If the patrolling of borders unites European peoples more solidly than European “universal values”, what hope for the European Union? Nadia Urbinati argues that issues raised by the coming European elections go to the very heart of the pact that defined the post-war democratic rebirth.
A common currency should remain a central component of international co-operation and redistribution, argues Chris Hann. But European debates on the compatibility of capitalism and democracy must be radically reframed if the currency, and the structures underpinning it, are to succeed.
We can dream of a cosmopolitan Europe. But to realize the dream, writes Obrad Savic, we must have the conviction to share the same history, the same past and the same future with “others”, outside of Europe. An argument for transforming the people of Europe into a European world people.
What exactly were the implications of World War I for the gender hierarchy of the western world? Gaby Zipfel argues for frank, not to mention long overdue, discussion of when and how women and men encounter one other in war.
German dominance of the European Union’s upper echelons has never been greater, writes Eric Bonse. All EU actors are, for now, the pawns of a “German Europe” that is stronger, and yet more vulnerable, than ever before.
In 1969, some 600 million viewers around the world watched the first manned moon landing on television. But game shows, talk shows and reality TV became the enduring TV forms. Judy Radul takes another look at domestic scenes bathed in television’s lunar glow.
The emergence of new private, transnational Arab TV channels in the 1990s raised hopes that, having shrugged off state control, Arab media would provide the kind of coverage that critical issues in Arab nations deserved. Ouidyane Elouardaoui investigates what went wrong.
The history of Ukraine has revealed the turning points in the history of Europe. On 25 May both Ukrainians and EU citizens can decide which way things will turn this time. Ukraine has no future without Europe, but Europe also has no future without Ukraine.
In an article first published shortly before Viktor Orbán won his second term in office and Jobbik support soared in the April elections, János Széky outlines the historical roots of Hungarian nationalism and how the cult of national unity came to be written into the 2011 constitution.
Rejecting the classical liberal defences of free speech, Eric Heinze insists that the strongest case for free speech is grounded on specifically democratic principles. And that hate speech bans can never claim a legitimate role in fully fledged democracies.
In an interview conducted before Euromaidan commenced, Don Kalb discusses the future of capitalism in eastern Europe. Given the rise of China and India, and economic stagnation in the West, Kalb emphasizes the importance of political mobilization in both Ukraine and Russia.
Today’s media, combined with the latest portable devices, have pushed serious public discourse into the background and hauled triviality to the fore, according to media theorist Arthur W Hunt. And the Jeffersonian notion of citizenship has given way to modern consumership.
Three months of Maidan have led to the victory of a spontaneous micro-economy over macro-corruption, writes Nataliya Tchermalykh. That is, the victory of an economy based on grassroots collaboration and policy, as a prerequisite for everyday life.
Even if a humane and just society is just a dream, it is not one that humanity can afford to give up on. Of this much Walter Famler, editor-in-chief of Wespennest, remains convinced. A portrait in prose by former Host editor Marek Seckar.
Jonathan Bousfield talks to three award-winning novelists who spent their formative years in a Central Europe that Milan Kundera once described as the kidnapped West. It transpires that small nations may still be the bearers of important truths.
Steffen Kverneland describes how the medium of the comic book opens up new approaches to biographies of artists. And how, in his graphic biography of Edward Munch, he lets a little light and air and humour liven up the sad, slightly dull atmosphere that tends to surround the painter.