Paul C(innamon) Kirby
@paulcinnamon.bsky.social
International theory, feminist political thought, “Women, Peace and Security”, masculinities and the governing of them, critical war studies, statecraft, pop cultures, another university might still be possible. Gender detective.
Cognitive offloading pass-the-parcel.
And you don’t even need an actually good bit of tech, which “Objector” may or may not be, to do this! If you just ask the free version of any genAI to do something plausible it still louses up everyone else’s productivity to work out it is bollocks!
The automated problem factory!
November 9, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Cognitive offloading pass-the-parcel.
Reposted by Paul C(innamon) Kirby
AI could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points
November 7, 2025 at 1:24 PM
AI could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points
Easily missed: the decision not to fund a more expansive atrocity prevention effort was taken *before* the cuts to the aid budget. Sudan is on paper a remaining priority, but is nevertheless scheduled for an 18% cut in funding this year alone (with worse to come).
www.bond.org.uk/news/2025/07...
www.bond.org.uk/news/2025/07...
November 7, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Easily missed: the decision not to fund a more expansive atrocity prevention effort was taken *before* the cuts to the aid budget. Sudan is on paper a remaining priority, but is nevertheless scheduled for an 18% cut in funding this year alone (with worse to come).
www.bond.org.uk/news/2025/07...
www.bond.org.uk/news/2025/07...
David Lammy, Aug 2025: “It grates that there isn’t more interest in the war in Sudan, which affects him personally. Privately, he’ll say it’s because those dying are African and black.”
FCDO, Oct 2024: chooses least ambitious option for atrocity prevention.
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
FCDO, Oct 2024: chooses least ambitious option for atrocity prevention.
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
UK rejected atrocity prevention plans for Sudan despite warning of possible genocide
Exclusive: British government adopted ‘least ambitious’ option months before RSF’s massacres in El Fasher
www.theguardian.com
November 7, 2025 at 10:41 AM
David Lammy, Aug 2025: “It grates that there isn’t more interest in the war in Sudan, which affects him personally. Privately, he’ll say it’s because those dying are African and black.”
FCDO, Oct 2024: chooses least ambitious option for atrocity prevention.
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
FCDO, Oct 2024: chooses least ambitious option for atrocity prevention.
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
Reposted by Paul C(innamon) Kirby
Hoping this helps our colleagues across the industry
November 5, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Hoping this helps our colleagues across the industry
Reposted by Paul C(innamon) Kirby
Just in terms of admin, all HEIs will scramble post 'pause'. Many/most will scramble while shrinking PS and/or academic staff. An important but exceptionally tricky time to change/enhance institutional cultures. The most important thing the REF2029 pause can do is not to set us all up to fail. 2/2
November 5, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Just in terms of admin, all HEIs will scramble post 'pause'. Many/most will scramble while shrinking PS and/or academic staff. An important but exceptionally tricky time to change/enhance institutional cultures. The most important thing the REF2029 pause can do is not to set us all up to fail. 2/2
Reposted by Paul C(innamon) Kirby
Awful: Pentagon officials told lawmakers Trump now claims authority to bomb people merely “affiliated” with “narco-terrorist" groups, Rep Adam Smith tells me. But under questioning, they wouldn't say what “affiliated” even means!
Lots of fresh info in my new piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2025...
Lots of fresh info in my new piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2025...
November 1, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Awful: Pentagon officials told lawmakers Trump now claims authority to bomb people merely “affiliated” with “narco-terrorist" groups, Rep Adam Smith tells me. But under questioning, they wouldn't say what “affiliated” even means!
Lots of fresh info in my new piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2025...
Lots of fresh info in my new piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2025...
Reposted by Paul C(innamon) Kirby
Darfur genocide took place at peak early 2000s American primacy, current Sudan genocide being done by forces backed by top US ally UAE, but sure let’s blame it on “post-American world” SMDH
In Sudan, @anneapplebaum reports, the post-American world has already arrived. A brutal civil war has left a vacuum—and no international organizations, no diplomats, and certainly no Americans are coming to fill it. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
The Most Nihilistic Conflict on Earth
Sudan’s devastating civil war shows what will replace the liberal order: anarchy and greed.
www.theatlantic.com
November 1, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Darfur genocide took place at peak early 2000s American primacy, current Sudan genocide being done by forces backed by top US ally UAE, but sure let’s blame it on “post-American world” SMDH
Reposted by Paul C(innamon) Kirby
An excellent 1325 Anniversary reflection from @paulcinnamon.bsky.social and @drljshepherd.bsky.social reminding us that a unified Women, Peace & Security agenda is illusory. The WPS community/ecosystem is inherently pluralist: theglobalobservatory.org/2025/10/forg...
Forgetting WPS: On Being Careful What You Wish For - IPI Global Observatory
We concluded our recent book, Governing the Feminist Peace, with an exhortation to “forget WPS”—to abandon attempts to force coherence onto an agenda that had become so sprawling and intricate over it...
theglobalobservatory.org
October 28, 2025 at 2:37 PM
An excellent 1325 Anniversary reflection from @paulcinnamon.bsky.social and @drljshepherd.bsky.social reminding us that a unified Women, Peace & Security agenda is illusory. The WPS community/ecosystem is inherently pluralist: theglobalobservatory.org/2025/10/forg...
These reports must be mistaken. I distinctly remember the former foreign secretary saying that unlike those exercised over Gaza, he cared about all human suffering, with Sudan at the fore of his mind.
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
UK military equipment used by militia accused of genocide found in Sudan, UN told
Exclusive: two dossiers of material seen by the security council raise questions over export of British arms to the UAE, which has been accused of supplying weapons to paramilitary RSF group
www.theguardian.com
October 28, 2025 at 10:43 PM
These reports must be mistaken. I distinctly remember the former foreign secretary saying that unlike those exercised over Gaza, he cared about all human suffering, with Sudan at the fore of his mind.
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
Reposted by Paul C(innamon) Kirby
It's useful to recognise that, just 3 years ago, the UK government made it a specific CRIMINAL OFFENCE to procure a live person to complete university coursework for a student, but that government, and all major institutions, are now saying the use of a machine to complete such work is inevitable.
October 28, 2025 at 2:19 PM
It's useful to recognise that, just 3 years ago, the UK government made it a specific CRIMINAL OFFENCE to procure a live person to complete university coursework for a student, but that government, and all major institutions, are now saying the use of a machine to complete such work is inevitable.
The Portuguese have entered the chat. See also 'cousin'.
“Ma’am, apparently people of Indian descent call various female elders their ‘Aunt’ or ‘Auntie’ as a sign of respect?”
October 28, 2025 at 9:23 PM
The Portuguese have entered the chat. See also 'cousin'.
Reposted by Paul C(innamon) Kirby
For reference, there were 23 British military deaths a year in Afghanistan from 2001-2021.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
At least 49 relatives and colleagues of Afghans in data leak have been killed, study suggests
Research also finds 200 of 231 people notified by MoD of breach reported threats to themselves or families
www.theguardian.com
October 28, 2025 at 1:15 PM
For reference, there were 23 British military deaths a year in Afghanistan from 2001-2021.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
With @drljshepherd.bsky.social, revisiting our plea to 'forget' Women, Peace and Security in light of the governments currently trying to make it disappear.
theglobalobservatory.org/2025/10/forg...
theglobalobservatory.org/2025/10/forg...
Forgetting WPS: On Being Careful What You Wish For - IPI Global Observatory
We concluded our recent book, Governing the Feminist Peace, with an exhortation to “forget WPS”—to abandon attempts to force coherence onto an agenda that had become so sprawling and intricate over it...
theglobalobservatory.org
October 27, 2025 at 3:32 PM
With @drljshepherd.bsky.social, revisiting our plea to 'forget' Women, Peace and Security in light of the governments currently trying to make it disappear.
theglobalobservatory.org/2025/10/forg...
theglobalobservatory.org/2025/10/forg...
Reposted by Paul C(innamon) Kirby
Another parable from George Osborne's Britain
October 25, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Another parable from George Osborne's Britain
“an investment strategy whereby donors, aided by university administrators and regents, circumvent faculty governance in order to treat universities like incubators or, worse, as click-farms to inflate the user data seemingly keeping the AI investment machine humming.”
defector.com/higher-eds-r...
defector.com/higher-eds-r...
Higher Ed’s Rush To Adopt AI Is About So Much More Than AI | Defector
If you don’t work at a university or have college-age kids, you may have missed the flurry of news stories and social media banter about AI adoption in higher ed, stories which have snowballed into th...
defector.com
October 23, 2025 at 6:27 PM
“an investment strategy whereby donors, aided by university administrators and regents, circumvent faculty governance in order to treat universities like incubators or, worse, as click-farms to inflate the user data seemingly keeping the AI investment machine humming.”
defector.com/higher-eds-r...
defector.com/higher-eds-r...
A hard lesson getting front-page coverage: survivors don’t always agree. As seriously as we might take standpoint and experience, there’s no magic hatch out of political choices.
October 23, 2025 at 3:58 PM
A hard lesson getting front-page coverage: survivors don’t always agree. As seriously as we might take standpoint and experience, there’s no magic hatch out of political choices.
A great paper on the redistribution of UK aid towards in-country refugee costs, capture of those funds by outsourcing firms, and rampant profiteering.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Following money, mapping ‘development’: The opaque geographies of UK aid flows across the outsourcing assemblage
This paper brings ‘follow the money’ approaches in economic geography into dialogue with perspectives from critical accounting to develop a methodolog…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 23, 2025 at 12:28 PM
A great paper on the redistribution of UK aid towards in-country refugee costs, capture of those funds by outsourcing firms, and rampant profiteering.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Finally, a reason to despise Palantir and Lockheed Martin.
Each and every company listed here actively aided and abetted Trump's lawless destruction of a public monument.
Alphabet
Lockheed Martin
R.J. Reynolds
Booz Allen Hamilton
Palantir
NextEra Energy
McCrery Architects
Clark Construction
AECOM
Alphabet
Lockheed Martin
R.J. Reynolds
Booz Allen Hamilton
Palantir
NextEra Energy
McCrery Architects
Clark Construction
AECOM
Trump White House East Wing ballroom project got $22M boost from YouTube legal settlement
President Trump has said he and donors will cover the costs of the White House East Wing ballroom, but it is not clear who all the contributors are.
www.cnbc.com
October 22, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Finally, a reason to despise Palantir and Lockheed Martin.
Reposted by Paul C(innamon) Kirby
We've gone from "legitimate concerns about the pace of change in communities" to this absolutely chilling juncture in the space of ten years. The trajectory of norm erosion, and the consequences of that for minorities, were entirely predictable. So where will we be in a decade's time?
To be clear: deportations to increase cultural homogeneity is the text book definition of ethnic cleansing. Demands that come even close to this are so far outside any democratic norm and the rule of law. What has happened to a country when this is not condemned in the strongest possible terms?
October 21, 2025 at 11:07 AM
We've gone from "legitimate concerns about the pace of change in communities" to this absolutely chilling juncture in the space of ten years. The trajectory of norm erosion, and the consequences of that for minorities, were entirely predictable. So where will we be in a decade's time?
Reposted by Paul C(innamon) Kirby
There’s various versions pointing this out and it’s worth noting 10-15 years ago it would have been absolutely unheard of for ANYONE to be expected to have had a ”Nazi phase”
i actually don’t think the “average” american millennial man had a nazi phase. it’s not some boys will be boys shit. this makes me side eye you and your friend group, sounds like a personal problem
October 21, 2025 at 3:25 PM
There’s various versions pointing this out and it’s worth noting 10-15 years ago it would have been absolutely unheard of for ANYONE to be expected to have had a ”Nazi phase”
Reposted by Paul C(innamon) Kirby
The “health surcharge” is an utterly bogus labelling. It’s not hypothecated for health spending and you can’t choose not to pay it and not use the NHS. You could call it an education surcharge or a defence surcharge or anything. It’s just using the sanctified status of the NHS to rip off immigrants.
October 21, 2025 at 6:35 AM
The “health surcharge” is an utterly bogus labelling. It’s not hypothecated for health spending and you can’t choose not to pay it and not use the NHS. You could call it an education surcharge or a defence surcharge or anything. It’s just using the sanctified status of the NHS to rip off immigrants.