Almut Rochowanski

European militarism on steroids is not good, either Lacking in any strategic thinking, a new bellicism has swept up the elites and gone into cataclysmic overdrive in recent weeks

"Indeed, Europe’s new militarist politics already undermines its democratic institutions and laws." @almutrochowanski.bsky.social

responsiblestatecraft.org/europe-defen...

What are you so afraid of? The US hints at drawing down its military commitment to Europe. Europeans are on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

I don't have a complete answer, but I did write something about it last year: discomfortzone.substack.com/p/what-are-y...

EU Seeks a Military Revival Under Pressure From Putin and Trump European officials are working on a major new package to ramp up defense spending and support Kyiv as President Donald Trump pushes for a quick end to the war in Ukraine.

We need a "military revival" like a hole in the head. It's throwing good money after bad. We need a revival of diplomacy and democratic participation in foreign policy.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

'People-centered peace' lost a major advocate this week RIP: Wolfgang Sporrer was a friend, co-author, and one of the most persuasive proponents of inclusive diplomacy in Europe

In my mental landscape of allies and leaders in the cause of peace in Europe, Wolfgang Sporrer was a mountain.

He passed away unexpectedly this week. I tried to summarize his work and ideas in this eulogy.

responsiblestatecraft.org/wolfgang-spo...

Wir trauern um unseren Autor und Freund, Wolfgang Sporrer. Sein Leben und Wirken waren geleitet von der Maxime, dass Frieden die Grundlage ist, auf der eine bessere Welt erst möglich wird.
jacobin.de/autoren/wolf...

Amen!

'People-centered peace' lost a major advocate this week RIP: Wolfgang Sporrer was a friend, co-author, and one of the most persuasive proponents of inclusive diplomacy in Europe

"These numbers are so remarkable that anyone serious about making peace cannot afford to ignore them."
About inclusive, people-centered peacemaking, Ukraine and Wolfgang Sporrer, an outstanding diplomat and peace activist, who passed away this week.
responsiblestatecraft.org/wolfgang-spo...

'People-centered peace' lost a major advocate this week RIP: Wolfgang Sporrer was a friend, co-author, and one of the most persuasive proponents of inclusive diplomacy in Europe

"Peace has to deliver for the people who suffered from war. [...] Ordinary people at the table and bread-and-butter issues on the agenda make the atmosphere calmer and more constructive overall." @almutrochowanski.bsky.social ⬇️ responsiblestatecraft.org/wolfgang-spo...

Late-night grant proposal editing with Ukrainian activists:
"You know why this next project will be about violence against women? This is hard to say: very soon, all the veterans will return home. We remember from 2015 what will happen in those families, the horror of it."

@meduzaproject.bsky.social has now published a translation of the interview with Benyash. I have heard activists express similar sentiments dozens of times over the years, but only ever at their kitchen table. This is an important record.

meduza.io/en/feature/2...

I ran it through auto-translate for the quotes and I recommend you do, too. @meduza.io publishes a selection of their articles in English, but not this interview (yet).

«Я не могу больше. Я ненавижу. Я не хочу. Это разрушает меня» Адвокат Михаил Беньяш много лет помогал политзаключенным. А теперь работает сантехником в Литве. Вот его интервью — Meduza Михаил Беньяш — адвокат из Краснодарского края, который много лет помогал тем, кого преследуют российские власти. Из-за этого он и сам стал объектом преследования: осенью 2022 года Минюст объявил его ...

Anyone who works inside grant-funded NGOs anywhere knows that these sentiments are widely shared, that despair, precarity, toxicity are chronic. It's the main reason I've been telling activists to find new business models: "you will never be happy". ⬇️
meduza.io/feature/2025...

The #USAID story is opening the flood gates. Mikhail Benyash, once a leading Russian human rights lawyer, now a plumber in Lithuania, gives voice to the revulsion, dysfunction and toxicity plaguing foreign-funded NGOs in this epic, caustic interview with @meduzaproject.bsky.social. ⬇️

Rarely taught media literacy lesson: if a news website has no advertising, no paywall and maybe just an unobtrusive "donate here" button, it is funded (to a large extent, if not exclusively) by grants from powerful institutions (governments, foundations, corporations).

Western-Backed NGOs: A Hollow Version of Civil Society Donald Trump’s moves to dismantle USAID clearly aren’t driven by fears of infringing on other nations’ sovereignty. Still, we should recognize that Global South NGOs’ reliance on Western donors hinder...

Great stuff by @almutrochowanski.bsky.social on @jacobinmagazin.bsky.social about foreign funding, NGOs and civil society

jacobin.com/2025/02/west...

Lily Lynch, Sense of an Ending — Sidecar Serbia’s unrest.

In post-Cold War CEE/Eurasia, there hasn't been a popular protest movement as important as the current one in Serbia that wasn't cultivated and coopted by outside powers. Which explains why the latter are literally speechless about it. By @lilylynch.bsky.social
newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

Western-Backed NGOs: A Hollow Version of Civil Society Donald Trump’s moves to dismantle USAID clearly aren’t driven by fears of infringing on other nations’ sovereignty. Still, we should recognize that Global South NGOs’ reliance on Western donors hinder...

"In reality, deploying NGOs for explicitly political action has long been viewed as the pinnacle of foreign grant-making — the most exalted discipline for the most eminent players, yielding the biggest bang for their buck."
jacobin.com/2025/02/west...

Western-Backed NGOs: A Hollow Version of Civil Society Donald Trump’s moves to dismantle USAID clearly aren’t driven by fears of infringing on other nations’ sovereignty. Still, we should recognize that Global South NGOs’ reliance on Western donors hinder...

In time for the #USAID story, ideas on civil society, money, power, freedom I've been chewing on for a very long time. Thanks, @jacobinmagazin.bsky.social for suggesting the original German version and @jacobinmag.bsky.social for editing the extended English version.
jacobin.com/2025/02/west...

Some of my early experiences in this line of work were in eastern Bosnia—investigating mass graves and interviewing the survivors of massacres perpetrated during ethnic cleansing.

Did not expect to hear in 2025 a US official extolling the benefits of ethnic cleansing.

Where Does the Money Go? A Look at USAID Spending in Haiti Discover the significance of USAID spending in Haiti and its implications for US foreign policy. Get expert analysis from Jake Johnston.

If you're interested not in the lurid hype around #USAID (coups, Russiagate, rainbow flags etc), but the much greater and much more complicated story of how and why foreign aid fails or succeeds, this, by @jakobjohnston.bsky.social for @ceprdc.bsky.social, is a must-read.
cepr.net/publications...

When I asked veteran strategist David Axelrod whether Democrats were “walking into a trap” on defending foreign aid, he literally finished my sentence. “My heart is with the people out on the street outside USAID, but my head tells me: ‘Man, Trump will be well satisfied to have this fight,’” he said. “When you talk about cuts, the first thing people say is: Cut foreign aid.” Rahm Emanuel — the former House leader, Chicago mayor and diplomat — told me much the same: “You don’t fight every fight. You don’t swing at every pitch. And my view is — while I care about the USAID as a former ambassador — that’s not the hill I’m going to die on,” he said.

Very serious Democratic strategists advise the party to allow Trump to illegally dismantle USAID -- a decision that will result in the unnecessary deaths of people around the world.

www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Young white men who strut around newly freed from DEI, using the R-word, celebrating the return of the meritocracy then ask for extra time at exams because they have anxiety, turn their homework in late because their parents are mean to them and take plenty of mental health days

Ukraine's populist-dissident (and very successful) streamers express disdain for the 90% of Ukrainian media who had USAID funding: "they call us sell-outs, but it turns out they cannot find an audience that would support them, so they have to depend on foreigners".

no. 71—Whither Humanitarianism? THE FIRST QUARTER of the twenty-first century fast approaches its end, and all is not well in human welfare. According to the UN secretary-general, some 360 million people worldwide are in need of…

If you want to find out more about the reality of this industry, you could start by reading this recent issue of @thebaffler.com dedicated to the failings of international humanitarian aid.
thebaffler.com/issues/no-71

Seeing a lot of "USAID's money - shock! horror! - causes corruption in poor countries and is wasteful" swirling about. Calm down. This happens with all foreign aid agencies, from any donor country. It's no secret. They've been teaching that in "foreign aid 101" for decades.

Nowhere to go home to Conversation with Ukrainian activists

More at discomfortzone.substack.com/p/nowhere-to...

Nowhere to go home to Conversation with Ukrainian activists

Weekend chat with Ukrainian activist: "there are soldiers at the front who have been fighting since the beginning of the war. Many of them are from the territories that are now occupied. They have nowhere to go home to. They will be demobilized into homelessness." ⬇️

22 days before Germany's elections, there's sudden panic/hope that the party leading in the polls will have to switch its candidate for chancellor. Not because he was discovered to be senile, but because he couldn't help reveal himself for the awful person and politician he is.

#Poltava If I have memories of encounters with people and places burnt into my heart, so deeply I will never forget them, after spending a just a few days there years ago, how infinitely more painful must today's attack feel for the people of the city. I can't even imagine it.

I've lived through several iterations of Trump-style mass firings (for the sin of holding a job under a previous govt). In Ukraine, Georgia etc. We called it "lustrations" and applauded when bright-eyed activists said it was imperative to rid their country of the ancien régime.