@almutrochowanski.bsky.social
Feminist activist. Working on women's rights, peace, justice, civil society in post-Soviet Eurasia while harboring grave doubts about how this work is done. Non-resident fellow @quincyinst.bsky.social.
"Indeed, Europe’s new militarist politics already undermines its democratic institutions and laws." @almutrochowanski.bsky.social
responsiblestatecraft.org/europe-defen...
I don't have a complete answer, but I did write something about it last year: discomfortzone.substack.com/p/what-are-y...
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...
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!
"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...
"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).
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).
Great stuff by @almutrochowanski.bsky.social on @jacobinmagazin.bsky.social about foreign funding, NGOs and civil society
jacobin.com/2025/02/west...
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...
"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...
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.
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...
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".
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.
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.