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September 10, 2025

☢️ Enduring lessons or outdated logic? Updating Europe’s nuclear thinking 

Linde Desmaele Cold War-era nuclear thinking can help explain how today’s challenges emerged. But Linde Desmaele warns that uncritical reliance on such thinking leads to misguided policies. Outdated frameworks can distort our understanding of how nuclear weapons are classified, how Russian intent is interpreted, what counts as success, and which actors will shape Europe’s nuclear future  Read more
September 5, 2025

☢️ UK Strategic Defence Review: nuclear posturing does not deliver peace

Zeenat Sabur Keir Starmer’s speeches before and after the release of the UK's Strategic Defence Review contain narratives that make nuclear strengthening seem prudent and logical. But Zeenat Sabur argues that these narratives are fallacies, that if poked at, alert us to the insecurity to which nuclear posturing leads us Read more
September 3, 2025

Why opposition parties sometimes help governments pass laws

Rick van Well Opposition parties are expected to challenge the government, but they do not simply oppose for opposition's sake. Drawing on over 75 years of data, Rick van Well explains that when deciding how to behave in parliament, opposition parties make strategic trade-offs between winning votes, entering the government, and influencing policy Read more
August 27, 2025

Toward a 'not-so-grand' security strategy for European defence policy 

Amélie Jaques-Apke Are we nearing a new incarnation of the French vision of a Gaullist Europe? Focusing on strategic autonomy, nuclear deterrence, coalitions of the willing, threat perception, and defence capability, Amélie Jaques-Apke examines the strategic dilemmas, and conceptual and operational deficiencies, in European defence policy  Read more
August 23, 2024

Nothing ventured, nothing gained: foreign policy towards non-state justice 

Geoffrey Swenson Promoters of the rule of law stress the importance of non-state justice for security, stability, and access to justice in the Global South. But as Geoffrey Swenson highlights, actual foreign policy tells a different story. Risk aversion – rather than results – drives foreign policy. Successful rule of law promotion ultimately demands greater risk Read more
February 21, 2024

‘Democratic’ governments exploit protests to increase attacks on citizens' right to resist

Joseph Ward The rise of authoritarian politics in ‘formal democracies’ across Europe has been met with various forms of protest. Some of these movements have achieved partial success. But evidence from the UK and France suggests that neoliberal governments are harnessing such resistance to accelerate authoritarianism and hostility towards marginalised people, write Joseph Ward and Thomas Da Costa Vieira Read more
November 22, 2023

Divided by sovereignty claims – territorial identity and societal polarisation

Laia Balcells Laia Balcells, Lesley-Ann Daniels, and Alexander Kuo highlight the role of contentious territorial issues in shaping societal divisions. They study three European regions —Scotland, Catalonia, and Northern Ireland — that have salient territorial claims but very different histories. All three, however, exhibit striking similarities in levels of social polarisation Read more
July 10, 2023

🔮 The myth of the irrational populist

Paul D. Kenny Scholars and pundits – few of whom are populist supporters themselves – like nothing more than to point out the seeming foolishness of populism. However, Paul Kenny argues, there is also frequently a rational explanation behind their choices. Populist voters may be a lot of things, but they are not irrational Read more

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Advancing Political Science
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