which case you'll get way way colder"

So, prepare for that

Why the UK needs to be better at long-term strategy - Heywood Quarterly Lucy Smith, Heywood Fellow, explains the importance of long-term strategy for the UK – and how other countries may be leading the way.

Does the government ignore things about the future known to be true, not wanting to confront them in the present?

This year's Heywood Fellow, Lucy Smith, argues the British state must get better at long-term strategy.

@blavatnikschool.bsky.social

heywoodquarterly.com/why-the-uk-n...

"We found a huge appetite to think long-term but frustration that the machinery pulls in the opposite direction."

This year's Heywood Fellow, Lucy Smith, makes the case for a long-term national strategy ⬇️

With huge thanks to @blavatnikschool.bsky.social and the Heywood Foundation for supporting this project, and fellow team members Zainab Agha, Benjamin Clayton, and Philip Bray for their hard work to bring these together!

Case study: España 2050 The Heywood Fellowship reviewed España 2050, Spain’s strategic vision. It highlighted expert input, ambition, and key lessons: government backing, explicit trade-offs, cultural change, and the need fo...

📄 A case-study by policy and practice lead Alex Downing on Spain's 2050 strategy.

Long-term, national strategy National strategy must be a core state function. Democracies can deliver it through inclusive, adaptive practices, making ‘big bets’ explicit and embedding learning into institutions to align short- a...

📄 An anchor paper by Heywood Fellow Lucy Smith setting out the case for change and a framework for how to achieve it.

Delighted to share the first big outputs from this year's Heywood Fellowship project on long-term national strategy for the UK!

Great question! For overviews of ideologies I'd recommend:
* Freeden et al., "Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies"
* Heywood, "Political Ideologies: An Introduction"
For ideology as a concept:
* Eagleton, "Ideology: An Introduction"
Also my own book "Ideology" and Blakely, "Lost in Ideology"

"In a geopolitically uncertain world and after more than a decade of low productivity growth, the UK needs to rethink its economic strategy." Today, we're publishing a collection of expert policy insights ahead of the multi-year Spending Review conclusion: buff.ly/DAlcNo5

Fondly remembering my 15 minutes in the limelight when I called Gibraltar "Brexit's thorniest problem" in 2019.

Equally fondly remembering the deluge of comments I got sent in response from Gibraltarians, including an entirely unsolicited Master's thesis (!).

www.thenewworld.co.uk/brexit-news-...

Scientists in Japan develop plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours Researchers in Japan have developed a plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours, offering up a potential solution for a modern-day scourge polluting oceans and harming wildlife.

“the new material is as strong as petroleum-based plastics but breaks down into its original components when exposed to salt. Those components can then be further processed by naturally occurring bacteria,thereby avoiding generating microplastics that can harm aquatic life and enter the food chain.”

IWW IU 520 (Railroad Workers) PRESENTS: TROLLEY PROBLEM SOLUTION “Slip the switch” by flipping it while the trolley’s front wheels have passed through, but before the back wheels do. This will cause a controlled derailment bringing the trolley to a safe halt. Thank a rail worker today!

unions: they get the job done

As President Trump prepares to announce a US-UK trade deal framework, Professor Emily Jones raises concerns about parliamentary oversight and transparency👇

American foreign policy in 2025:

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

Some in Labour HQ may want to reflect on this - here’s a policy which has drastically improved air quality, benefitting the poorest citizens. But Starmer’s LOTO started criticising it because a couple of Clarkson bigmouths complained in focus groups & they (wrongly imho) blamed it for Uxbridge loss

This is what genuine, material academic resistance to fascism looks like.

Together with Paulina Ochoa Espejo and Murad Idris, Leigh Jenco has just published a new introduction to political theory that integrates recent insights from comparative and global political thought. Available here: uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/po...

No surprises from Von Der Leyen's plan to rearm Europe announcement this morning, except that she has announced a €150bn common facility rather than €100bn. Her letter attached

Petition: Grant automatic visa extension and ILR for Ukrainians after 5 years Since Feb 2025, Ukrainians and their eligible family members in the UK have been able to apply for further permission to remain for up to 18 months. We would like the extensions to be automatic and fo...

If you're in the UK you'd like a pause from banging your head on the table in agonised despair & belief, there's this petition.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/71...

Terrific resignation letter by Anneliese Dodds, this.

The young vote in Germany, by gender. 😳

We can follow these four choices down a total of 16 "decision tree" pathways to reach the particular form of morphological analysis we decide to use.

Or, if you like, we choose between 16 morphological "roles" we can play when we carry out our analyses.

Happy theorising! ✨

Next, we look directly at the denotative meanings or the connotations of ideological and conceptual labels, and we examine how these are determined by their internal logic or their surrounding context.

My argument is quite straightforward.

Whenever we do ideological analysis, we choose between looking at ideologies or at the concepts they are made up of, and we analyse them in either a holistic or disaggregated way.

So pleased and proud that my Editorial on "The apotheosis of conceptual morphology" is now officially out along with the first issue of @jpolideologies.bsky.social of 2025!

Couldn't resist making space for a bit of the Upanishads in the epigraph...

Categorizing Salafism with and without Wiktorowicz: grounded reflections from Tunisia Since Wiktorowicz’s landmark article in 2006, students of Salafism have been critical users of his tripartite typology ('purists', 'politicos', and 'Jihadis'). Most efforts have been directed towar...

And finally, moving to North Africa, we close with an article on "Categorizing Salafism with and without Wiktorowicz: grounded reflections from Tunisia" by Théo Blanc @eui-eu.bsky.social

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Recognizing Hindu Orientalism This essay proposes Hindu Orientalism as a central category of analysis across disciplines. It begins by demonstrating how the claim to decolonize India is in fact (re/neo)colonial in many ways as ...

Travelling across to Asia, we have an article on "Recognizing Hindu Orientalism" by Irfan Ahmad (Ibn Haldun University)

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Enlarging the British settler state of Canada: A liberal theory of government and violence This paper examines the writings of George Brown, a leading expansionist and liberal thinker in the British settler state of Canada. Studying George Brown’s thinking as a non-canonical colonial sta...

Moving across the northern border, we have "Enlarging the British settler state of Canada: A liberal theory of government and violence" by Éléna Choquette @uniofcam.bsky.social

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Steve Bannon on ‘productive capitalism’: investigating the economic ideology of the American populist right In this article we explore the economic thinking of the American populist right and the reservoir of ideological tropes that it draws on. We start with Steve Bannon and show how he narrates a binar...

Staying in the US, there is an article on "Steve Bannon on ‘productive capitalism’: investigating the economic ideology of the American populist right" by Jens Steffek and Yannick Lasshof @tuda.bsky.social

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....