John Heathershaw
@jheathershaw.bsky.social
Professor @cais-exeter.bsky.social University of Exeter, UK. Author of "Security After Christendom" (2024) and "Indulging Kleptocracy" (2025). Academic freedom by/for/of academics.
Political science
73%
Sociology
20%
Pinned
It's out today! Many years in the making. Our @tenaprelec.bsky.social Tom Mayne @oxunipress.bsky.social book, Indulging Kleptocracy.
The UK’s indulgence of kleptocratic elites from Russia and Eurasia is an acute example of the phenomenon of professional enabling.
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
The UK’s indulgence of kleptocratic elites from Russia and Eurasia is an acute example of the phenomenon of professional enabling.
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
Reith lecturer accuses BBC of cowardice for censoring his remarks on Trump
Dutch writer Rutger Bregman says claim that Trump was ‘most openly corrupt president in US history’ was removed
www.theguardian.com
This reminds me of when our paper on kleptocracy and reputation laundering was edited by Chatham House after legal threats from someone who made his money from kleptocracy and was laundering his reputation. Similar cowardice from the embattled BBC. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...
Professional enablers often work behind the scenes—but their influence can drive corruption and state capture. Join our GI ACE roundtable with @lizdavidbarrett.bsky.social, @devipillay.co.za, Alex Cooley, @jheathershaw.bsky.social, Corentin Cohen and @tenaprelec.bsky.social
🔗 bit.ly/GIACERoundtable
🔗 bit.ly/GIACERoundtable
Consultants, capture, and kleptocrats: how professional service providers enable corruption
bit.ly
Looking forward to joining this great line-up and my friend Corentin Cohen, the man without a face!
Reposted by John Heathershaw
Consultants, capture, and kleptocrats: how professional service providers enable corruption
bit.ly
Professional enablers often work behind the scenes—but their influence can drive corruption and state capture. Join our GI ACE roundtable with @lizdavidbarrett.bsky.social, @devipillay.co.za, Alex Cooley, @jheathershaw.bsky.social, Corentin Cohen and @tenaprelec.bsky.social
🔗 bit.ly/GIACERoundtable
🔗 bit.ly/GIACERoundtable
Friday-night drug deals helping Russian war machine, UK crime agency warns - BBC News
The National Crime Agency says a "vast criminal ecosystem" funds "really bad things" around the world.
www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org
This UK-Kyrgyzstan-Russia connection links street drugs in Britain to Russian sanctions evasion via Keremet Bank in the Kyrgyz Republic. It's the tip of enormous iceberg of illicit finance connecting organised crime and professional enablers.
www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc....
www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc....
What kind of crisis do we face?
Three crises over the last week speak to a shift in the “Overton window”, the increasingly simulated character of political order, and the inability of authorities to address complexity.
open.substack.com
I wrote something about the character of crisis and the apparent inability of authorities to exercise political reason.
open.substack.com/pub/johnheat...
open.substack.com/pub/johnheat...
The Authoritarian Stack
How Tech Billionaires Are Building a Post-Democratic America — And Why Europe Is Next
authoritarian-stack.info
So much for sovereign states with functional independence. The field of International Relations needs to conceptualise elite networks of power and wealth or fall into irrelevance.
authoritarian-stack.info?fbclid=IwZnR...
authoritarian-stack.info?fbclid=IwZnR...
A couple of years ago I wrote a book which explores how to make sense of Jesus' harsh words about wealth (and the ethical devastation of the end of the Celtic Tiger). The publisher just emailed to say it is 50% off with code CONFSHIP, & Media Mail shipping is free. wipfandstock.com/978153265500...
Theological Ethics in a Neoliberal Age- Wipf and Stock Publishers
Throughout his ministry, Jesus spoke frequently and unabashedly on the now-taboo subject of money. With nothing good to say to the rich, the New Testament--i...
wipfandstock.com
This is an excellent book.
Reposted by John Heathershaw
Theological Ethics in a Neoliberal Age- Wipf and Stock Publishers
Throughout his ministry, Jesus spoke frequently and unabashedly on the now-taboo subject of money. With nothing good to say to the rich, the New Testament--i...
wipfandstock.com
A couple of years ago I wrote a book which explores how to make sense of Jesus' harsh words about wealth (and the ethical devastation of the end of the Celtic Tiger). The publisher just emailed to say it is 50% off with code CONFSHIP, & Media Mail shipping is free. wipfandstock.com/978153265500...
Oh wow @reuters.com got the photo here:
From this minister's op-ed: "People wanting to experience God are more likely to meet the Divine trying to shut down the Broadview, Illinois, ICE facility than we ever were in church...God does not live in our houses of worship, but...with those who are bearing the brunt of cruelty in this moment."
Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Shannon Vallor, Rebecca Solnit , and 23 more Joanna Bryson, Shannon Vallor, Rebecca Solnit, Nicholas A. Christakis, Will Jennings, Euan G. Ritchie, Scott L. Greer, Steve Peers, Mary Feeney, Leigh Sparks, Ryan Enos, Tuomas Mattila, Melanie C. Green, Laurent Dubois, Andrew L. Whitehead, John Heathershaw, Michael D. McDonald, James Goodwin, Brian Keegan, Manuel Puppis, Brian Weatherson, Stuart White, Jason A. Heppler, Nancy M. Wingfield, Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Nathan P. Kalmoe
Therapy Culture for the Business Class: Exploring How CEO Peer Groups Make and Legitimate Elite Cohesion
In the current context of extreme economic inequality and rising concentrations of income and wealth at the top, the social processes through which elites restrict the wider population's access to re...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
"It is important to emphasise that such groups ultimately lock in wealth, advantage and connections between their (predominantly male) class-advantaged members."
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Absolutely fantastic new paper from @katiehiggins.bsky.social "CEO peer groups reveal without a doubt that therapy culture has reached the top tiers of the business class. In fact, their version of self-help is in many ways more cooperative and less individualistic than the mainstream" but... 1/2
Why Britain may have stopped sharing some intelligence with America
And how America might respond
economist.com
It’s tough having a special relationship with a lawless regime.
Why Britain may have stopped sharing some intelligence with America
economist.com/britain/2025...
Why Britain may have stopped sharing some intelligence with America
economist.com/britain/2025...
Thanks Ian. Let's hope speaking louder and cogently in English about the value of foreign languages will at least make some difference. I'm doing an event for secondary students with @exetermodlangs.bsky.social in December promoting the personal & professional value of Russian and other languages.
We Can Make an Impact.
Stop the removal of Modern Languages courses at the University of Nottingham!
c.org
Languages education at all levels, especially higher, is under existential threat in the UK. It is an impoverished society which produces so few students interested in languages & a shortsighted state that cannot subsidise this public good through tough times. Pls consider signing.
c.org/qQMPqxcLCD
c.org/qQMPqxcLCD
Model code of conduct: protection of academic freedom and the academic community in the context of the internationalisation of the UK HE sector
Published in The International Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 26, No. 10, 2022)
www.tandfonline.com
Instead of imagining that they can manage this market-wide problem out of existence, managers could commit to being more transparent & accountable to their own staff & students, thereby preventing disasters like what happened to Laura Murphy at Sheffield Hallam.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
China-critical UK academics describe ‘extremely heavy’ pressure from Beijing
Reliance on overseas students’ tuition fees under scrutiny as scholars describe chilling effect of being targeted
www.theguardian.com
Academic freedom is protected according to UUK when we are on “British soil”. What an extraordinarily anachronistic claim about internationalised universities that indicates that UUK has still not grasped the problem. Rules and regs of such kind are not enough. www.theguardian.com/education/20...
They will.
Their frames of reference are spreadsheets and log frames so they cannot see the unintended consequences of these so called “efficiencies”. It is a function of the increased size and centralisation of Russell group universities that they are imitating each other in their disastrous reforms.
Security after Christendom- Wipf and Stock Publishers
We live in the wealthiest and most heavily defended world in history, so why do we feel so insecure? In a secular world, what does Christian theology have to...
wipfandstock.com
My book Security after Christendom is 50% off through November 30. Yes, half price! Use code CONFSHIP at checkout. If you select Media Mail, shipping is free.
wipfandstock.com/978153261533...
wipfandstock.com/978153261533...
The Tehran-Washington Crypto Connection - Coda Story
There is a saying that the best way to make money during a gold rush is to sell picks and shovels. The worst way, presumably, would be to run a government taskforce drafting regulations for the retail...
www.codastory.com
So much for geopolitics.
“Iran sells oil for USDT; which creates demand for Tether; which buys US government debt. Cut out the middleman and essentially, thanks to the magic of the blockchain, the Iranian and US governments are in business with each other.”
www.codastory.com/oligarchy/th...
“Iran sells oil for USDT; which creates demand for Tether; which buys US government debt. Cut out the middleman and essentially, thanks to the magic of the blockchain, the Iranian and US governments are in business with each other.”
www.codastory.com/oligarchy/th...
global.oup.com
Well, if we mean kleptocracy as a transnational enterprise linking pol elites and prof enablers then we address the postimperial (Russia/UK) contexts of this in chapter 2 of the book. If we mean national corruption/patronage systems, there's long Pol/Econ tradition.
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
Reposted by John Heathershaw
New OA article @europe-asia.bsky.social: The Incumbency Advantage and the Enabler Effect: How Londongrad Beat the UK AML Regime
Drawing on £2bn of property data, we show that not a single incumbent kleptocrat (0/72!) lost their UK assets.
with @jheathershaw.bsky.social T. Mayne & S. Tokubayev
Drawing on £2bn of property data, we show that not a single incumbent kleptocrat (0/72!) lost their UK assets.
with @jheathershaw.bsky.social T. Mayne & S. Tokubayev
Model code of conduct: protection of academic freedom and the academic community in the context of the internationalisation of the UK HE sector
Published in The International Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 26, No. 10, 2022)
www.tandfonline.com
"The good faith of all actors in these relationships cannot be assumed, and therefore current protocols on internationalisation require revision. It is important for the UK HE Sector to openly acknowledge these challenges...." 2/2
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show
Sheffield Hallam University apologises to Professor Laura Murphy for restricting her academic freedom.
www.bbc.co.uk
heffield Hallam would have fared much better - and been better prepared for such risks - if they adopted the model code of conduct of the Academic Freedom and Internationalisation Working Group which we published several years ago. 1/2
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Totally. I had 20+ meetings with my first years last week where I emphasised that they can be confident in their own capacity as a writer and learn to be a good one via practice and more practice.
