Gerard Toal

Jan 13, 2025 | newsecuritybeat.org | Gerard Toal

In recent weeks, users of the social network Bluesky were able to watch a compelling video featuring Jessica Newberry Le Vey—a Climate Change and Health Policy Fellow at Imperial College’s Climate Cares Centre. The video begins with Le Vey’s direct-to-camera assertion that the climate crisis is a health crisis affecting people around the world.

Sep 24, 2024 | news.vt.edu | Gerard Toal

Two years and seven months into the invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces, the attitudes of the Ukrainian people toward ending the war are reluctantly shifting. Virginia Tech international affairs expert Gerard Toal has researched Ukrainian public opinion for a decade. His most recent findings indicate that more Ukrainians have become open to entering into negotiations with Russia. “This is an attitude from a place of pain, not from a place of peace,” Toal said.

Sep 18, 2024 | theconversation.com | Kristin M. Bakke |Gerard Toal |John O’Loughlin

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is trying his best to shake up the dynamics of the Russia-Ukraine war. He recently undertook a major cabinet reshuffle in which he replaced no fewer than nine ministers, including his foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba. Announcing the changes, Zelensky said he wanted his government to be “more active” in pressing for aid from its western allies. These cabinet changes came as Ukraine pressed ahead with its offensive in the Kursk oblast in Russia.

May 23, 2024 | academic.oup.com | Gerard Toal

Oceans Rise Empires Fall: Why Geopolitics Hastens Climate Catastrophe discusses how geopolitics affects climate change by highlighting its catastrophic effects. Even though states would prefer to reduce emissions in the abstract, they would always prioritize access to carbon-based fuels necessary for generating economic growth to compete with rival states. Thus, geopolitical competition ramps the difficulty of implementing effective climate change policies.

Feb 23, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Gerard Toal |Alok Vaid-Menon |Cole Brown |Natalie Johnson

A convincing indictment of nation-states for crimes against the planet. An academic assessment of the relationship between geography and the politics of nations. Driven by an impetus to control and/or expand their territory and to influence what happens within and beyond their borders, “world powers use and abuse the earth,” writes geography professor Toal, author of Near Abroad: Putin, the West, and the Contest for Ukraine and the Caucasus.