Shifting Sovereignties
@shiftingsovs.bsky.social
This account is dedicated to the recently published book "Shifting Sovereignties: A Global History of a Concept in Practice" by @mihatsch.bsky.social & Michael J. Mulligan. We post about new research on sovereignty & debates from news and social media.
Pinned
Many thanks to @alexspalinska.bsky.social for her generous review in @iajournal.bsky.social!
She writes: "Another notable strength is the book’s interdisciplinary and transhistorical orientation. ... The combination of analytical rigour with empirical detail strengthens the book’s relevance...
She writes: "Another notable strength is the book’s interdisciplinary and transhistorical orientation. ... The combination of analytical rigour with empirical detail strengthens the book’s relevance...
🌍🇨🇦 Carney says that he wants to "combine to create a third path with impact". The parallels to the language of the non-aligned during the Cold War is quite striking.
January 21, 2026 at 12:20 PM
🌍🇨🇦 Carney says that he wants to "combine to create a third path with impact". The parallels to the language of the non-aligned during the Cold War is quite striking.
Next book presentation, @mihatsch.bsky.social will speak at @aiasdk.bsky.social on February 13, 9:45–11am. For details, check the post below.
January 19, 2026 at 2:26 PM
Next book presentation, @mihatsch.bsky.social will speak at @aiasdk.bsky.social on February 13, 9:45–11am. For details, check the post below.
Reposted by Shifting Sovereignties
Kicking off 2026 with a new piece in @sciasculture.bsky.social titled “Manufacturing the Leviathan: Palantir’s Technological Republic and the Nationalist Faction of the Tech Oligarchy". The piece is part of the forum on "Tech Oligarchy" edited by @keanbirch.bsky.social. A brief summary:
January 5, 2026 at 9:29 AM
Kicking off 2026 with a new piece in @sciasculture.bsky.social titled “Manufacturing the Leviathan: Palantir’s Technological Republic and the Nationalist Faction of the Tech Oligarchy". The piece is part of the forum on "Tech Oligarchy" edited by @keanbirch.bsky.social. A brief summary:
Reposted by Shifting Sovereignties
Casper Andersen and my article on UNESCO's History of Mankind in the context of decolonisation is out now:
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Eurocentrism and Decolonisation in the UNESCO History of Mankind 1944-1976 | Itinerario | Cambridge Core
Eurocentrism and Decolonisation in the UNESCO History of Mankind 1944-1976
www.cambridge.org
January 19, 2026 at 10:16 AM
Casper Andersen and my article on UNESCO's History of Mankind in the context of decolonisation is out now:
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
When we started working on Shifting Sovereignties, friends suggested that sovereignty would be an irrelevant issue and out-dated concept by the time the book is being published... we truly wish they had been right. 🤷♂️
January 18, 2026 at 8:56 PM
When we started working on Shifting Sovereignties, friends suggested that sovereignty would be an irrelevant issue and out-dated concept by the time the book is being published... we truly wish they had been right. 🤷♂️
New article on Alaska tribal sovereignty by Nazune Menka
scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcont...
scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcont...
scholarship.law.duke.edu
January 17, 2026 at 4:47 PM
New article on Alaska tribal sovereignty by Nazune Menka
scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcont...
scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcont...
New chapter by Andrey Makarychev on "Linguistic Sovereignty and Vernacular Biopolitics: Estonian Russophones as a Postcolonial Phenomenon"
link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
Linguistic Sovereignty and Vernacular Biopolitics: Estonian Russophones as a Postcolonial Phenomenon
This chapter proffers a biopolitical approach to various practices of using language as a marker of different regimes of belonging and forms of biopower. I dwell upon two sides of biopolitics—th...
link.springer.com
January 17, 2026 at 4:43 PM
New chapter by Andrey Makarychev on "Linguistic Sovereignty and Vernacular Biopolitics: Estonian Russophones as a Postcolonial Phenomenon"
link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
New article by Frank Van Nuys titled "The Endangered Species Act and Limitations on Tribal Sovereignty: The Case of Nez Perce Wolf Management"
online.ucpress.edu/phr/article-...
online.ucpress.edu/phr/article-...
The Endangered Species Act and Limitations on Tribal SovereigntyThe Case of Nez Perce Wolf Management
In 1995, Idaho’s Nez Perce Tribe became the first and thus far only tribe in the United States to assume responsibility for managing the statewide recovery of an endangered species. The Tribe’s role i...
online.ucpress.edu
January 17, 2026 at 4:43 PM
New article by Frank Van Nuys titled "The Endangered Species Act and Limitations on Tribal Sovereignty: The Case of Nez Perce Wolf Management"
online.ucpress.edu/phr/article-...
online.ucpress.edu/phr/article-...
Check out the new Oxford Handbook of Constituent Power edited by Peter Niesen, Markus Patberg @mpatberg.bsky.social and Lucia Rubinelli @luxirubsi.bsky.social
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
global.oup.com
January 17, 2026 at 4:40 PM
Check out the new Oxford Handbook of Constituent Power edited by Peter Niesen, Markus Patberg @mpatberg.bsky.social and Lucia Rubinelli @luxirubsi.bsky.social
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
🇮🇹 🇪🇺
It was a great honour to give a Max Weber Lecture and Masterclass at @eui-eu.bsky.social and discuss with the PhD students and Max Weber Postdoc fellow about @shiftingsovs.bsky.social
January 15, 2026 at 2:52 PM
🇮🇹 🇪🇺
Reposted by Shifting Sovereignties
This article carries water for the Trump administration by imagining the potential acquisition of Greenland as a record-breaker.
It’s also just plain wrong. Greenland is not larger than the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Let me explain...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/w...
It’s also just plain wrong. Greenland is not larger than the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Let me explain...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/w...
Greenland Would Be the Largest U.S. Land Acquisition, if Trump Got His Way
www.nytimes.com
January 14, 2026 at 12:58 PM
This article carries water for the Trump administration by imagining the potential acquisition of Greenland as a record-breaker.
It’s also just plain wrong. Greenland is not larger than the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Let me explain...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/w...
It’s also just plain wrong. Greenland is not larger than the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Let me explain...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/w...
Published today: "Pirate Imperialism — Trade, Abolition, and Global Suppression of Maritime Raiding, 1825–1870" by Manuel Barcia
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
Pirate Imperialism
This first truly global history of the suppression of piracy links maritime raiding to empire building in the nineteenth century In the middle decades of ...
yalebooks.yale.edu
January 13, 2026 at 6:04 PM
Published today: "Pirate Imperialism — Trade, Abolition, and Global Suppression of Maritime Raiding, 1825–1870" by Manuel Barcia
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
📆 Tomorrow!
Join @mihatsch.bsky.social in Florence on Jan 14, 5pm at the @eui-eu.bsky.social for the first Max Weber lecture of the year.
January 13, 2026 at 9:57 AM
📆 Tomorrow!
This looks fascinating. "‘Don’t cause trouble’: speculative governance, ward administration and fragmented sovereignty in urban Myanmar" vyFrancesca Chiu
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
‘Don’t cause trouble’: speculative governance, ward administration and fragmented sovereignty in urban Myanmar
Speculative urbanism in the Global South has often been analysed through lenses of global capital and top-down state planning, with limited attention paid to how bureaucrats shape these dynamics fr...
www.tandfonline.com
January 12, 2026 at 6:42 PM
This looks fascinating. "‘Don’t cause trouble’: speculative governance, ward administration and fragmented sovereignty in urban Myanmar" vyFrancesca Chiu
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Brett J. Kyle, Tricia D. Olsen & Andrew G. Reiter's new monograph on iolence and democracy in Latin America includes a chapter on "Violence at Mexican Borders: Sovereignty, Drugs, and Migration"
link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
Client Challenge
link.springer.com
January 11, 2026 at 12:59 PM
Brett J. Kyle, Tricia D. Olsen & Andrew G. Reiter's new monograph on iolence and democracy in Latin America includes a chapter on "Violence at Mexican Borders: Sovereignty, Drugs, and Migration"
link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
New article by Gumani Tshimomola on "The Treasury, Fiscal Policy and the Crisis of Parliamentary Sovereignty in South Africa’s Coalition Era"
muse.jhu.edu/pub/99/artic...
muse.jhu.edu/pub/99/artic...
Project MUSE - The Treasury, Fiscal Policy and the Crisis of Parliamentary Sovereignty in South Africa’s Coalition Era
muse.jhu.edu
January 11, 2026 at 12:57 PM
New article by Gumani Tshimomola on "The Treasury, Fiscal Policy and the Crisis of Parliamentary Sovereignty in South Africa’s Coalition Era"
muse.jhu.edu/pub/99/artic...
muse.jhu.edu/pub/99/artic...
New open access chapter by Luis G. Martínez-del-Campo on "Diplomatic Pawns: Cross-Border Workers and the Spanish Claim to Sovereignty over Gibraltar, 1945–69" in an edited volume on borders crossing.
www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
Diplomatic Pawns: Cross-Border Workers and the Spanish Claim to Sovereignty over Gibraltar, 1945–69
Diplomatic Pawns: Cross-Border Workers and the Spanish Claim to Sovereignty over Gibraltar, 1945–69 was published in Traversing the Political Divide on page 65.
www.degruyterbrill.com
January 11, 2026 at 12:56 PM
New open access chapter by Luis G. Martínez-del-Campo on "Diplomatic Pawns: Cross-Border Workers and the Spanish Claim to Sovereignty over Gibraltar, 1945–69" in an edited volume on borders crossing.
www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
New chapter by Nikoloz Aleksidze on 'The “Lot of the Mother of God”: Imperial Mystique and the Language
of Sovereignty in Modern Georgian Political Thought'
www.researchgate.net/profile/Lili...
of Sovereignty in Modern Georgian Political Thought'
www.researchgate.net/profile/Lili...
www.researchgate.net
January 9, 2026 at 4:26 PM
New chapter by Nikoloz Aleksidze on 'The “Lot of the Mother of God”: Imperial Mystique and the Language
of Sovereignty in Modern Georgian Political Thought'
www.researchgate.net/profile/Lili...
of Sovereignty in Modern Georgian Political Thought'
www.researchgate.net/profile/Lili...
Check out this thread on the new special issue by @mihatsch.bsky.social and Casper Andersen on history writing after independence. One of the concepts which they use throughout the special issue is "epistemological sovereignty".
The introduction of our forthcoming special issue by Casper Andersen and me is now out: "Becoming Independent: Institutions and Epistemologies of History Writing in the Age of Decolonisation"
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Check the thread below for the articles as they are published.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Check the thread below for the articles as they are published.
Becoming Independent: Institutions and Epistemologies of History Writing in the Age of Decolonisation | Itinerario | Cambridge Core
Becoming Independent: Institutions and Epistemologies of History Writing in the Age of Decolonisation
www.cambridge.org
January 9, 2026 at 11:23 AM
Check out this thread on the new special issue by @mihatsch.bsky.social and Casper Andersen on history writing after independence. One of the concepts which they use throughout the special issue is "epistemological sovereignty".
Reposted by Shifting Sovereignties
I wrote an Expert Comment for the University of Oxford on the implications of the US aggression against Venezuela for International Law and Global Security.
My argument in brief below:
www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-01...
My argument in brief below:
www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-01...
January 8, 2026 at 10:03 AM
I wrote an Expert Comment for the University of Oxford on the implications of the US aggression against Venezuela for International Law and Global Security.
My argument in brief below:
www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-01...
My argument in brief below:
www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-01...
Reposted by Shifting Sovereignties
"When the mine ran out around 1885, one might think that’d be it for Neutral Moresnet. But no: like microstates the world over, it simply shifted its economy into more contested areas..."
You* asked, I delivered: a brief history of Neutral Moresnet
(*Possibly not actually you)
You* asked, I delivered: a brief history of Neutral Moresnet
(*Possibly not actually you)
Shifting alliances and once neutral territories
This week: is this really the year the western alliance finally breathes its last? Also: a brief history of the lost microstate of Neutral Moresnet.
jonn.substack.com
January 8, 2026 at 4:44 PM
"When the mine ran out around 1885, one might think that’d be it for Neutral Moresnet. But no: like microstates the world over, it simply shifted its economy into more contested areas..."
You* asked, I delivered: a brief history of Neutral Moresnet
(*Possibly not actually you)
You* asked, I delivered: a brief history of Neutral Moresnet
(*Possibly not actually you)
New handbook chapter by Rafaela Resende Sanches & Victor de Matos Nascimento on "The Geopolitics of the Amazon Region in the 21st Century: Strategic Resources and Sovereignty in Question in Brazil"
link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/...
link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/...
The Geopolitics of the Amazon Region in the 21st Century: Strategic Resources and Sovereignty in Question in Brazil
The importance of the Amazon region for contemporary geopolitics has become increasingly prominent. This chapter explores how the strategic geopolitical position of the Amazon region, in view of the g...
link.springer.com
January 8, 2026 at 1:09 PM
New handbook chapter by Rafaela Resende Sanches & Victor de Matos Nascimento on "The Geopolitics of the Amazon Region in the 21st Century: Strategic Resources and Sovereignty in Question in Brazil"
link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/...
link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/...
New article by Sara Frumento on "The Power of ‘Oceanic Thinking’: Reimagining Small State Agency and Sovereignty Amid Sino-Indian Hegemonic Competition in the Indian Ocean"
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The Power of ‘Oceanic Thinking’: Reimagining Small State Agency and Sovereignty Amid Sino-Indian Hegemonic Competition in the Indian Ocean
By focusing on Sri Lanka and Maldives as small island states where Sino-Indian competition is evident, and adopting a Gramscian theoretical approach, this paper examines the spatialisation of power...
www.tandfonline.com
January 8, 2026 at 1:04 PM
New article by Sara Frumento on "The Power of ‘Oceanic Thinking’: Reimagining Small State Agency and Sovereignty Amid Sino-Indian Hegemonic Competition in the Indian Ocean"
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
🇻🇪🧵 What a start into the new year. It unfortunately looks like discussions around sovereignty will be with us a little longer. There is some excellent analysis on the specific case, so we leave that to our colleagues who work specifically on US and Latin American history. 1/n
January 8, 2026 at 11:11 AM
🇻🇪🧵 What a start into the new year. It unfortunately looks like discussions around sovereignty will be with us a little longer. There is some excellent analysis on the specific case, so we leave that to our colleagues who work specifically on US and Latin American history. 1/n
Now that the US is leaving the International Cotton Advisory Committee, will the headquarters be moved to a member state?
On a more serious note, how does this organisation "no longer" serve American interests? And how much do the US save...
On a more serious note, how does this organisation "no longer" serve American interests? And how much do the US save...
January 8, 2026 at 10:33 AM
Now that the US is leaving the International Cotton Advisory Committee, will the headquarters be moved to a member state?
On a more serious note, how does this organisation "no longer" serve American interests? And how much do the US save...
On a more serious note, how does this organisation "no longer" serve American interests? And how much do the US save...