The Radicals’ Dilemma After Civil Wars: Evidence from Syria

How does the ideology of religious rebels shape state-building after their victory in a civil war? There is surprisingly little research on this question, even though religious insurgents have recently come to power in Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen. This article looks at the first 12 months of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) governance in Syria, noting that this Salafi rebel group, which overthrew Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria in 2024 after a 13-year civil war, appears to be facing what I call the ‘radicals’ dilemma’: insurgents guided by a militant ideology tend to face both external pressures to moderate and internal pressures to implement their more radical vision of the state once they take power. In Syria, HTS has responded to this dilemma through concessions on its vision of the post-Assad state and a strategy of ideological hybridisation to open up to new constituencies.

United States

No More Peace: Abolition War and Counterrevolution Oliver Baker. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2025. £25.00/$29.95. 346 pp. When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s John Ganz. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024. $30.00. 432 pp. Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America Clay Risen. New York: Scribner, 2025. $31.00. 480 pp. The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It Corey Brettschneider. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2024. $32.50. 368 pp. Mastery and Drift: Professional–class Liberals Since the 1960s Brent Cebul and Lily Geismer, eds. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2025. $35.00. 416 pp.

Environment and Resources

Putin's Strategic Culture, Climate Crisis, and Power Transition: From Permafrost to ‘Permawar’ Mette Skak. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2025. £155.00/$200.00. 182 pp. Security in Sustainable Energy Transitions: Interplay Between Energy, Security, and Defence Policies in Estonia, Finland, Norway, and Scotland Paula Kivimaa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024. £110.00. 228 pp. Climate Security in the Indo-Pacific: Variations, Contestations and Convergence of Security Practices Mely Caballero-Anthony and Alistair D.B. Cook, eds. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2025. £155.00/$200.00. 116 pp. Climate Change on the Battlefield: International Military Responses to the Climate Crisis Erin Sikorsky. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2025. £21.99/$29.95. 176 pp. Ecocide in Ukraine: The Environmental Cost of Russia's War Darya Tsymbalyuk. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2025. £14.99. 208 pp.

The Secret Police Dossier of Herta Müller: A “File Story” of Cold War Surveillance Valentina Glajar. Rochester, New York: Camden House, 2023. 282 pp

Idealistic Mathematics Education: The Institute for the Development of Mathematics Education (IOWO) and Dutch Education Reform, 1970–1980

In the 1960s and 1970s Cold War context, education in Western countries was reformed aiming to educate democratic citizens. This paper shows that 1970s mathematics education reform in the Netherlands was driven by three ideals: democratisation, holism and science with society. The lack of national policy governing curriculum development in the early 1970s allowed the Institute for the Development of Mathematics Education (IOWO) to work according to these ideals, establishing it firmly in a national and international network. When Dutch government did implement centralised policies and reformed the education support system, it left no room for IOWO. However, IOWO’s position and influence was leveraged so that part of its staff was allowed to continue as a research group. The new policy context did affect their ability continue their idealistic practices. Nevertheless, the research group, eventually renamed Freudenthal Institute , continued to have a lasting influence in Dutch and international mathematics education.

Mobility Disability, Education and the Welfare State Policy-Making and the Integration of Children with Mobility Disabilities into the Public School System in Post-War Sweden

This article investigates how and why children with mobility disabilities were gradually integrated into the public school system in Sweden in the post-war era, c. 1950–1970. Through a qualitative analysis of the policy process, focusing on the conceptual and ideological contents of policies and motives, I argue that the shift from segregation to integration should be understood as part of social democratic state formation. Firstly, I show how the policy process emerged when state actors and experts started to problematise institutional care and education and formulate politics to rationalise and nationalise the current organisation. Secondly, I show that the subsequent consolidation phase was powered by the language of integration in the mid 1960s. Integration of mobility impaired children, as a policy idea, was lined up with the social democratic programme of recasting society: to build a new society in which individuals circulated between different functional spheres on equal terms.

The Enduring Legacy and Historical Continuity of Kokang’s Mutinies in the China–Myanmar Borderlands

This article investigates the persistent conflicts in the Kokang region, a territory on the China–Myanmar border occupied by a Han Chinese community. The conflicts in 2009, 2015 and 2023, characterised by intense clashes between Kokang’s Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Myanmar government, escalated local mutinies into broader regional conflicts. Utilising archival research, including important Chinese material, this article traces the conflict’s evolution from colonial-era family strife through Cold War proxy battles to complex post-Cold War family–faction contestations. It explores how Kokang has historically leveraged external powers, transitioning from interactions during British colonial rule in Burma and the Republic of China to engagements with the People’s Republic of China during and after the Cold War. This historical engagement has shaped Kokang’s regional and international conflict profile. The findings indicate that while external state interactions have played a role, the primary drivers are the Kokang factions themselves, who use these mutinies for self-governance and power accumulation. This analysis provides insights into the complex dynamics driving ongoing conflicts in the China–Myanmar borderland.

Rebel Politics after the Coup: Ethnic Armed Organisations and Myanmar’s Spring Revolution

Ethnic armed organisations or EAOs play a pivotal role in the revolutionary war against Myanmar’s junta. These ethno-national rebel movements have not only captured large swathes of territory, but they have also been crucial in transforming resistance into revolutionary warfare in the first place. The early support of some EAOs for the Spring Revolution was instrumental in this transformation. However, this support was not self-evident, especially in 2021 when most EAOs remained on the sidelines. To understand why the two most powerful EAO supporters of the Spring Revolution – the Karen National Union and the Kachin Independence Organisation – made their strategic moves, this article argues that focusing on their political objectives, external environments, and past allegiances is insufficient. Instead, it highlights the importance of internal politics and bottom-up social forces in shaping Karen National Union and Kachin Independence Organisation strategies. In doing so, the article revisits a figurational sociology of rebel politics and evaluates its applicability for comparing EAO politics in Myanmar after the coup. This helps to devise a systematic approach for analysing how the politics of EAOs influence their positioning towards the post-coup crisis and how the Spring Revolution, in turn, affects EAO politics.

Political Coalitions of Labour Control: Comparing Singapore and Cambodia

Labour control through coercion, violence, and restrictive laws is well analysed for Southeast Asia. Less understood is why, how, and to what effect, political participatory institutions articulate with labour control strategies. Central to such an understanding is analysis of political coalitions shaping these institutions, and the historical and dynamic political economy foundations of these coalitions. In this article it is argued that an ideologically cohesive coalition of technocratic politico-bureaucrats seized power in Singapore during the Cold War, and established state capitalism through which both labour and private capital can be politically disciplined. These power relations are integral to the capacity for state-sponsored participation rationalised through ideologies of consultative authoritarianism. By contrast, in post-Cold War Cambodia, a coalition encompassing private conglomerates, domestic political actors, international investors, and organisations initially supported labour participation but without ideological consensus over why or how. Intra-coalitional tensions emerged when trade unions aligned with political opposition to challenge crony capitalism’s patronage networks and ideologies linking the ruling party and domestic business, leading to greater reliance on state coercion to control labour.

Commemorating difficult history in schools: Affective strategies of Greek-Cypriot teachers on the 50th anniversary of the 1974 war

This study investigates the affective strategies employed by Greek-Cypriot teachers when engaging with the emotionally charged history of the 1974 war—commonly referred to in the Greek-Cypriot community as the “Turkish invasion”—in the context of school commemorations marking its 50th anniversary. Based on qualitative data from 15 primary and secondary school teachers, the analysis is organized around two central categories: approaches to commemorating the 50th anniversary and the affective strategies teachers mobilized in these commemorative practices. Two key strategies emerged: the elicitation of emotions aligned with the dominant national narrative and the balancing of emotional expression with professional and pedagogical responsibilities. The study shows the complex emotional terrain of teaching difficult histories in divided societies and highlights the significance of recognizing teachers’ affective strategies in navigating contested historical narratives. The analysis offers pedagogical and policy insights for how school commemorative practices can be approached in more critically reflective ways.