Firstly, you have to talk to your enemy even in the middle of a war, writes Senad Pecanin. Secondly, that dialogue will not be at all easy or pleasant; and thirdly, it is worth trying, since when it does take place, it is almost certain to yield useful results.
The Maidan protests have given Ukraine a chance to stop and look at its future, and plan it the way she wanted to, writes Kateryna Botanova. Now it’s becoming apparent how to make the revolutionary shift from continual fighting, distrust and questioning of legitimacy to mutual support, collaboration and growth.
If the European Union wants to remain relevant in global affairs, it must be active along the new Silk Road, writes Adam Balcer. It must look to a Eurasia that goes beyond Russia and the former Soviet republics, and formulate an eastern policy concerned primarily with China, Turkey and Iran.
New technologies like genome editing raise complex ethical questions that go the heart of debates over so-called “human nature” and evolution. Philosopher of science Tim Lewens considers how the latest innovations affect received notions of what is and what is not natural.
Perhaps the most serious problem with drones is not the state of mind they create in their operators, writes Arne Borge of Vagant (Norway); but that war has given way to never-ending police action, where the police force is no longer subject to common law.
In honour of Adam Zagajewski being awarded the 2016 Jean Améry Prize for European essay writing, Eurozine publishes Zagajewski’s defence of ardour. That is, true ardour, which doesn’t divide but unifies; and leads neither to fanaticism nor to fundamentalism.
As the struggle between democracy and a dream of some kind of return to the past deepens in Europe, Adam Zagajewksi contemplates the passage between ideas and action in the real world, wherein lies the old European – and not only European – wound.
Responding to the appalling violence that the machineries of war and economics unleashed during the twentieth century, Marcel Cohen concurs with Samuel Beckett’s mid-century remark: “To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now”. Based on a speech first delivered in 1998, Cohen’s essay remains hugely relevant today.
Like Yugoslavia, the European Union may well prove a failure in the long run, unless it can prevent the dominance of its most powerful member states. Hence the continuous need to find ways of embracing difference without giving up the cultural tradition in which one was born and raised.
Norwegian literary critic Henning Hagerup grapples with the notion of the uncanny in European language and literature. He also considers how today Marxist thought poses an unheimlich threat to the glorified, ahistorical arrogance of the capitalistic-neoliberal establishment.
The exile’s personal history can be compared to a shadow that he has lost and could never hope to recover, writes Olivier Remaud. Having acknowledged that life in exile tends to dehumanize, both inwardly and outwardly, Remaud explores a rich vein of literature dealing with the topic, from Ovid and Adelbert von Chamisso, to Hannah Arendt and Siegfried Kracauer.
It was Voltaire’s objective to make each individual conscious of their intellectual independence, writes Fernando Savater. Indeed, without Voltaire, it would be impossible to conceive of either modern intellectuals or their enlightened audiences.
In this excerpt from Andrzej Stasiuk’s latest book, one of Poland’s leading writers and critics explores what drove him to realize a lifelong dream, and strike out ever further eastwards, away from his childhood home. As Stasiuk remarks, he always was attracted to places “that lie at the end of the line, spaces from which you can only ever return”.
Just weeks after Ukraine’s parliament voted to remove Viktor Yanukovych from office, the country’s eastern regions descended into a senseless war, marking a grave new low in relations with Russia. Historian Olena Stiazhkina reflects powerfully on how the conflict has compromised Ukraine’s attempts to take its destiny into its own hands.
One almost wonders what Christianity has added to Roman writers’ reflections on old age, writes Andrei Plesu. The answer: a much greater emphasis on transcendence. But how might the dimension of transcendence contribute to a better understanding and use of old age?
As president of the European Council, Polish politician Donald Tusk has been at the centre of one of the most challenging years in the history of the European Union. Since taking office in December 2014, he has faced an economic crisis in Greece, the conflict in Ukraine and growing Russian aggression in the East, and, since last summer, the largest influx of migrants and refugees Europe has faced since World War II. Most recently he has struggled to reach a compromise with the British government to avert the possible withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU.
Born in Gdansk, the heart of the Solidarity movement, and a founder of Poland’s liberal Civic Platform party, Tusk was prime minister of Poland from 2007 to 2014. As president of the European Council, one of his main tasks is to reconcile the competing views of the various EU member states whose leaders – as members of the council – are responsible for the union’s most important decisions. Michal Matlak spoke to him at his office in Brussels.