Recent political and economic developments in Turkey have been worrying for Western governments for some time. However, busy with their own political crises, governments have been either slow or reluctant to react to these developments effectively. Having a predominantly Muslim population with a leadership potential in the Middle East as a whole, or maybe even […]
Politics
Social Europe posts on political issues.
Meeting The Migration Challenge And Reforming Capitalism Through Mutual Solidarity
How would you characterise the migration issue today? How has it become such a hot topic, and how do you think it’s likely to develop in the future? At the moment, obviously, public policy on migration and refugees is a complete mess. It’s a broken system. In fact, it doesn’t really deserve the word ‘system’. […]
A European Super-PAC To Take On Bannon’s Illiberal Shock Troops
The 2019 elections for the European Parliament boil down to a war between supporters of EU integration, multilateralism and liberal values, and those who aim at a Europe of illiberal polities, often coupled with state capitalism and ethno-nationalism. In both camps, initiatives are mushrooming. Both sides have political champions and corresponding visions: French President Emmanuel […]
Brexit Is Dying. Time For A People’s Vote
Brexit will achieve what several dark and diminutive characters from history have tried, and failed, to do: draw Great Britain into the throes of grim continental vassalage. With Brexit, the EU will (inadvertently) effect by negotiation what Spain, France, and Germany have all been unable to realise through conquest. Sovereignty will be stripped away, and […]
Trump And Brexit
As Trump makes clear, the UK can choose US rules or EU rules. Brexit is about having no say in either. Of course every Leave voter is an individual with his or her own motives. But if you had to broadly characterise the two big issues that gave the Leave side victory in 2016, it […]
Horizon Europe: UK’s Research Imperative
It is both ironic and depressing that the growing muddle and fudge around the UK’s strategy for a post-Brexit future should coincide with the release of the European Commission’s exciting proposals for the next phase of EU development, particularly for Erasmus and Horizon Europe (the research framework programme re-titled) for the period 2021-2027. By 2020 […]
Breaking The Populism ‘Doom Loop’
According to many commentators, we are now in a crisis of democracy – or rather, ‘liberal democracy’ as Cas Mudde persuasively argues. The time has long since passed where the increasing vote share of populist parties could be regarded as a ‘canary in the coalmine’ for democracies. They are now running governments around the world. Given that populists are […]
The European Union’s Dublin Conundrum
Tensions over immigration continue to dominate European politics. In Italy, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, a populist firebrand, is monopolizing the public’s attention with almost daily outbursts against immigrants. Likewise, Salvini’s German counterpart, Horst Seehofer, created a crisis in the governing coalition in order to secure new measures against asylum seekers trying to enter Germany from […]
Illegality And Italy’s New Government
One trait that distinguishes Italy from her Western peers is the gravity and coexistence of corruption, tax evasion, and organised crime. One encouraging trait of the new governing coalition, among many concerning ones, is its pledge to fight those criminal phenomena. But one member of it, the League, was often involved in corruption scandals, has […]
Unhinge Europe From America!
After several months massaging Canadians, then US President Barack Obama announced his decision on the Keystone XL pipeline: “America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change. And frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership.” Following failure by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others, […]
The “New Soft” Brexit
After the recent developments, and especially the UK Government’s “Chequers Statement”, a new reality has dawned regarding the outcome of Brexit: there will either be a ‘cliff-edge’ scenario – UK crashing out in 2019 without any deal – or a “3rd country-regime-with-some-but-not-even-remotely-the-same-as-before-advantages”, which we might call ‘soft(er) Brexit’. Thus understood, ‘soft(er)’ Brexit has taken the […]
Overcoming Crisis Of Globalisation: Rebuild Politics, Rethink International Cooperation
Recently there’s been a lot of talk about globalisation being pushed back. How would you characterise the situation? I think there was always a deal that permitted globalisation to go ahead. If you think about the 1950s and ‘60s, governments promised their citizens that they would open up the borders but they would protect their […]
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