David Wearing
@davidwearing.bsky.social
Assistant Professor in International Relations at the University of Sussex (own views, obviously).
Interested in British (and Western) foreign relations in the Middle East and elsewhere, and how they're shaped by legacies of colonialism.
Interested in British (and Western) foreign relations in the Middle East and elsewhere, and how they're shaped by legacies of colonialism.
Me in conversation with @lalehkhalili.bsky.social at the London Review Bookshop on her new book "Extractive Capitalism". Here or wherever you get your podcasts www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/podcasts-vid...
Laleh Khalili & David Wearing: Extractive Capitalism | London Review Bookshop
Laleh Khalili, Professor of Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter, looks behind the glossy surface promises of frictionless trade and limitless growth to uncover the…
www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk
January 23, 2026 at 11:23 AM
Me in conversation with @lalehkhalili.bsky.social at the London Review Bookshop on her new book "Extractive Capitalism". Here or wherever you get your podcasts www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/podcasts-vid...
Join me and @faizashaheen.bsky.social next Monday 26 Jan at Woodford Memorial Hall as we discuss UK foreign policy in a time of geopolitical crisis
January 23, 2026 at 11:11 AM
Join me and @faizashaheen.bsky.social next Monday 26 Jan at Woodford Memorial Hall as we discuss UK foreign policy in a time of geopolitical crisis
Reposted by David Wearing
@davidwearing.bsky.social : "Look at the record of the people who are on this board of peace.. are these credible people to be promoting peace? Are these credible people to deliver the interests of the Palestinian people? It's not cynical to say they aren't, its just a recognition of reality"
January 22, 2026 at 12:06 PM
@davidwearing.bsky.social : "Look at the record of the people who are on this board of peace.. are these credible people to be promoting peace? Are these credible people to deliver the interests of the Palestinian people? It's not cynical to say they aren't, its just a recognition of reality"
This Christmas, please consider making a donation to UNRWA, the UN agency that plays a leading role in sustaining Palestinian life, in defiance of Israel's genocide and ethnic cleansing.
donate.unrwa.org/int/en/general
donate.unrwa.org/int/en/general
UNRWA | UN Agency for Palestine Refugees - make a donation
UNRWA provides vital aid, education, and healthcare to over 5 million Palestine Refugees. Your donation helps deliver hope and life-saving support.
donate.unrwa.org
December 24, 2025 at 10:20 AM
This Christmas, please consider making a donation to UNRWA, the UN agency that plays a leading role in sustaining Palestinian life, in defiance of Israel's genocide and ethnic cleansing.
donate.unrwa.org/int/en/general
donate.unrwa.org/int/en/general
History will record how a non-trivial number of supposedly liberal centrists went along - wittingly or unwittingly - with the transparently McCarthyite scam of the cancel culture/free speech moral panic And in doing so helped pave the way for neo-fascism.
The people who profited most from the cancel culture/free speech panic were less interested in actual freedom of speech than establishing their own control over public discourse. You don't even have to take my word for it. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
December 24, 2025 at 8:09 AM
History will record how a non-trivial number of supposedly liberal centrists went along - wittingly or unwittingly - with the transparently McCarthyite scam of the cancel culture/free speech moral panic And in doing so helped pave the way for neo-fascism.
Reposted by David Wearing
📢 CAAT is hiring a Supporter Development Manager!
We're looking for a skilled communicator & natural relationship builder to join our team. You'll be responsible for the recruitment, retention & engagement of supporters, as well as fundraising.
➡️ Apply now: caat.org.uk/about-caat/j...
We're looking for a skilled communicator & natural relationship builder to join our team. You'll be responsible for the recruitment, retention & engagement of supporters, as well as fundraising.
➡️ Apply now: caat.org.uk/about-caat/j...
December 23, 2025 at 11:14 AM
📢 CAAT is hiring a Supporter Development Manager!
We're looking for a skilled communicator & natural relationship builder to join our team. You'll be responsible for the recruitment, retention & engagement of supporters, as well as fundraising.
➡️ Apply now: caat.org.uk/about-caat/j...
We're looking for a skilled communicator & natural relationship builder to join our team. You'll be responsible for the recruitment, retention & engagement of supporters, as well as fundraising.
➡️ Apply now: caat.org.uk/about-caat/j...
Campaign Against Arms Trade are a great source of reliable information and high quality analysis on UK arms sales. They have important resources on UK arms to Israel in the context of the Gaza genocide. Vital that we keep ourselves informed about these things.
caat.org.uk/publications...
caat.org.uk/publications...
CAAT - How the UK arms and supports Israel’s genocide in Gaza
The UK is deeply complicit in supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza: through arms sales, RAF reconnaissance flights over Gaza, from which it is suspected intelligence is shared with Israel, training of...
caat.org.uk
December 22, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Campaign Against Arms Trade are a great source of reliable information and high quality analysis on UK arms sales. They have important resources on UK arms to Israel in the context of the Gaza genocide. Vital that we keep ourselves informed about these things.
caat.org.uk/publications...
caat.org.uk/publications...
Reposted by David Wearing
and in framing themselves as the only True Knowers, the data boys fail to understand how they form part of the complicated, contingent outcomes they’re claiming to observe objectively. “We can only respond to poll numbers, not shape action,” is itself a theory of the world that evidence doesn’t back
data is important, measurement of public opinion is important, but politics also isn't a machine. there are a vast number of qualitative factors at work. and people themselves are unpredictable.
December 20, 2025 at 10:50 PM
and in framing themselves as the only True Knowers, the data boys fail to understand how they form part of the complicated, contingent outcomes they’re claiming to observe objectively. “We can only respond to poll numbers, not shape action,” is itself a theory of the world that evidence doesn’t back
Clearly Labour would sooner alienate even more of the progressive voters they're losing than do what it takes to build the voter coalition they need to keep Farage out of no10.
We face huge challenges. A burning planet, war in Europe, an affordability crisis that most people think they will live with *for the rest of their lives*.
And what do Farage and Polanski offer? Division. Migrants vs. non-migrants. Businesses vs. workers.
And what do Farage and Polanski offer? Division. Migrants vs. non-migrants. Businesses vs. workers.
December 20, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Clearly Labour would sooner alienate even more of the progressive voters they're losing than do what it takes to build the voter coalition they need to keep Farage out of no10.
There has been a relentless, cacophonous campaign to stigmatise pro-Palestinian activists. But the inconvenient truth is that these are just ordinary people of good conscience who see the horrors of Gaza and simply cannot bear to stand by and do nothing.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
I’m on hunger strike in a British prison. This is why | Amu Gib
Our demands are simple – and they start with stopping the flow of arms to Israel, says activist Amu Gib
www.theguardian.com
December 19, 2025 at 4:13 PM
There has been a relentless, cacophonous campaign to stigmatise pro-Palestinian activists. But the inconvenient truth is that these are just ordinary people of good conscience who see the horrors of Gaza and simply cannot bear to stand by and do nothing.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Please join Angela Davis, Robin D.G. Kelley, Ruth Wilson Gilmore and many others in signing this call for an academic and cultural boycott of the UAE, in relation to its complicity in genocide in Sudan.
spectrejournal.com/for-a-cultur...
spectrejournal.com/for-a-cultur...
December 19, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Please join Angela Davis, Robin D.G. Kelley, Ruth Wilson Gilmore and many others in signing this call for an academic and cultural boycott of the UAE, in relation to its complicity in genocide in Sudan.
spectrejournal.com/for-a-cultur...
spectrejournal.com/for-a-cultur...
It's straightforwardly far right rhetoric, and obviously inciteful towards negatively racialised men. The test for the rest of the political class is whether they're prepared to name it as such and condemn it. We've learned the hard way that the toxin will only spread if they don't.
Even by my low expectations for Kemi Badenoch ‘violence against women and girls is something done by immigrants and nobody else’ has shocked me.
Dog-whistle and factually incorrect. Ladies, raise your hand if you were sexually assaulted by a boy at school? I’d wager this or a family member is most women’s first experience of sexual violence
December 18, 2025 at 6:57 PM
It's straightforwardly far right rhetoric, and obviously inciteful towards negatively racialised men. The test for the rest of the political class is whether they're prepared to name it as such and condemn it. We've learned the hard way that the toxin will only spread if they don't.
Reposted by David Wearing
Eight Palestine Action activists are being left to die in prison – all without even facing trial.
We must force the government to act, before it’s too late ⬇️
https://goodlaw.social/3e3320
We must force the government to act, before it’s too late ⬇️
https://goodlaw.social/3e3320
December 18, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Eight Palestine Action activists are being left to die in prison – all without even facing trial.
We must force the government to act, before it’s too late ⬇️
https://goodlaw.social/3e3320
We must force the government to act, before it’s too late ⬇️
https://goodlaw.social/3e3320
Bearing in mind what Edward Said had to say about who has "permission to narrate", it would be good to hear from Arabic speakers in general and Palestinians in particular about their word and concept for "uprising", what it means to them, and what they make of the Western debate about that word.
December 18, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Bearing in mind what Edward Said had to say about who has "permission to narrate", it would be good to hear from Arabic speakers in general and Palestinians in particular about their word and concept for "uprising", what it means to them, and what they make of the Western debate about that word.
The history of Marxist thought has been a struggle between those who want it to be a rich, expanding and empirically informed intellectual project and those who want it to be a comfort blanket of Truths that spare them the trouble of thinking.
weaponizedinformation.wordpress.com/2025/12/15/c...
weaponizedinformation.wordpress.com/2025/12/15/c...
Capitalism Did Not Float In on the Market: Chibber, Jacobin, and the Political Function of Western Marxism
How Western Marxism Turns Colonial Violence into “History Theory” to Save the Settler OrderBy Prince Kapone | Weaponized Information | December 14, 2025When “History Theory” Becomes an Alibi for Em…
weaponizedinformation.wordpress.com
December 18, 2025 at 8:41 AM
The history of Marxist thought has been a struggle between those who want it to be a rich, expanding and empirically informed intellectual project and those who want it to be a comfort blanket of Truths that spare them the trouble of thinking.
weaponizedinformation.wordpress.com/2025/12/15/c...
weaponizedinformation.wordpress.com/2025/12/15/c...
Read what Starmer's biographer says here about no10's response to Trump's white supremacist National Security Strategy. I despair. We are being led through this unique moment of historical crisis by a bunch of witless dogmatists incapable of analytical thought.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
A warning for Keir Starmer: Brexit is falling apart, but if you are not bold on Europe, your Labour rivals will be | Tom Baldwin
Leave support is falling. That’s an opportunity the PM should seize before pro-Europe challengers for the Labour leadership do, says Tom Baldwin, author of Keir Starmer, The Biography
www.theguardian.com
December 17, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Read what Starmer's biographer says here about no10's response to Trump's white supremacist National Security Strategy. I despair. We are being led through this unique moment of historical crisis by a bunch of witless dogmatists incapable of analytical thought.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
This case is absolutely horrifying.
Qesser Zuhrah and Amy Gardiner-Gibson are on day 46 of their hunger strike. Heba Muraisi is on day 45. All are at a high risk of death.
In 1981 - the last time there was a hunger strike like this - Martin Hurson died after 46 days.
In 1981 - the last time there was a hunger strike like this - Martin Hurson died after 46 days.
December 17, 2025 at 12:03 PM
This case is absolutely horrifying.
Nesrine Malik here gets to the nub of the issue. The rise of the "sinister...malevolent" Farage to the threshold of power was enabled by a veil of plausible deniability, gifted to him by others.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
December 15, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Nesrine Malik here gets to the nub of the issue. The rise of the "sinister...malevolent" Farage to the threshold of power was enabled by a veil of plausible deniability, gifted to him by others.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Think about all those right-wingers who blame violent crime and terrorism on "culture" (i.e. race) and whip up hate against immigrants and minorities on that basis. If it was up to them, Ahmed al-Ahmed would never have entered Australia in the first place.
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
‘It was a matter of conscience’: Ahmed al-Ahmed’s family reveal why he risked his life to disarm alleged Bondi shooter
Family say al-Ahmed ‘doesn’t discriminate’ and would have done anything to save lives during the attack
www.theguardian.com
December 15, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Think about all those right-wingers who blame violent crime and terrorism on "culture" (i.e. race) and whip up hate against immigrants and minorities on that basis. If it was up to them, Ahmed al-Ahmed would never have entered Australia in the first place.
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
What a strange question. Which young people specifically? What specific future? A degree will be the right choice for some, an apprenticeship for others. Either way, a good education will teach you that if you ask a bad question you'll get a worthless answer.
With a report suggesting half of graduates would earn more if they had done an apprenticeship instead, our polling shows that 46% of Britons think apprenticeships better prepare young people for the future - only 6% say the same of degrees, while 43% say both equally
yougov.co.uk/society/arti...
yougov.co.uk/society/arti...
December 15, 2025 at 9:53 AM
What a strange question. Which young people specifically? What specific future? A degree will be the right choice for some, an apprenticeship for others. Either way, a good education will teach you that if you ask a bad question you'll get a worthless answer.
Reposted by David Wearing
We mourn the victims of the mass shooting on Bondi Beach at a celebration on the first night of Chanukah, bringing darkness into a festival of lights. Our hearts go out to those attacked and their families and friends, as well as the entire Australian Jewish community.
December 14, 2025 at 11:50 AM
We mourn the victims of the mass shooting on Bondi Beach at a celebration on the first night of Chanukah, bringing darkness into a festival of lights. Our hearts go out to those attacked and their families and friends, as well as the entire Australian Jewish community.
One can avoid humiliations like this simply by spending 5 seconds thinking through the implications of one's views.
The fact is that Biggar is an laughably unserious person, and would have remained in total obscurity if his views weren't useful to the political right.
youtube.com/shorts/_grv4...
The fact is that Biggar is an laughably unserious person, and would have remained in total obscurity if his views weren't useful to the political right.
youtube.com/shorts/_grv4...
Is guilt over slavery “imaginary?” | Head to Head with Mehdi Hasan
YouTube video by Al Jazeera English
youtube.com
December 14, 2025 at 7:19 AM
One can avoid humiliations like this simply by spending 5 seconds thinking through the implications of one's views.
The fact is that Biggar is an laughably unserious person, and would have remained in total obscurity if his views weren't useful to the political right.
youtube.com/shorts/_grv4...
The fact is that Biggar is an laughably unserious person, and would have remained in total obscurity if his views weren't useful to the political right.
youtube.com/shorts/_grv4...
Frankly, we've seen this product packaged and repackaged so many times by the bourgeois media and the far right over the years that the class-first leftists purveying it might want to reconsider whether it really is a class war they're fighting with this one.
Seems like poorly repackaged “actually your anti-racism is just classism and smug superiority over working-class people,” which is how shitty people try to portray racism as just regular-guy working-class how-everyone-talks.
December 13, 2025 at 7:31 AM
Frankly, we've seen this product packaged and repackaged so many times by the bourgeois media and the far right over the years that the class-first leftists purveying it might want to reconsider whether it really is a class war they're fighting with this one.
Impunity is an enabler of criminality. And again, I suggest that we spend some time reflecting on the radicalising effect it must have on British politicians to be so deeply and directly complicit in such monstrous, racist crimes. These people have crossed a threshold into a truly dark place.
Britain threatened to cut off ICC funding over Netanyahu arrest warrant, claims prosecutor
Britain threatened to cut off ICC funding over Netanyahu arrest warrant, claims prosecutor
Karim Khan makes allegation in court submission while defending move to prosecute Israeli prime minister in 2024
The British government threatened to defund the international criminal court and leave the Rome statute that set it up if it pressed ahead with plans to issue an arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu, the ICC’s prosecutor, has claimed.
Karim Khan made the allegation in a submission to the court defending his decision to prosecute Israel’s prime minister. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
December 12, 2025 at 7:28 AM
Impunity is an enabler of criminality. And again, I suggest that we spend some time reflecting on the radicalising effect it must have on British politicians to be so deeply and directly complicit in such monstrous, racist crimes. These people have crossed a threshold into a truly dark place.
Hopefully we can all now acknowledge the utter inadequacy of the "internationalism vs isolationism" paradigm, wherein Trump was cast as a man "wary of foreign entanglements". What we're dealing with here is a very American form of blood-and-soil imperialism.
www.liberalcurrents.com/sovereignty-...
www.liberalcurrents.com/sovereignty-...
Sovereignty for Me, None for Thee
Donald Trump's 2025 National Security Strategy reveals a radical blood-and-soil conception of national strategy based on maintaining white patriarchal Christian domination at home and abroad.
www.liberalcurrents.com
December 11, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Hopefully we can all now acknowledge the utter inadequacy of the "internationalism vs isolationism" paradigm, wherein Trump was cast as a man "wary of foreign entanglements". What we're dealing with here is a very American form of blood-and-soil imperialism.
www.liberalcurrents.com/sovereignty-...
www.liberalcurrents.com/sovereignty-...