Tom Junes

some thoughts on the latest episode of Bulgaria's political crisis...
balkaninsight.com/2026/02/02/b...

Verteidigungsministerium lässt X-Kanal ruhen Das Gebaren von US-Milliardär Musk rund um seine Social-Media-Plattform X lässt die Kritik daran immer lauter werden. Nun will das Wehrressort als erstes Bundesministerium X nicht mehr nutzen. Ganz we...

Dear European official accounts, just a reminder that it is possible to leave X behind - the German defence ministry did so in January 2025 and has not posted since.

why Poland will remain on the periphery...

wyborcza.pl/7,75398,3244...

Russia’s elites once dreaded war. Now, they fear peace. — Meduza In his 2024 state-of-the-nation address, Vladimir Putin declared that the word “elite” had lost much of its credibility. Russia’s “real elite,” he said, are those who serve their country: “the workers...

For @meduza.io’s podcast, I talked to the excellent @faridaily.bsky.social about how Putin’s war effort has changed the rules for Russia’s “old elites” and made them fear the prospect of peace. Listen now! meduza.io/en/episodes/...

I'm sure this will be an unpopular opinion, but while the text of the US plan for Ukraine is poorly drafted and incomplete, it is not a simple call for Ukrainian capitulation. As a starting point for something that could stop the killing, it has some promise. A few thoughts 1/

Who Owns the (Difficult) Past in Poland? ZOiS Spotlight 20/2025 by Magdalena Lemańczyk

Even after the end of #Poland's PiS government, its divisive memory politics persists under President Nawrocki. In her new #ZOiS_Spotlight, sociologist Magdalena Lemańczyk examines initiatives that prioritise dialogue and reconciliation: the Polish-German commemoration of post-war camps for Germans.

Reign of Terror by Spencer Ackerman: 9781984879790 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books A New York Times Critics’ Top Book of 2021   "An impressive combination of diligence and verve, deploying Ackerman’s deep stores of knowledge as a national security journalist to full...

It's the day Dick Cheney died, time to recommend "Reign of Terror" to someone too young to remember the Bush years, or too old to remember them accurately www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/622555...

It seems like there's some renewed interest in student politics. I will be adding my two cents in Switzerland next week... #StudentPolitics #StudentMovement #Poland #Communism #unibern

www.ub.unibe.ch/teilbiblioth...

WE'RE HIRING!...if you're a PhD student in Poland and are interested in youth under communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe...consider applying to join my research team in Warsaw!

isppan.bip.gov.pl/search/jobof...

Here’s what you do when Russia won’t stay out of your airspace — Meduza In recent weeks, Estonia, Poland, and Romania have reported breaches of their airspace by Russian aircraft. Just this week, Norway revealed that Russian aircraft have violated its airspace three times...

In a new episode of The Naked Pravda, I speak to @olyaoliker.bsky.social about Russia’s escalating incursions into NATO airspace and how today’s tensions compare to the incident a decade ago when Turkey downed a Russian bomber in Syria. meduza.io/en/episodes/...

Good Change | Stanford University Press Few countries serve as a more useful case study for understanding the global tension between liberal and illiberal conceptions of democracy than Poland. Under the populist Law and Justice (PiS) –led g...

Our new book with @benstanley.eu on illiberalism in Poland has arrived with @stanfordpress.bsky.social. We look at the successes and failures of the Law and Justice (PiS) party as a leading example of the evolving global challenges to liberal democracy. www.sup.org/books/politi...

US media coverage of the Polish president's visit to the White House...apparently, Poland is a very important ally...

nice to see some comparative work being done on Polish history and very happy to have been able to contribute to this initiative with some #comparative reflections on communist rule in #Poland and #Bulgaria... coming out soon in print...

by Nobel Prize Loser...

Stupidest Summit Ever...is actually a beautiful take...

Putin saying 'Putin doesn't have agency'...

today at #ICCEES2025 - Session 5, 14:45-16:15 - room A5.04

In London for #ICCEES2025... This Tuesday, 22 July, 14:45-16:15 we'll be holding a round table with members of the Advisory Board of my NCN-funded project 'Comparative Perspectives on Students, Generations and Communism'...

Copies of The German Democratic Republic: The Rise and Fall of a Cold War State by Ned Richardson-Little (Bloomsbury, 2025)

It’s here!

"The paper concludes that the genocidal character of this conflict is a litmus test of the even more destructive wars looming on the horizon."

Two Weeks in Central Europe | 06 June 2025 Joining the TWiCE team this week is Tom Junes, historian and assistant professor at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, whose op-ed this week examined the second roun...

I sat down to talk about the Polish presidential elections and the new president-elect with the Two Weeks in Central Europe podcast... balkaninsight.com/2025/06/06/t...

Nawrocki's win was a serious blow to the governing coalition, but it could potentially backfire in PiS as well...liberals and conservatives have let the far-right genie out of the bottle...some thoughts on the presidential election in Poland... balkaninsight.com/2025/06/04/n...

Poland's next president will be an international embarrassment...once again, despite such promising potential #Poland managed to fail at rising from the periphery...Europe and the EU will remain dominated by the Franco-German axis for now...

Conservative values anno 2025...pimp meets puppy killer...

WE'RE HIRING! Four 3-year Doctoral Research Assistant positions in my research project on students, generations, and communism...candidates have to be enrolled in a Polish doctoral school programme...otherwise, there's quite some flexibility...links here:
isppan.bip.gov.pl/search/jobof...

for those who think Trump is some master negotiator who will convince or coerce 'the Russians'...just remember that despite nearly four decades of trying there is still no Trump Tower in Moscow...

WE'RE HIRING! Four 3-year Doctoral Research Assistant positions in my research project on students, generations, and communism...candidates have to be enrolled in a Polish doctoral school programme...otherwise, there's quite some flexibility...links here:
isppan.bip.gov.pl/search/jobof...

Just a reminder that there are presidential elections in Poland this weekend...

Could not agree more! My book, Saving Apartheid: White Internationalism at the End of the Cold War, traces exactly this transatlantic connection between apartheid and the American right from 1980 to 1994. Out with Columbia University Press late 2025/early 2026!

Interesting! blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2...