Author Archives: Teo Ballvé

Development-Security Nexus, Part I: And the Drug War…?

The new issue of Development Dialogue has a great line up of authors and speaks to a lot of issues I’m thinking about. Its main title is “The End of the Development-Security Nexus.” I’ve been reading some of the lit … Continue reading

Posted in Drugs, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Security | 2 Comments

The Branding of U.S. Development Aid

In my journalistic investigations, I’ve given the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) a hard time for negligently funding the agribusinesses of drug-trafficking paramilitaries as part of its anti-drug efforts. Right, it’s like “War on Terror” money going to al-Qaida, … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Art, Drugs, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Media, The State, Violence | Comments Off on The Branding of U.S. Development Aid

Op-Ed: Summit of the Americas Post-Mortem

Last week, I published an op-ed on the recent Summit of the Americas recently held in Cartagena, Colombia. By now, you’ve probably heard about it because of the media frenzy around Secret Service scandal (don’t get me started on that … Continue reading

Posted in Critique, Drugs, Illegality, Media, Violence | Comments Off on Op-Ed: Summit of the Americas Post-Mortem

The FBI Almost Seized My Emails

(Well, sort of, not really.) Yesterday, at 4:00 p.m., the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized a server from a colocation facility shared by Riseup Networks and May First/People Link in New York City. Cooperatively run May First, among other … Continue reading

Posted in Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Law, Networks, Science & Tech. | Comments Off on The FBI Almost Seized My Emails

Antipode’s Regional Workshop Awards

The Antipode Foundation just announced a new “Regional Workshop Award” that provides £10,000 to “support radical geographers holding regionally based events (including conferences, workshops, seminar series, summer schools and action research meetings) which further radical analyses of geographical issues and engender … Continue reading

Posted in Work Hack | Comments Off on Antipode’s Regional Workshop Awards

Off-Shore Data Havens?

What’s flat, has two legs, and is capable of stirring international intrigue on the high seas? If you’re thinking “unmanned wave-powered ocean robots,” then you’re close, but (sadly) wrong. No, I’m thinking of the 120-foot by 50-foot platform seven miles … Continue reading

Posted in Illegality, Law, Nation/Nationalism, Networks, Pirates, Science & Tech., Sovereignty, Territory, The Sea, The State | 2 Comments

1000 Pesos and Fidel Castro

I couldn’t pass this up. It turns out that the artist commissioned to design Colombia’s 1,000-peso bill slyly included a portrait of a young Fidel Castro in the background of the bill. It took eight years for anyone to notice … Continue reading

Posted in Art, Maps, Nation/Nationalism, Spatiality | 1 Comment

Speaking of Territory…

Stuart Elden just announced final approval of his book, The Birth of Territory, to be published in 2013 by the University of Chicago Press. We’ve admired this work—the royal “we,” of course—from afar and eagerly await its fetished form in our … Continue reading

Posted in Territory | 2 Comments

Territory and Autogestion

Marina Sitrin, who was part of the original #Occupy foco in Zuccotti Park, wrote a brief essay on “Horizontalism and Territory” drawing from her long-standing engagement with Latin American social movements, particularly those that gained force amid Argentina’s 2001 crash. … Continue reading

Posted in #Occupy, Dialectics, Everyday Life, Henri Lefebvre, Spatiality, Territory, The State | 2 Comments

On Academic Blogging

It’s always interesting to read about why people blog. Academic blogs are particular creatures that share similarities with, but are also distinct from, more journalistically oriented blogs. Over at the London School of Economics’ “Impact of Social Science” blog, Patrick … Continue reading

Posted in Critique, Everyday Life, Work Hack | 1 Comment