Emil Brix

Austrian historian and diplomat, is Director General for Cultural Politics at the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is Secretary General of the Austrian Research Institute; Vice Chairman of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe; and head of the research group “Civil Society in Austria”. He has published numerous books and articles on Austrian and European History.

Articles

Europe revisited

Neighbourly conflict and the return of history

Post 1989 and subsequent EU enlargement, an absence of emotional bonds holding together European societies has resulted in a revival of traditions of cultural difference, writes Austrian diplomat and historian Emil Brix. Europe has experienced not the end of history, but the end of the tacit postwar agreement not to talk about history. These developments are strenghtened by the way Europe deals with growing migrant populations, whose exlusion is cemented by a multiculturalist discourse of “tolerance” and “dialogue”. To overcome cutural conflict, neighbourly borders must be seen as opportunities for integration and not for rupture.