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tomcrosbie.bsky.social
@tomcrosbie.bsky.social
200 followers 14 following 26 posts
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tomcrosbie.bsky.social
Sadly this rings true based on my 8 years of teaching in the Danish PME system - great students under a lot of time pressure, but very little support with the Danish Defence for their intellectual development
November 23, 2025 at 6:26 PM
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charig.bsky.social
'the question of what those in uniform will do in pivotal moments for democracy is, alas, becoming more relevant by the day'
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Trump is turning the US military into a political prop | Jan-Werner Müller
The military has been recast in a partisan, performative mold – all according to the president’s logic of impunity
www.theguardian.com
November 17, 2025 at 4:05 PM
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charig.bsky.social
"There's an undemocratic politicisation of the country's leading military research institution when researchers are restricted in both their freedom of expression and their right to conduct research freely.

This is the opinion of several of the Danish Parliament's defence spokespeople"
November 17, 2025 at 10:02 AM
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charig.bsky.social
Pivot to the Western Hemisphere
peark.es George Pearkes @peark.es · 18d
"Senior military officials on Wednesday presented President Trump with updated options for potential operations in Venezuela, including strikes on land, according to multiple sources familiar with the meetings at the White House. "
Top officials present Trump with military options for Venezuela in the coming days
The potential operations for Venezuela presented to Trump included options for strikes on land, multiple sources said.
www.cbsnews.com
November 13, 2025 at 8:57 PM
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sorensjogren.bsky.social
Submission no. 500 at the Journal of Scandinavian Military Studies (SJMS) landed this morning!

We publish in the field of military studies: multidisciplinary, practice‑relevant, with Scandinavian roots and a global scope

All open access

Learn more about @sjms.bsky.social: sjms.nu/articles/10....
October 29, 2025 at 2:15 PM
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drprofivey.bsky.social
Hey, you! Do you worry about executive abuse of military authority, but need a framework to analyze it? Well stop *worrying.* My new article on "executive shirking" is out from Perspectives on Politics. Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback on this one! #civmilbluesky
The Responsibility to Be Reasonable: Conceptualizing Executive Shirking in Civil–Military Relations | Perspectives on Politics | Cambridge Core
The Responsibility to Be Reasonable: Conceptualizing Executive Shirking in Civil–Military Relations
www.cambridge.org
October 28, 2025 at 12:29 PM
tomcrosbie.bsky.social
The indirect approach to the indirect approach?
charig.bsky.social Christoph Harig @charig.bsky.social · Oct 19
Trying to figure out the 4D-chess Grand Strategy the US administration is playing with Colombia

Claiming to have hit the ELN while cutting ties to what used to be Washington's most loyal ally in South America, all on the same day?

edition.cnn.com/2025/10/19/p...
Tweet by Hegseth: On October 17th, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a Designated Terrorist Organization, that was operating in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility. The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was traveling along a known narco-trafficking route, and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics. There were three male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike—which was conducted in international waters. All three terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike. These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, using violence, murder and terrorism to impose their will, threaten our national security and poison our people. The United States military will treat these organizations like the terrorists they are—they will be hunted, and killed, just like Al Qaeda.
October 19, 2025 at 7:11 PM
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charig.bsky.social
The Brazilian military's superiority complex is deeply embedded in its role conceptions-its PME institutions still transmit the 'good military vs corrupt/communist civilians' worldview

Brazil’s Bolsonaro was convicted but the military appetite for a coup lingers
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
Brazil’s Bolsonaro was convicted but the military appetite for a coup lingers
Armed forces academies teach troops that military control would be better for the country, historians and experts say
www.theguardian.com
October 9, 2025 at 10:12 AM
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sorensjogren.bsky.social
“Eyes on, hands off.” Mission command sounds simple, but micromanagement often creeps in. Too detailed orders, risk aversion, and a lack of trust make implementation difficult.

Currently in Stockholm to teach our latest in Mission Command in NATO.

📚 sjms.nu/articles/10.... (open access)
September 30, 2025 at 12:08 PM
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charig.bsky.social
And the US military is now in 'repeatedly obeying illegal orders' territory
September 16, 2025 at 3:53 AM
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charig.bsky.social
“When Trump fired the military’s top lawyers the rest saw the writing on the wall, and instead of being a critical firebreak they are now a rubber stamp complicit in this crime.”
jaylyall.bsky.social Jason "Red5" Lyall @jaylyall.bsky.social · Sep 11
JFC

U.S. Attacked Boat Near Venezuela Multiple Times to Kill Survivors

American officials said the repeat drone strikes were carried out by Special Operations Command, and more attacks could come soon.
U.S. Attacked Boat Near Venezuela Multiple Times to Kill Survivors
American officials said the repeat drone strikes were carried out by Special Operations Command, and more attacks could come soon.
theintercept.com
September 11, 2025 at 4:46 AM
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charig.bsky.social
Danish state TV says men with close connections to Trump are trying to infiltrate Greenland - one of them arguably is creating list of local people who would support Trump's desire to take over Greenland

www.dr.dk/nyheder/indl...
Centrale kilder: Mænd med forbindelser til Trump forsøger at infiltrere Grønland
Grønland er mål for påvirkningskampagner, der skal slå sprækker i forholdet til Danmark, oplyser Politiets Efterretningstjeneste.
www.dr.dk
August 27, 2025 at 7:09 AM
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craigwhiteside.bsky.social
Got our first book review for Non-State Special Operations: Capabilities and Effects in @terpolv.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Non-State Special Operations: Capabilities and Effects
Published in Terrorism and Political Violence (Ahead of Print, 2025)
www.tandfonline.com
August 18, 2025 at 6:04 PM
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charig.bsky.social
Trump’s Domestic Use of Military Set to Get Worse, Leaked Memo Shows
#CivMilSky
newrepublic.com/article/1987...
Trump’s Domestic Use of Military Set to Get Worse, Leaked Memo Shows
A Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by TNR signals top-level discussions about a potential escalation of the Pentagon’s domestic anti-immigration role, and lays out new details.
newrepublic.com
August 2, 2025 at 12:23 PM
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anderspucknielsen.dk
It's a strange feeling after all the years of irresponsible defense cuts, but I really do believe (and proudly so) that Denmark is one countries in Europe that best have understood the new security situation and makes the right decisions. Nice to see that @alanderminna.bsky.social has noticed too.
phillipspobrien.bsky.social Phillips OBrien @phillipspobrien.bsky.social · Jul 16
A great new European Dispatch Column (all free) by @alanderminna.bsky.social just appeared. Its message is clear--Be Like Denmark--a state which is being more responsible in its defense policies than almost any other in Europe. Quite some praise coming from a Finn. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...
Small State Power: Be Like Denmark
In this week’s Europe Dispatch, Minna Ålander writes about how Denmark is showing that even small states can punch far above their weight and lead by example.
open.substack.com
July 16, 2025 at 2:45 PM
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anderspucknielsen.dk
There is a lot of talk about higher defense spending in NATO, but I think many politicians have failed to explain adequately why that is necessary. So in this video I explain what is at stake for citizens in Western European countries.
Why spend more on defense in Western Europe?
YouTube video by Anders Puck Nielsen
youtu.be
June 23, 2025 at 5:04 PM
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charig.bsky.social
When discussing the use of the military in law enforcement, I really don't like the "soldiers are only trained to kill" argument - it's much more complicated than that, but still a very bad idea*

(*Sad when old research becomes timely)
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #CivMilSky
BSTRACTThere is a widespread consensus that armed forces are not suited for lawenforcement tasks. Most arguments against using troops in public securityare based on the lack of appropriate training and the military’s difficulty inpractising restraint when using force. Brazil has nonetheless militarised itspublic security provision by increasingly deploying soldiers in‘Guaranteeing Law and Order’ (GLO) operations – at times evenjustifying these missions with the military’s experience in UNpeacekeeping. Drawing on survey research, interviews and focus groupswith troops as well as the observation of training exercises, this articleasks: how has the participation in these missions affected troops’perceived skills in law enforcement? What kind of lessons are theytransferring from UN peacekeeping to internal missions and vice-versa?What are their perspectives on having to apply coercion gradually? Itwill be argued that soldiers perceive to have gained a considerableamount of law enforcement skills during UN peacekeeping and GLOoperations. However, there are clear limitations in critical situations.Soldiers and officers felt restricted by rules of engagement andconsidered the greater use of force allowed in UN peacekeeping asnecessary for the mission’s effectiveness. Not being allowed to act in asimilar manner in GLO operations has led to high levels of frustrationamong soldiers and officers. In the trade-off between the rule of law andeffective actions against criminals, troops tend to prefer the latter. Thisunderlines the risk of deploying soldiers in law enforcement roles.
June 10, 2025 at 9:49 AM
tomcrosbie.bsky.social
Recommend everyone read this article by Christoph and Chiara
charig.bsky.social Christoph Harig @charig.bsky.social · Jun 8
Why role conceptions matter when politicians want to pull the military into problematic roles

@ejisbisa.bsky.social article by Chiara Ruffa and me from 2022

It's open access, so get your free download

www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #CivMilSky
Academic research on civil-military relations often assumes that dangers for democracy and civilian con- trol mainly emanate from the military’s predisposition of ‘pushing’ its way into politics. Yet, civilian con- trol frequently is a precondition for governments’ moves of ‘pulling’ the military into roles that may potentially be problematic. These can include the military’s involvement in political disputes or internal public security missions. Notwithstanding its empirical relevance, little academic work has been devoted to understanding how ‘pulling’ works. In this article, we aim to provide a first, exploratory framework of ‘pulling’ that captures the dynamics of the military’s reactions and indirect consequences for civil-military relations. We identify three analytically distinct phases in which pulling occurs. First, politicians initiate either operational or political pulling moves. Second, we situate the military’s reaction on a spectrum that ranges from refusal to non-conditional compliance. This reaction is driven by the military’s role concep- tions about appropriate missions and their relation to politics. In a third phase, the military may slowly start shifting its role conceptions to adapt to its new roles. We illustrate our argument with case studies of two different instances of pulling: operational pulling in the case of France (2015–19) and operational – then-turned-political – pulling in the case of Brazil (2010–20). Keywords: Civil-Military Relations; Role Conceptions; Pulling; Brazil; France
June 9, 2025 at 10:47 AM
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charig.bsky.social
And yet, would anyone think US Congress would then impeach Trump?
armscontrolwonk.bsky.social Jeffrey Lewis @armscontrolwonk.bsky.social · Jun 8
This is precisely what happened in December in South Korea when Yoon Suk Yeol attempted a coup, ordered the military to arrest his opponents, and the military gave it zero level of effort.
gowder.io Paul Gowder @gowder.io · Jun 8
There's actually an extremely large scholarly literature about this. With some regularity, dictators order their troops to shoot protestors, the troops are like "wtf no," and then the dictator falls. I'll dig ho and dump some cites below in a second
June 8, 2025 at 3:47 PM
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ianbowers.bsky.social
Check out our new article in Survival written with Henrik Hiim.
We examine the knock-on risks of a US-China conflict to NATO's space operations and the potential impact on NATO's warfighting capabilities.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Knock-on Risks to NATO’s Space-based War-fighting Capabilities
NATO is more vulnerable to a war in the Indo-Pacific than is commonly understood. In a conflict between the United States and China, key US space-based capabilities would be tasked away from Europe...
www.tandfonline.com
June 4, 2025 at 8:13 AM
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charig.bsky.social
"When it is clear that a civilian government (..) is weaponizing the military to protect its political interests, to attack its political opponents, or to undermine civil society, political neutrality demands that military officers not passively obey."
#CivMilSky
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/a-po...
A Politically Neutral Military Is Not Always Obedient
Military political neutrality in a democratic society is, and always has been, more than a promise of obedience.
www.lawfaremedia.org
May 8, 2025 at 8:04 PM
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charig.bsky.social
This concerted campaign of US government officials in support of an extremist party is an open attack against Germany's democracy - all while these very same government officials are actively trying to destroy democracy in the US, too
carlomasala1.bsky.social Carlo "Realism, Gedankenfetzen und Rants" Masala @carlomasala1.bsky.social · May 3
Die USA machen sich „Sorgen“ um die Demokratie in Deutschland. Und lustiger wird es nicht mehr.
May 3, 2025 at 8:01 AM
tomcrosbie.bsky.social
Read this post about the US DOD trying to censor a peer reviewed article right before publication:
charig.bsky.social Christoph Harig @charig.bsky.social · Apr 19
A short article of mine on civil-military relations and democratic backsliding had been accepted for publication in the journal "Connections".

Then I received an email that the editors can't publish the paper unless I "remove the case study/examples of the United States" (1/x)
#CivMilSky
a man in a suit says this is ridiculous in white letters
ALT: a man in a suit says this is ridiculous in white letters
media.tenor.com
April 19, 2025 at 3:38 PM
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charig.bsky.social
What we're witnessing is much more dramatic than the gradual nature of 'democratic backsliding'

If we are using the slowly boiling a frog metaphor for 'democratic backsliding', what we're actually seeing is someone forcefully drowning a frog in a baththub of fully boiling water
rollingstone.com Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com · Apr 14
"America is headed down a dark path."

Trump accelerated America’s democratic backsliding — all with just the stroke of his signature on two brazenly vengeful executive orders.
'Donald Trump Needed to Send a Message'
Trump’s executive orders calling on the Justice Department to investigate Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs accelerated America’s democratic backsliding.
www.rollingstone.com
April 18, 2025 at 2:30 PM