Brexit and the misunderstanding of sovereignty
While the negotiators haggle over a deal to avoid a new-year car crash, the fundamental problem is the obsolete notion of sovereignty held in London.
The EU is muddling through another crisis—which may be good enough
The divisions exposed by the coronavirus have reopened fundamental questions about the ultimate aims of the EU. But now is not the time to answer them.
Between 1945 and 1989: the rise of ‘illiberal democracy’ in post-Communist Europe
The strength of ‘illiberal democracy’ three decades after the fall of the Berlin wall can only be understood by reference to the prior cold-war trajectories of east and west.
Memory, myth and ‘post-truth’
In the era of ‘post-truth’, history isn’t what it used to be—which makes solving the problems of the present so much more difficult. Collective memory has always been a symbolic political battleground. Historians and politicians have long been aware that shared representations of the past constrain political choices in the present by shaping communal ‘horizons […]
The loss of European memory
A commitment to democracy, human rights and the rule of law was Europe’s answer to fascism. The loss of this European memory presents real dangers amid a resurgent populism. The greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression (1929-1939) has produced a crisis of democratic legitimacy not unlike the one that fuelled the rise of fascism […]
Migration and forgetting in central Europe
Migration and the Crisis of Human Rights The global financial crisis has had a profound effect on European politics. As often happens in such hard times, these events have resulted in an upsurge in tribal, xenophobic instincts. This has been particularly visible in the reaction to the increased flow of migrants to Europe from Africa […]
