The Desert of the Real
Originally Published by Visegrad Insight By Benjamin Cunningham Though it almost never seems that way, Europeans actually feel quite good about the European Union. There were only two member states (Cyprus and Austria) where a plurality of people had a…
Prague, Capital of the Twentieth Century: A Surrealist History
By Lenka Bydžovská The sociologist and cultural historian Derek Sayer’s books on Czech history and art are characterized by their wittingly provocative titles, which refer to classic works. Sayer borrows the title The Coasts of Bohemia: A Czech History (1998)…
Prejudice, Hysteria and a Failure of Political Leadership: Of Refugees and November 17 in Prague
by Derek Sayer American politicians’ xenophobic attitudes to refugees generate international controversy, while similar sentiments expressed by politicians in Prague pass largely unnoticed. Professor Derek Sayer argues that we should not ignore events in the Czech capital as, despite the efforts…
When One Religious Extremism Unmasks Another
Johan van der Walt The resort to states of emergency in response to Islamic extremism reveals Europe’s own Ordo-Liberal extremism. Philosopher and legal theorist Professor Johan van der Walt argues that this form of governance, based on fundamentalist market moralism,…
Sascha Engel on “Germany”, Asset Class Contagion, and Contagious Stability”
This paper reverses the order in which the Eurozone crisis is usually examined. Rather than a crisis of sovereign debt, caused by profligate peripheral governments and rectified by virtuous thrifty Germans, Latvians and Finns, I argue that the origin of…
Despite the Paris Attacks, Europe’s Refugee Crisis is an Opportunity to Confront the Past
By Rachel Epstein The plight of refugees arriving in Europe has been grim, and it could get grimmer if Europeans interpret the attacks on Paris as having resulted from the European Union’s asylum policies. Refugees have been exposed to the…
Disappearing Yerevan
This guest post was written by David Rypel. Even though Yerevan is said to be 29 years older than Rome, it is difficult to find any parts of the old city that predate modern constructions. There are, of course, some…
New Perspectives – First Issue Out Now!
New Perspectives: Interdisciplinary Journal of Central & East European Politics and International Relations I am delighted to present this first issue of New Perspectives here on our blog – our subscribers have access to the full contents of the journal, which…
‘Nothing is imposed in this policy!’: From the European Neighbourhood to Greece
By Ondřej Horký-Hlucháň with Petr Kratochvíl, Institute of International Relations, Prague The European Union recently imposed harsh reforms on the Greek government, parliament and people. While the European leaders openly preferred to maintain the burden of an unsustainable debt over…
Nanovo: From the Cosy Dens of Another Time
‘Who could possibly want such things?” Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Tallis’ latest piece for Torn Curtain looks at communist era domestic design and the politics of material memory in the Czech Republic. Focusing on the Nanovo furniture company, which rescues and restores…
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