Gerard Toal

@critgeopolitics.bsky.social

4.6K followers 800 following 640 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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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · Aug 20

Eyeballs on the frenetic 24/7 Trump show as the world burns.

"Understanding the present requires us to think critically about time, about what timelines are dominant, and what issues are prioritized or ignored as a consequence."

canadiandimension.com/articles/vie...

Summertime in the age of upheaval

The aging leaders now ruling in Washington and Moscow have abandoned their responsibility to future generations. They are enthralled to their own visions of restoring past glory. They are men whose ti...

canadiandimension.com

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 21h

And here's today's event for those in DC:

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 21h

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

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 21h

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.

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 3d

And thanks to @donnachadcu.bsky.social for bringing this to my attention.

Reposted by Jonathan Harris

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 3d

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.

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 6d

Hope.

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 10d

But, after a day's toil and collaboration, this team just might pull it off.

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 10d

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

Gela Merabishvili @gmerabishv.bsky.social · 10d

"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

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 10d

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.

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 11d

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

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 11d

Lobbying for Bosnia has been a lucrative hussle for lots of ex-US ambassadors, pols & political fixers for three decades.

Got to hand it to Dodik's people: they know how to play in DC.

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 11d

Missed this yesterday. Another ace deal 🤑

"meetings and communications with the Trump administration were facilitated by well-connected lobbyists and lawyers with ties to Mr. Trump who were paid a total of about $300,000 per month or more by the Srpska government.."

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/u...

Sanctions Lifted on a Putin-Backed Autocrat After Lobbying by Trump Allies

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Gerard Toal

The New York Review of Books @nybooks.com · 11d

“Being the party that feels the world’s pain is not a good answer to a president who invites his supporters to share the unalloyed joy of being able to inflict it.” — @fotoole.bsky.social on Kamala Harris’s new memoir

The Lingering Delusion | Fintan O’Toole

Kamala Harris’s memoir 107 Days succeeds at least in distilling the evasions and weaknesses of the modern Democratic Party.

buff.ly

Reposted by Gwendolyn Sasse, Gerard Toal

Zentrum für Osteuropa- und internationale Studien (ZOiS) @zois.bsky.social · 12d

Out now & #OpenAccess:

Does #China’s growing role and the #BRI challenge the EU’s approach to promoting development in in Eastern Europe?

A new article by ZOiS researchers Julia Langbein & Valentin Krüsmann with Tanja Börzel & Lunting Wu in @globalpolicy.bsky.social ➡️ doi.org/10.1111/1758...

A screenshot of the first page of the research article. The title is 'Collision, Competition or Cooperation? China's BRI and theEU's Development Policies Towards Eastern Europe'.

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 12d

Should the link not work, here's the abstract.
Great to see work like this.

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 12d

At @gsqjournal.bsky.social they're developing a special issue on land & politics. Here's one of the first articles:

No Land to Give: Wartime Narratives and the Symbolic Value of Territory.

academic-oup-com/isagsq/artic...

Shibboleth Authentication Request

academic-oup-com.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 12d

Thanks John. The great transatlantic decoupling.

So many permutations with this, depending on state elections in France, UK, Germany.

Ireland's vision of neutrality needs serious updating.

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 13d

I've said it before: Ian Masters is meeting the moment with great work.

The conversations here are necessary perspective on our unhinged gaslite times.

Ian Masters @ianmastersmedia.bsky.social · 14d

NOW at backgroundbriefing.org | @bandylee.bsky.social - The Unbound Grandiosity of Trump's Ego | @stephenmarche.bsky.social - Trump's Declaration of Economic War on Canada Over a Reagan TV Ad | @globalsarang.bsky.social - An Assessment of What Was Achieved and What Was Not at the ASEAN Summit

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 13d

The latest skirmish of the eternal civil war.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/u...

Trump Administration Reinstalls Confederate Statue in Washington

www.nytimes.com

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 13d

It’s an argument against Irish neutrality as it currently exists and implicitly for joining NATO yet NATO, as acknowledged, is in crisis.

What Europe exactly should Ireland join? That’s not clear at all.

Good piece but climate crisis is not central yet materially it already is.

Reposted by Gerard Toal

Prof John O Brennan @jobmaynooth.bsky.social · 13d

Superb piece by Ben Tonra in today’s Irish Tines, on Ireland’s strategic choices in a predatory world, with the necessity of a strategic pivot towards Europe increasingly apparent.

Everyone interested in foreign policy making should read this.

Reposted by Gerard Toal

Elisabeth R. Anker @libankerdc.bsky.social · 13d

Look what just came in the mail! Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right
by @lkatfield.bsky.social is fantastic, can’t wait to dive in!

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 13d

They were married!

Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 13d

In Irish Times @fotoole.bsky.social lays out what need to happen for the left to be a credible & cohesive force in Irish politics.

A key question left unasked: is Irish neutrality compatible with a progressive left vision?

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...