Charlie Thame

For those in Bangkok next week please join us on Tha Prachan campus to hear Elliott Prasse-Freeman (@epf.bsky.social) to discuss his ongoing research.

"The Political Economy of Rohingya Mass Violence: The Centrifugal/Centripetal Dialectic of Racial Capitalism"

International Theory abstract discussing the breakdown of liberal hegemony, the rise of the New Right, and critiques in international relations theory, referencing scholars such as Andrew Linklater.

#OpenAccess from our latest issue -

The tripartite structure of critical international theory - https://cup.org/4nZPiaJ

"proposes a more radical and realistic approach to critical international theory based on a reappraisal of Andrew Linklater’s oeuvre"

- @charliethame.bsky.social

My latest article on critical international theory now has an issue

Myanmar: La Via Campesina in Solidarity with Peasants and Workers facing brutal repression For over four and a half years, the junta has deliberately sabotaged local food production. Today, 16.7 million people (29% of the population) face hunger — up from 13.3 million in 2024.

La Via Campesina's statement of solidarity with Myanmar:

"Working people and peasants remain the backbone of Myanmar’s resistance ... We stand in unwavering solidarity with Myanmar’s peasants and working people — and with their Spring Revolution!"
viacampesina.org/en/2025/10/m...

Sudan at the Crossroads of Empire Revolution, Counterrevolution, and the UAE’s Subimperial Ambitions

"Three historical arcs shaped Sudan’s path: colonial extraction, the security-rent state, and the popular revolution."

This brilliant account of Sudan's revolution foregrounds three historical dynamics that also drive Myanmar's.

abuhureirah.substack.com/p/sudan-at-t...

On imperialism 4/4

On Marx and IR 3/4

We cover my research on the Mekong region, Myanmar’s revolution, Marxist approaches to the international, and contemporary imperialism and sub-imperialism with reference to China and Thailand. 2/4

The Brazilian IR journal World Tensions has just published an open-access thematic double issue on Marxism and International Relations that includes an interview with me in English and Portuguese. 1/4

revistas.uece.br/index.php/te...

Supporting Myanmar Beyond the ‘ASEAN Way’ Addressing the military’s impunity and supporting the emerging “pluralistic state,” is the only effective way forward for the bloc.

"Myanmar is undergoing a process of revolutionary state-building that offers a choice: back the population to reimagine the nature of the state & pursue justice, or continue down the current path that enables the junta’s destruction & undermines ASEAN."

thediplomat.com/2025/10/supp...

Gen Z Is Taking to the Barricades Here’s why you should be paying attention.

Since 2022 Gen Z has organised revolutions & dethroned rulers in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, Kenya, Morocco, Nepal, Madagascar, & Peru.

Countries w/a combined pop. of 790 million people, making it the largest wave of revolt in human history.
foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/17/g...

3/3 Full paper:

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Economic Corridors as Infrastructures of Extraction Economic Corridors Economic corridors are geographically targeted development initiatives currently under construction on nearly every continent of the planet. While hard infrastructure such as tra…

2/3. Yet still I'm left speechless at the gall of this plan for incorporating Gaza into the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor.

Summary of paper: developingeconomics.org/2021/07/13/e...

Donald Trump’s vision for Gaza’s future: what a leaked plan tells us about US regional strategy A glossy 38-page plan for the redevelopment of Gaza envisages a futuristic mix of smart manufacturing, luxury resorts and the ‘voluntary relocation’ of Palestinians.

1/3. I wrote an article over four years ago arguing that economic corridors were an essentially extractivist paradigm that facilitate the reproduction of imperial-hierarchical relations across the international ...

theconversation.com/donald-trump...

21st century battle of green state capitalism vs brown climate barbarism off to a good start

Congratulations! The cover looks great too!

I seem to remember Parit (Penguin), one of the first to go on hunger strike and a brilliant student of history, writing about his inspiration somewhere. The Irish republicans were among them, but I think there were local antecedents too.

Looking forward to reading this! I wonder how it compares with Thai activists' use of this tactic following the crackdown on the 2021 pro-democracy movement.

New article: The tripartite structure of critical international theory, by @charliethame.bsky.social, doi.org/10.1017/S175... @internatltheory.bsky.social

more sociologically grounded, praxeologically attuned, and normatively realist; more Hegel and Marx than Kant. The paper then outlines what this might entail.

@universitypress.cambridge.org

I argue that legitimate criticism of his neo-Kantian content of his project has detracted from its tripartite form and that the “hard” revolutionary tradition deserves greater prominence today:

Andrew was one of the “great” international theorists. However, his influence as a pioneer of critical IR waned in the latter half of his career, and his broader argument has been under appreciated.

accompanied Linklater’s insistence that an adequate International theory must be realist, rationalist, and emancipatory.

This was premised on what he called the necessarily tripartite structure of critical theory. This is the claim, inspired by Kant, Hegel, and Marx, that any theory remains incomplete unless it incorporates normative, sociological, and praxeological analysis,

Andrew’s project was a major contribution to the “soft” revolutionist tradition and an extension of the solidaristic approach to the English School. He wanted to incorporate and transcend the insights of realism, rationalism, and Marxism based on a commitment to human liberation.

Martin Wight once argued that there are three traditions of international theory: realism, rationalism, and revolutionism, conceding that the gulf between “soft” revolutionists like Kant and “hard” revolutionists like Marx meant that a quadruple classification might be more apt (1991: 267-8).

The Tripartite Structure of Critical International Theory
doi.org/10.1017/S175...

For those interested in critical theory / IR, my latest, OA in @internatltheory.bsky.social

Part homage to Andrew Linklater (@interpolaber.bsky.social), part statement of my approach to IR, developed through his

The Thailand-Cambodia War Was About Shoring Up Elite Power Thailand and Cambodia shocked observers by going to war last month. The destructive border conflict doesn’t stem from an upsurge of popular nationalism: the political elites in both countries needed a...

"The war is about elites in Bangkok and Phnom Penh weaponizing myth to distract from corruption, inequality, and repression.

The people who pay the price are the rural poor, not the generals, oligarchs, or bureaucrats who send them to die."

jacobin.com/2025/08/thai...

BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen has confirmed that the entire Al Jazeera team in Gaza City has been killed.

"Cambodia has known war for decades. We, the sons and daughters of those who survived it, were raised on their stories of bombings, massacres, starvation, and silence. Must we now pass those horrors down to another generation?”