Elisabeth Vallet
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elisabethvallet.bsky.social
Elisabeth Vallet
@elisabethvallet.bsky.social

Border scholar
Prof. International studies/ Études internationales @CMR-SJ 🇨🇦
Dir. of #TeamGeopo 💡@ChaireRaoulDandurand
@UQAM.ca @BIGlobalization @big-lab.bsky.social
Chroni. @LeDevoir.com
#borders & #borderwalls
In english & en français
(views are my own) .. more

Political science 65%
Sociology 12%
Pinned
No, borders are NOT wide open. Period. #stopthelie

Ontological security will be much easier to explain in the classroom now
(Yes you should freak out. this is not a meme)

It is less a domino theory than smashing the entire domino table
After Venezuela, Europe is starting to think that Donald Trump may be serious about annexing Greenland. Share Harris, Isaac Stanley-Becker, and Jonathan Lemire report:
Is Greenland Next?
After Venezuela, Europeans think Trump may actually be serious.
bit.ly

Reposted by Élisabeth Vallet

A Minnesota hotel operator says it is working to accommodate federal law enforcement officers after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security accused Hilton Hotels of carrying out a “coordinated campaign” to refuse them rooms in Minneapolis.
Hilton property refused to book hotel rooms for ICE in Minneapolis
The operator for a Hampton Inn in Minnesota said canceling rooms for Homeland Security officers “was inconsistent” with a policy of welcoming all.
www.washingtonpost.com

Reposted by Élisabeth Vallet

We found that 11 of Trump’s DOT appointees disclosed between $12 million and $52 million in stock holdings and other financial interests in airlines, railroads, oil and gas corporations, transportation technology firms and other related businesses.

(Published Nov. 2025)
How Trump’s Transportation Department Is Loosening Safety Rules Meant to Protect the Public
ProPublica has identified dozens of instances in which the Trump administration’s DOT has moved to cut, soften or delay safety regulations for cars, trucks, planes, trains and even oil pipelines. Expe...
www.propublica.org

Reposted by Élisabeth Vallet

How blue states can use their economic clout to stand up to Trump’s agenda—starting with California.
It’s time for soft secession
How blue states can use their economic clout to stand up to Trump’s agenda—starting with California.
www.motherjones.com

Reposted by Élisabeth Vallet

After Venezuela, Europe is starting to think that Donald Trump may be serious about annexing Greenland. Share Harris, Isaac Stanley-Becker, and Jonathan Lemire report:
Is Greenland Next?
After Venezuela, Europeans think Trump may actually be serious.
bit.ly

3 paths:
- transition
- criminalized continuity
- yet another forever war
The End of the Beginning in Venezuela
The real challenges and risks for U.S. policy are still to come.
www.foreignaffairs.com

"US attack on Greenland would mean end of Nato, says Danish PM" www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
US attack on Greenland would mean end of Nato, says Danish PM
Mette Frederiksen criticises Donald Trump’s ‘unacceptable pressure’ as Greenland counterpart condemns ‘fantasies’
www.theguardian.com

Cette musique qui roule comme des vagues, douce et enveloppante, qui sentait le sud dans ses versions romanesques et sombres, reflet d'un mode de vie en sépia est vouée à disparaître
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
The Last Days of the Southern Drawl
By the end of my life, there may be no one left who speaks like my father outside the hollers and the one-horse towns.
www.theatlantic.com
What in the Gestapo is going on in Grand Rapids?

Watch this activist get arrested *mid-interview* for speaking out against U.S. action in Venezuela.
Trump in a single gaggle on Air Force One just threatened:

-- a second strike against Venezuela
-- Cuba
-- Mexico
-- Colombia
-- Iran
-- Greenland (which in turn would be an attack on the EU and Denmark)

Reposted by Jean Bernatchez

Prez' Senior Advisor spouse
Read the U.S. NSS + look at Haushofer's map.
Breathe.

Reposted by Elizabeth Saunders

Democracy dies in broad daylight
GOP Rep. Pat Harrigan: "There are members of Congress that they just cannot trust. And I understand that. We have folks that are Somali first and not America first."
Very important signal here. You can say it's abt oil. And part of it is. But the White House is actually being forced to strongarm the oil companies to get involved. www.politico.com/news/2026/01...
Trump admin sends tough private message to oil companies on Venezuela
The White House has told companies they must rebuild Venezuela's crude-pumping infrastructure if they want compensation for assets seized by Caracas.
www.politico.com

Reposted by Élisabeth Vallet

Trump wants to hit cartel targets in Mexico, and the success of the Maduro capture puts more pressure on Sheinbaum to adjust her red lines www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...
Claudia Sheinbaum’s Impossible Dilemma
The threat of U.S. strikes on cartels could upend a century of delicate relations with Mexico.
www.theatlantic.com
For nonlawyers, it’s worth noting that statements like this have—as a formal matter—important legal effects as a matter of international law. If such statements are *not* made, and in volume, future arguments that Trump’s invasion sets a legal precedent will stand on much firmer legal ground.
Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide: "International law is universal and binding for all states. The American intervention in Venezuela is not in accordance with international law."
GOP Rep. Pat Harrigan: "There are members of Congress that they just cannot trust. And I understand that. We have folks that are Somali first and not America first."

yup

A Little reminder that you should never sell national assets to foreign companies, it may snap back at you at some point
Trump: "They took all of our property. It was our property. We built it. And we never had a president that decided to do anything about it. Instead, they fought wars that were 10,000 miles away."

Reposted by Élisabeth Vallet

Wild swings between Venezuela and Washington DC by Trump.

Near abroad & inner abroad intimately connected in his head.

“We’ve superseded the Monroe Doctrines..”
Trump: "They took all of our property. It was our property. We built it. And we never had a president that decided to do anything about it. Instead, they fought wars that were 10,000 miles away."

Kidnapper un chef d'État, dynamiter l'ordre international
The ‘Putinization’ of US foreign policy has arrived in Venezuela
Trump is no longer bending the rules – he is demolishing them, with consequences far beyond Caracas
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Elizabeth Saunders

Unchecked executive power smashing the dominos table, imperial overstretch.
This thread 👇👌

In case you're asking.
Regime change. Does. NOT. work.
A deluge of work on regime change after the 2003 invasion of Iraq yielded strong (and rare) agreement in IR: it doesn't work & has terrible consequences. @profdownes.bsky.social's book Catastrophic Success lays it out, but it's right there in the title. www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

Not every leader in Canada relates to International Law the way we assume they do. Some will be prompt to congratulate the US president. I'll let you do the search.