@wlacher.bsky.social
Political scientist with a longstanding interest in violent conflict, Libya and the Sahel. Author, Libya's Fragmentation; co-editor, Violence and Social Transformation in Libya. Views my own. https://www.swp-berlin.org/en/researcher/wolfram-lacher
📢 CfA: #MegatrendsAfrika Fellowship 2026
3 fully funded 3-month research stays (fall 2026) in Berlin, Bonn or Kiel for scholars from African countries. Topics include peace & security, democracy, economic prospects, global order & science diplomacy. Deadline is 25/03/2026.
🔎 Apply now: t1p.de/3tt3s
‘Extraordinary cruelty’: images show longterm ‘starvation strategy’ in Sudan
10.03.2026 09:50 — 👍 89 🔁 71 💬 11 📌 6
Instruktive Zahlen im neuen SIPRI-Bericht: Deutschland war 2021-2025 der wichtigste Lieferant von Rüstungsgütern für die Türkei und Ungarn, zweitwichtigster Exporteur nicht nur für die Ukraine und Israel, sondern auch für Ägypten
www.sipri.org/media/press-...
New video footage shows a US Tomahawk missile hitting an IRGC facility in Minab, Iran, on Feb 28, showing for the first time that the US struck the area. The footage also shows smoke already rising from the vicinity of the girls’ school, where 175 people were reportedly killed, including children.
08.03.2026 17:20 — 👍 3219 🔁 1680 💬 88 📌 188
„It‘s more fun to sink them“
Es ist die totale Barbarei, über die hier so herzhaft gelacht wird. Menschen werden getötet, weil es lustiger ist.
Many thanks!
09.03.2026 19:00 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
This is an excellent, thought-provoking piece by @wlacher.bsky.social and @yguichaoua.bsky.social discussing the subject (and industry) around conflict studies. Its a piece I'll be chewing on for the next couple of days, and something I've been feeling as well
dissentmagazine.org/article/the-...
A still life photo of an hourglass with sand, set against dried leaves, symbolizing the passage of time.
Last chance to sign up for Peacekeeping, Peacebuilding and Human Rights WG event tomorrow! 🚨
'The demise of conflict studies' with Yvan Guichaoua and Wolfram Lacher 🎉
Register now 👉 https://ow.ly/KSyg50YkNKg
As good an image as any to illustrate America’s contribution to Middle East peace, order, and stability over the last 30 years.
www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0FW...
EU-Migrationskommissar Brunner sagte der „Bild“ mit Blick auf Gespräche mit dem türkischen Außenminister Hakan Fidan: „Der hat versichert, dass er die Grenzen zugemacht hat in Richtung Iran. Und dass er auf der anderen Seite auch dazu steht, dass wir eine gute Kooperation haben zwischen der Europäischen Union und der Türkei.“
Stellt Euch vor, es ist Krieg und der ÖVP-EU-Kommissar findet es gut, dass das Nachbarland zum Kriegsgebiet hin die Grenzen dicht macht, damit keine Menschen fliehen können.
08.03.2026 20:08 — 👍 166 🔁 63 💬 10 📌 9It is absolutely insane that the US appears to have targeted desalination plants first – putting them onto the board. Iran seems to have already retaliated against one in Bahrain. This is one of the most obvious ways this could spiral.
08.03.2026 08:52 — 👍 3146 🔁 1005 💬 96 📌 43This whole story is so horrifying at so many levels. It should be a seismic scandal but it will probably barely make a ripple.
08.03.2026 14:12 — 👍 110 🔁 49 💬 3 📌 0
A woman stands on a dirt mound, her back to the camera, looking toward a horizon filled with dense, dark smoke. A label in the top left reads "Tehran." Photo by Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times.
The view of Tehran’s skyline overnight on Sunday was apocalyptic: Billowing smoke and towering oil fires turned the horizon orange as Israeli strikes ignited fuel depots outside the Iranian capital. By morning, dark, oily smoke hung over the city. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/08/w...
08.03.2026 16:51 — 👍 374 🔁 170 💬 42 📌 33March 8, 2026 - Tehran at sunrise today. But the sun is hidden behind a sky filled with smoke. After a night of intensive strikes on oil facilities, thick black clouds now hang over the city, turning morning into something that feels like night.
08.03.2026 09:24 — 👍 2339 🔁 1109 💬 87 📌 304
Multiple news outlets are reporting a US attack on an Iranian #desalination plant.
If verified, this violates international law protecting #water systems during wars, and it sets a dangerous precedent, given intense dependence of Gulf countries on desalination.
timesofoman.com/article/1691...
Photos of all the school children killed by a US strike in Minab, Ireland
The United States killed all these children last Saturday.
170 of them.
Every. Single. One.
"Und wenn diejenigen, für die Sie da oben das Plakat hochhalten, die Waffen niederlegen, dann ist der Konflikt innerhalb von 24 Stunden beendet. Da liegt die Ursache."
Was auf dem Plakat steht:
"Ja zum Völkerrecht
Nie wieder Staatsräson
Viva 🇵🇸"
www.instagram.com/reels/DVkT2z...
The asymmetry of the value placed on human life is so striking. Israel has a goal to recover 40-year-old remains; to do so, it invades a sovereign country, and the lives of 26 Lebanese are an afterthought. Their names not even worth printing in the New York Times.
07.03.2026 14:15 — 👍 5725 🔁 1949 💬 81 📌 70Three days ago, Israel ordered the south evacuated. Two days ago, they did the same to the southern suburbs. That’s more than one million people. Some, the most vulnerable, are sleeping rough by the sea or on sidewalks. Today, it is raining. War harms the poor the most.
07.03.2026 09:08 — 👍 262 🔁 124 💬 3 📌 1
This is a chilling crime. A shame on our country. The Iranian ship was unarmed. The US knew this. The sailors were murdered by our navy, and the survivors were left to die at sea.
newrepublic.com/post/207429/...
Wieso tolerieren wir eigentlich die Macht von Milliardären? Fragt Adam Tooze @adamtooze.bsky.social
06.03.2026 11:19 — 👍 37 🔁 19 💬 2 📌 1
Am 12. Mai äußert Goiny „auch im Namen der Fraktion“ die „dringende Bitte“: „Bei Euch im Haus liegen noch von Joe bewilligte Projektanträge gegen Antisemitismus. Die sind alle geprüft, mit der Israelischen Botschaft verabredet und über unser Fraktionsticket finanziert.“
archive.ph/zjb0I
Wer auf Demos "From the River to the sea" ruft, wird polizeilich verfolgt. Wenn radikale Christen den Spruch verwenden und damit das Existenzrecht Palästinas verneinen, werden sie von Berlins Polizeipräsidentin Slowik Meisel beehrt taz.de/Polizeipraes...
04.03.2026 21:53 — 👍 143 🔁 49 💬 8 📌 8
US military investigators believe it is likely US forces were responsible for the Minab school attack.
"If a US role were to be confirmed, the strike would rank among the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of US conflicts in the Middle East." www.reuters.com/world/middle...
Israel has just issued a demand that all of Beirut’s southern suburbs, an area roughly the size of central Berlin or lower Manhattan, run for their lives. Tens of thousands are forced to flee- again. Real fears that they will level much of southern Beirut- an area where more than 500,000 live.
05.03.2026 21:07 — 👍 142 🔁 107 💬 2 📌 15
“The drones that hover over the skies of Lebanon…collect large swathes of data — Wi-Fi, IP addresses, phone signals — which are then organized by AI…in what some scholars and activists say amounts to a “digital occupation.” Fascinating by @justinsalhani.bsky.social
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
The piece @wlacher.bsky.social and I wrote for @dissentmag.bsky.social is now available in Arabic | The Demise of Conflict Studies
05.03.2026 14:23 — 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0A lot of people say AI isn't very good for the world and its outputs are routinely unreliable, but these haters fail to see how it's revolutionizing how we incinerate schoolchildren.
05.03.2026 04:43 — 👍 7341 🔁 2311 💬 182 📌 50
ترجمة عربية لمقالتنا عن أفول دراسات الصراع
قطاع كامل متخصص في دراسات الوساطة، وحفظ السلام، ونزع السلاح، والعدالة الانتقالية، قد أصبح إلى حدّ كبير منتهي الصلاحية. ويتساءل الباحثان فولفرام لاخر وإيفان غيشاوا في مراجعة نقدية: هل كانت دراسات النزاع، منذ بدايتها ربما، علماً إمبريالياً؟
Quietly, calmly and forensically, BBC just dismantled the Trump communications shitshow on Iran.
No hyperbole, just laying out an unprecedented military, diplomatic and reputational shambles.
Worth a watch.
(🎥 BBC News/BBC Verify)
