Gerard Toal
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critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal
@critgeopolitics.bsky.social
4.6K followers 800 following 660 posts

Irish born political geographer, DC resident, & SPIA Virginia Tech (Arlington) Prof. researching geopolitical competition, territorial conflicts (BiH, Ukraine, Caucasus) & the geopolitics-climate nexus. Thinking about fascist passions, MAGA & DC these days .. more

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Gerard Toal is Professor of Government and International Affairs at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Source: Wikipedia
Political science 68%
Sociology 14%
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critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 18d
So the new and outgoing Presidents of Ireland met yesterday and a certain book was visible on the table...

Thanks @president.ie Michael D. Higgins for your great service to Ireland down the years (and for this little personal surprise).

Here's to the success of President elect Catherine Connolly.

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 1d
I’m pro-negotiations and skeptical they will succeed.

No matter what, any immediate “peace” will be ugly and illiberal, and likely temporary.

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 1d
“It is important to support the negotiation process ... and crucial to support the principles on which Europe stands – that borders cannot be changed by force; that war criminals must not escape justice; & that the aggressor must pay fully for the war he started.”

www.irishtimes.com/world/europe...
US holds Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Abu Dhabi
Kremlin calls for talks on original plan that Kyiv presidential aide says ‘no longer exists’
www.irishtimes.com

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 1d
A work of service to public discourse on an issue that has scarred this island for a hundred years.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
A united Ireland referendum must not be ‘another Brexit’, analysts say
Two leading journalists from both sides of the border warn against another ‘vague, thumbs up-thumbs down’ vote
www.theguardian.com

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 2d
A carousing carousel.

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 2d
36% turnout 🙄

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 2d
Abuser-in-chief.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/u...
Trump Calls Ukraine Ungrateful, Again, for U.S. Support in War With Russia
www.nytimes.com

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 4d
30 years ago this week a US administration pressured a state victimized by larger neighboring state aggression & genocide to accept an unjust illiberal peace.

Trump’s Ukraine peace has Bosnia echoes.

theconversation.com/the-dayton-p...
The Dayton Peace Accords at 30: An ugly peace that has prevented a return to war over Bosnia
More than 100,000 people were killed in the Bosnian war. But the peace that ended it in 1995 sowed the seeds for ethnonationalism.
theconversation.com

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 4d
Trump’s 28-Point Plan to End Russia’s War in Ukraine is perfectly consistent with the administration’s broader moralized sadism.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/22/w...
What Is Trump’s 28-Point Plan to End Russia’s War in Ukraine?
www.nytimes.com

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 4d
Excellent podcast series this.
overshootpod.bsky.social Overshoot Podcast @overshootpod.bsky.social · Oct 8
“This powerful series exposes how our economic system is driving the climate crisis, while lifting up the courageous people charting an alternative path.”

- @jasonhickel.bsky.social

Find out more on overshootpod.com

Episodes 1 & 2 available now

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 4d
The Executive Branch threatens to execute the Legislative Branch in the US.
gregsargent.bsky.social Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 4d
Remarkable: Rep Chrissy Houlahan, one of the Dems that Trump called for executing, tells me her office literally filled out a Capitol Police threat report that listed "the president" as the person making the threat.

It's at 9:20 on our pod. Much more like that here:
newrepublic.com/article/2034...
Trump’s Angry Tirade Calling for “Death” to Dems Just Backfired Badly
As Trump’s call for the execution of “seditious” Dems works against him, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, one of his targets, explains why she and other Dems are warning servicemembers against carrying out ille...
newrepublic.com

Reposted by Jan W. Mueller, Jonathan Hopkin, Stacy D. VanDeveer , and 3 more

gregsargent.bsky.social
Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 4d
Remarkable: Rep Chrissy Houlahan, one of the Dems that Trump called for executing, tells me her office literally filled out a Capitol Police threat report that listed "the president" as the person making the threat.

It's at 9:20 on our pod. Much more like that here:
newrepublic.com/article/2034...
Trump’s Angry Tirade Calling for “Death” to Dems Just Backfired Badly
As Trump’s call for the execution of “seditious” Dems works against him, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, one of his targets, explains why she and other Dems are warning servicemembers against carrying out ille...
newrepublic.com

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 5d
“Fly-by assertion”

Trump’s militarist performances rely upon the time gap between command action and legal accountability…

Move fast and break laws: excite fascist passions.

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 5d
“The Court rejects Defendants’ fly-by assertion of constitutional power, finding that such a broad reading of the President’s Article II authority would erase Congress’s role in governing the District and its National Guard” 👏

Reposted by Marc Lynch, Gerard Toal

politico.com
Politico @politico.com · 5d
Judge rules Trump’s DC National Guard deployment was illegal
Judge rules Trump’s DC National Guard deployment was illegal
The judge postponed the impact of her decision until Dec. 11 to give the Trump administration time to appeal her decision.
dlvr.it

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 6d
Imagine a country whose president understands the moral urgency of decarbonization & climate justice.

In Ireland, you don’t need to…

www.irishtimes.com/environment/...
Moral duty ‘to act now’ on climate change for future generations, says President Connolly
Figures of possible fines of between €8bn and €26bn for breaching emissions targets ‘incredible’, President says
www.irishtimes.com

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 6d
What kind of peace did Dayton bring Bosnia?

Adis Maksic and I review the 30 years of the Dayton Peace Accords.

nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
The Dayton Peace Accords at 30: An ugly peace that has prevented a return to war over Bosnia
More than 100,000 people were killed in the Bosnian war. But the peace that ended it in 1995 sowed the seeds for ethnonationalism.
nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 7d
Friday is the 30th anniversary of the initialing of the Dayton Peace Accords.

I have been unable to attend the commemorative conference(s) happening in Sarajevo.

But I wrote a retrospective on the 30 years (no easy task) with Adis Maksic.

It is being published tomorrow in The Conversation.

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 7d
I didn’t know that Alex.

Keep hope alive.

Two outstanding finales, and Ronaldo exposed. Can’t complain about the entertainment.

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 7d
Great to see Scotland into the World Cup finals. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Now we 🇮🇪 just need to join them.

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 15d
And here's today's event for those in DC:

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 15d
Details on the book here:

press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Furious Minds
“[An] excellent new book.”—Michelle Goldberg, New York TimesThe story of the radical conservative intellectual movement shaping Donald Trump’s agenda—and how it threatens American freedoms, values, an...
press.princeton.edu

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 15d
Congratulations to @lkatfield.bsky.social whose new book is being launched in Washington DC @illsp.bsky.social today.

Its an 'insider' account of how the MAGA New Right grew from yet also broke with the Straussian conservative right that was her intellectual home.

Insightful & unsettling reading.

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 18d
And thanks to @donnachadcu.bsky.social for bringing this to my attention.

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 21d
Hope.

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 25d
But, after a day's toil and collaboration, this team just might pull it off.

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 25d
Trying to write a 900 word evaluation of Bosnia 30 years after Dayton is mission impossible.

No way Tom Cruise could do it.

Reposted by Gerard Toal

gmerabishv.bsky.social
Gela Merabishvili @gmerabishv.bsky.social · 25d
"In this instance, environmental and defensive aims overlap"

www.dw.com/en/peatlands...
How rewetting peatlands could help protect EU borders – DW – 10/30/2025
Finland and Poland are considering rewetting drained peatlands as a defense barrier in case of a Russian attack. It could also help the climate.
www.dw.com

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 25d
Looking beyond the lobbying angle here, I wonder whether this deal means the RS will pull back from secessionist antics now & align more with Trump's whims than Putin's.

critgeopolitics.bsky.social
Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 26d
sarajevotimes.com/republika-sr...
Republika Srpska Authorities gets new Lobbyist in the US - Sarajevo Times
The authorities of Republika Srpska have received a new lobbying representative in the United States, and the contract was concluded with the company “MO Strategies, Inc.”, whose founder is close to t...
sarajevotimes.com