Different People

After fleeing war-ravaged Kharkiv, many have found refuge and hospitality in Poltava. How does it feel to be an internally displaced person in one’s own city of birth?

The displaced can be recognized by their backpacks and the plastic bags they’re carrying, filled with humanitarian aid. Also, by their rapid pace. The displaced move fast: from explosion to explosion. ...

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Different People

When Fascism Is Female

In Europe, right-wing feminism is on the rise—and nationalist women are taking power

This fascist “fire” that Meloni references and kindles is burning throughout Europe, and she is not alone in tending to its flames....

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When Fascism Is Female

Disqualifying Instability

On the selective application of rule of law principles

It’s not that difficult Particularly politicians from Hungary and Poland oppose the conditionality mechanism, arguing that the concept of the rule of law is too vague and has no basis in the treaties. However, it is not true that this mechanism has no treaty basis. It has a basis in Article 322 of the ...
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Disqualifying Instability

Mini-Trumps in the Wilderness

Trump’s loss of the presidency in 2020 may spell disaster for his fellow populists in Eastern Europe

Joe Biden’s election as president of the United States has seriously weakened authoritarian and populist governments around the world. For independent global powers like Russia, Brazil, and Turkey, Donald Trump’s departure need not amount to a complete tragedy. But for the current governments of Poland, Hungary, and Serbia -- and ...
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Mini-Trumps in the Wilderness

A Year of Boris Johnson

Only a handful of people would be mad enough to covet being prime minister at this particular point in British history, and one of them now inhabits Downing Street

Thursday saw the United Kingdom pass an important milestone: one year of life under the leadership of Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson. What was supposed to be a fascinating year of unpredictable political events has been rendered utterly dystopian through the COVID-19 crisis. Still, it’s worth looking back on what ...
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A Year of Boris Johnson

We Won’t Have a Truly Global Economy Until We Start Taxing It That Way

Reconstructing our tax system is an integral part of future national industrial policy as we restart the economy

Taxation is one of those areas that exposes the contradictions at the heart of globalization. Globalization of goods has proceeded quickly, as has the harmonization of industrial standards across countries. Harmonization of taxation? Not so easy. The power to tax is the ultimate national prerogative, one that very few sovereign nations would ...
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We Won’t Have a Truly Global Economy Until We Start Taxing It That Way

The Corbyn Mirage

With little leadership experience, Labour’s leader consistently failed to deliver

Labour’s election campaign was an evisceration, handing the Tories an 80 seat majority in the House of Commons and, with no opposition ever having overcome such a deficit in a single electoral cycle, a presumptive decade in power. The party’s heartlands in the North of England were smashed by the Conservatives and ...
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The Corbyn Mirage

The New Prime Minister Versus History

How Boris Johnson misrepresented the United Kingdom’s past to present himself as its political heir

What do Johnson’s methods of storytelling and the content of his tales tell us about the man and the prospects for his premiership? To many on this side of the Atlantic, he is simply an enigmatic buffoon — little more than a jumped up Trump mini-me with a plummier accent. ...
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Hungary: How Liberty Can Be Lost

Tyrannies always collapse, but whether Hungarians will escape with their sanity and sufficient clarity for a new start remains to be seen

As the Bible (Exodus) teaches and, more recently, Hannah Arendt warns, liberation is not yet liberty. The institutions of liberty must first be constituted, and people need to learn how to make them work while breathing spirit into them. The years 1989–1991 were a time of liberation for all the people ...
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A Ray of Hope

Romania’s Results in the EU Elections

In the case I know best, Romania, the elections demonstrated a sustained and even rising commitment to the principles of rule of law, the EU as a democratic institution, and trust in the possibility of launching new political parties. It is a case worthy of attention because it offers hope ...
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