Articles

Whatever happens on 8 November, one thing is certain: the large bloc of disaffected voters represented by Donald Trump will not go away. His popularity reveals the fragility and entrenchment of the American democratic system, writes George Blecher.

Four thousand people are fleeing conflict in eastern Ukraine and Crimea, which has been annexed by Russia, towards other parts of the country. They are scraping by on next to nothing in Kyiv and other cities in the hope that the war will come to an end.

The new Cold War is a dead end in the labyrinth of world history, writes Achim Engelberg. It cannot resolve current contradictions in Russia, Ukraine or elsewhere. So what are the alternatives for upholding democracy, an independent Ukraine and peace in Europe?

Thousands of Ukrainians tired of corruption, insecurity and lack of opportunities took to the streets during the Revolution of Dignity in 2014. That same year, Putin invaded the east and annexed the Crimean peninsula. Activists and reformists today try to keep the spirit of the Maidan, but face an ultraconservative political class and the threat of open warfare with Russia.

In the latest of his Battle Dispatches from the electoral front, George Blecher visits the heartlands of the Trump vote in the swing states of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and in an at times oddly moving piece, begins to get to the heart of The Donald’s appeal.

A ‘pragmatic’ tendency towards human rights among intergovernmental organisations leads to new and harsher repressions by dictatorial regimes, writes Belarusian activist and former political prisoner Andrei Sannikov. The fate of political prisoners depends directly on international attention, solidarity and action.

A supposed dichotomy between Islam and Europe means that, despite the historical presence of Muslims in Europe, representations of European cultural heritage largely exclude Islam. Multiculturalist avowals notwithstanding, European museums reproduce the orientalist premises of the nineteenth century, argues curator Klas Grinell.

Environmental protests in Russia combine rule of law arguments with cultural and moral dimensions. Jane Costlow traces the hidden history of environmentalism in Russia and looks at one contemporary example: the Dubki park protests in Moscow.

Ten years after the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, investigative journalism in Russia continues to be made impossible by the state. Having taken control of traditional media, the authorities are targeting the enclaves of free speech that have developed online, writes Andrey Arkhangelsky.

In his latest dispatch from the frontline of the US election campaign, George Blecher watches as the candidates unearth the dirt in each other’s pasts. Policy he asks, what’s that? Forget it.

Deprived of its normative core and disappointed in its hopes for universal justice, contemporary liberalism is mute in the face of current conflicts and crises. Regina Kreide seeks reasons for liberal theory’s loss of relevance in today’s violent, chaotic and radically unequal world.

The success of Germany’s anti-immigrant party signals a mood-swing in public debate on the refugee crisis. The solidarity expressed by Angela Merkel’s ‘We can manage’ has given way to something much less generous, writes Daniel Leisegang.

This is an attempt to give a portrait of Ukrainian youth, with all the limitations implied when one sets out to analyse something that is living, heterogeneous and in a state of continuous transformation. More than two years after the revolution of the Euromaidan, what are the main goals of the new generations? And what are their aspirations?

Fidesz’s constitutional counter-revolution has reversed the process of democratization begun in Hungary in 1989. Seeking reasons for Hungary’s ‘backsliding’, Gábor Halmai argues that democratic culture is more crucial than formal legality to guaranteeing rule of law. Hungary challenges the EU’s ability to prevent illiberal democracies emerging in its midst.