After the catastrophic performance of the traffic light coalition, what Germany needs is a strong, unified government able to provide an antidote to the new fascism. Friedrich Merz must begin by rebuilding trust, writes the editor of ‘Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik’.
Articles
Radio waves may travel indefinitely through space, but maintaining a record of live transmissions requires dedicated archival practices. In Portugal, where an outdated legal deposit law only safeguards printed material, even historically important broadcasts are recorded over. Could a new law based on a French model be the answer to libraries saving priceless material from obscurity?
Governments are scrambling to stop the sharp decline in birth rates across the developed world; the pronatalist policies on offer don’t seem to have found a solution. They do, however, disproportionately target women, fuel culture wars and some very gendered propaganda. This is our International Women’s Day edition of the Standard Time talk show.
Mineral rush
Topical: Critical raw materials
Why does peace in Ukraine hang on a ‘mineral deal’ whose handling is more reminiscent of trade than negotiations? Perhaps because the global race for critical raw material mining is well and truly underway, digging for today’s equivalent of gold: raw earth elements and lithium critical for renewables and digital technology but also modern weaponry.
Recommended topics
Pro-Irishness was part of the Democratic-Party-dominated political culture that MAGA despises and whose day is done. Time for Ireland to opt once and for all for Brussels over Boston, argues the co-editor of the Dublin Review of Books.
The fall of the Berlin Wall, and not the human chain across the Baltics, is emblematic of 1989. But what if this show of unity had become iconic of communism’s disintegration? Could acknowledging Eastern Europe’s liberation positively reframe what Russia otherwise perceives as loss since the Soviet Union’s demise?
Under the aegis of the Council of Europe, a ‘core’ group of countries have been moving forward with plans for a tribunal capable of prosecuting the Russian leadership for the crime of international aggression. The US administration’s switch of allegiance now puts these plans at risk, writes Gwara Media.
“Come Together” is founded on the principles of partnership and peer-to-peer learning among individuals within community media organizations situated in six different countries. Instead of generating entirely new knowledge, the initiative aims to unearth and leverage the existing wisdom residing within these organizations to foster innovative approaches.
Eurozine review
Dangerous dreams
New Humanist 139 (2024)
Problematic tech philosophies: How ‘effective altruism’ and ‘longtermism’ have permeated the highest echelons of academia and government; the ethical concerns surrounding brain-computer interfaces; and enduring obsessions with the blood transfusion.
Nationless identity
Glänta 2/2024
On the past, present and future of Kurdistan: rethinking power structures; statelessness in a world of states; and Kurdistan as a war laboratory.
Hidden groundbreakers
L'Homme 1/2024
Localized political shifts have shaped Ukrainian women’s rights over the centuries: the Russian Empire once afforded property rights for aristocratic women in the south; socially active daughters of Greek-Catholic priests founded Galician societies under Habsburg rule; and forced migrants today forge new academic paths.
Focal points
The European Parliament elections on 9 June are a referendum on EU policy since 2019. Will voters give Europe the green light for further progress, or pull the brakes? A new Eurozine series measures the political atmosphere in the EU and its neighbourhoods at this crucial moment.
Food and water systems under pressure: as the end of abundance becomes an everyday experience in Europe, we are thinking more closely about how our food reaches the table.
Post-revolutionary Ukrainian society displays a unique mix of hope, enthusiasm, social creativity, collective trauma of war, radicalism and disillusionment. With the Maidan becoming history, the focal point ‘Ukraine in European Dialogue’ explores the new challenges facing the young democracy, its place in Europe, and the lessons it might offer for the future of the European project.
Some observers, recalling the disasters of the 1920s and 30s, are suggesting that an anti-democratic counterrevolution on a global scale has begun. But is the writing really on the wall? Or does declinism prevent us from recognizing moments of democratic renewal?
Eurozine Network
Eurozine monitors upcoming funding opportunities on the international level relevant to cultural journalists, such as translation funds, mobility grants and project funding.