Adam Scharpf

Are you interested in research on corruption/illicit finance/kleptocracy? We are hiring a Research Fellow at @acdatacollective.bsky.social: acdatacollective.org/wp-content/u...
Please share in your networks, this could be a great gig.

So many echoes from this article for US politics....

Thanks for the follow-up. We wanted to avoid an apple-and-oranges comparison because the finalist selection for the Intervision 2025 was not entirely clear.

#3

While the Eurovision participant countries represent a rather coherent group of democracies, this is different for tonight's Intervision event.

Many of the participating countries have governments that systematically violate the civil liberties of their citizens.

#2

This is in stark contrast to the Eurovision song contest, where most participant countries are fully fledged democracies.

Average polyarchy score of Eurovision finalists: 0.8
Average polyarchy score of Intervision finalists: 0.3

#1:

There are a lot of autocracies and dictatorships participating in Putin's alternative song contest.

Quite a few are BRICS members and close allies of Russia.

To provide a first answer, @belengonzalez.bsky.social and I quickly collected the data on the participant/finalist countries and merged it with the dataset by the @vdeminstitute.bsky.social.

Here is what we found:

Intervision 2025 - Wikipedia

We know that Putin and other dictators try to build a new world order. Soft power plays a crucial role in this.

Today, Russia hosts the Intervision 2025 – a competitor event to the Eurovision Song Contest.

Which regimes participate in this contest?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intervi...

Big congrats!

Call for two or more open-rank academic positions in Sociology

We're hiring in wonderful Copenhagen 🇩🇰

Two or more open rank sociology professorships (tt assistant, associate with tenure, or full prof with tenure).

You'll join a leading sociology department in Europe with many core fields represented!

#sociology

More 👇

jobportal.ku.dk/videnskabeli...

Fantastic special issue - Thanks so much for putting it together @laiabalcells.bsky.social @apvjustino.bsky.social @andrearuggeri.bsky.social 💪
[full disclosure: our article is part of it as well]

Had the chance to talk to the fantastic team of @worldpolitics.bsky.social about my new article on soft power, study abroad programs, the effectiveness of foreign influence campaigns and what all this has to do with Henry Kissinger. 👇

Making a Career in Dictatorship: The Secret Logic behind Repression and Coups Making a Career in Dictatorship: The Secret Logic behind Repression and Coups [Gläßel, Christian, Scharpf, Adam] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Making a Career in Dictatorship: The Secret Logic behind Repression and Coups

Thanks for the shout-out, Jacob. Christian and I have been thinking a lot about how our theory applies to security organizations in the US, (e.g. ICE and the FBI). There will be more on it in our book, which will be published by the end of the year.

Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics - Audiobook - alexander cooley, Alexander Dukalskis - ISBN 9798318530715 - Storytel International Following the end of the Cold War, the world experienced a remarkable wave of democratization. Over the next two decades, numerous authoritarian regimes

If you prefer to listen to your books, the audio book version of Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics by me & @cooleyoneurasia.bsky.social was released today.

Get it wherever you get your audio books - Audible, Amazon, Apple, Storytel, your library, etc.

I am hiring! 1-2 post-docs to join my project on political violence in democracies at @uupeace.bsky.social!

The European Political Science Society is now accepting paper & panel proposals for its annual conference!

📢 Call for Papers: EPSS 2026 – Belfast

🗓️ June 18–20, 2026

📍 ICC Belfast

📬 Deadline: Nov 7, 2025

🧵

New UN ideal point estimates available. These are for the first time based on years rather than UNGA sessions. For more, see here: dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtm...

Nice, crisp introduction to my latest article on the targeting logic behind soft power 👇 Thanks @worldpolitics.bsky.social

More on all this in the paper.

I hope some will view this article as a kind of dialogue between Henry Kissinger and Joseph Nye. Both are extremely influential figures and Harvard professors who recently passed away.

12/

What does Henry Kissinger's International Seminar tell us about global elite networks and their transnational activities?

11/

It has often been claimed that Kissinger used the International Seminar to build a network of "Kissinger boys."

Is this true?

10/

The ultimate goal of any exchange program is that its graduates eventually assume influential positions in their home countries.

Was this also the case with Kissinger's program?

9/

Historian Niall Ferguson describes Henry Kissinger's International Seminar as "soft power at its softest."

What impact can such a program possibly have?

8/

Henry Kissinger is often considered one of the most famous proponents of realism in international relations.

Why would he use an influence instrument commonly attributed to the (neo-)liberal school?

7/

Educational exchanges and "study abroad" programs are a, maybe the most, powerful soft power tool available, but the value of this tool is increasingly being questioned, especially in the United States.

What effects do such programs have?

6/

Like any (foreign) influence campaign, a soft power operation must be well-planned and executed.

What role do dissemination and credibility play in such operations?

5/

While most assume that soft power is utilized by governments and states, such campaigns are also used by foundations, billionaires, philanthropists, and other types of elites.

How exactly do their campaigns work?

4/

Soft power is used by many actors.

Who do they want to win over politically? Why? And how are they trying do it?

3/

The article is available here:
muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

This is why I wrote this article:

2/

The new issue of @worldpolitics.bsky.social also includes a contribution from me 🥳

The article studies the targeted use of foreign influence campaigns. It examines an exchange program of a young Harvard scholar & one of the most influential politicians of the 20th century.

1/