What is NATO for?
Since the end of the cold war, NATO has struggled to find a role. It can find it in a focus on human security.
Politics
Social Europe is an award-winning digital media publisher driven by the core values of freedom, sustainability, and equality. These principles guide our exploration of society’s most pressing challenges. This archive page curates Social Europe articles focused on political issues, offering a rich resource for innovative thinking and informed debate.
Defending democratic values
The cement for a new transatlantic relationship should be a common commitment to democracy in a world of rising authoritarian challenges.
Democracy, activism and the rule of law—key weapons against fascism
Fascism is not just sepia images of yesteryear but a contemporary threat. A liberal-left alliance is needed to counter it.
Strategies for a world without right-wing populism and nationalism
The radical right has been setting the agenda in terms of identity and security. Social democrats need to recapture it and redefine Europe.
Threats to American democracy
Sheri Berman warns that while the threats may seem incremental they pose a real danger—which Europeans should note.
Taxing global rent-seeking to spur a just recovery
The world must engage with Joe Biden’s proposal for a minimum corporate-tax rate.
Should governments worry about general strikes?
Unions can weaken public support for governments they oppose through general strikes—but not if the government is of the right.
Belarus: toughness towards the regime, solidarity with the people
Alongside working to confront Lukashenka, the EU should offer respite to those threatened by his dictatorship.
Double standards on Palestine will come back to haunt the EU
The EU needs to engage in a paradigm shift on the Israel-Palestine conflict if it is not to be left behind by events.
Catalonia: time for a gesture?
Spain’s Supreme Court has put Pedro Sánchez between a rock and a hard place.
Recognising people on the move
Europe cannot continue to treat those who arrive on its margins—as in Ceuta—as mere flotsam and jetsam to be repelled.
Europe failing its solidarity test
By blocking Covid-19 vaccine patent waivers, the EU is damaging its reputation and holding the world back.
Hard Labour
Labour’s electoral debacle, Paul Mason writes, epitomises European social democracy’s coalition-building challenge. It just doesn’t see it that way.
Next steps for a people’s vaccine
Ending the pandemic requires not only an intellectual-property rights waiver but scaling up knowledge transfer and public production of vaccine supplies.
Decentralising and democratising while reforming European economic governance
The Conference on the Future of Europe needs to address how EU governance can be refitted to end the crisis of legitimacy.
Covid-19 in India—profits before people
Jayati Ghosh explains why more than a third of a million Covid-19 cases are being reported in India daily—and what that says about our world.
Erdoğan is feeling the heat
Growing economic pains and a more united opposition threaten the Turkish president's grip. His regime resorts to ever more repression.