This year’s Venice Biennale proudly features a Roma Pavilion. But Roma people are still often underrepresented. Romania’s recent population census was an opportunity for minorities to acknowledge their identity, and …
Our weekly English-language bulletin featuring our pick from European print and one of our top articles from our weekly Přítomnost.
Russia is economically on its knees. Really.
Not only by pro-Russian trolls and useful idiots, but by many people who “mean well”, we have been fed for some time now with the claim that the sanctions applied …
Strategies of unimaginable crime
While Zelensky calls for Ukrainian civilians to flee eastern Donetsk, under ongoing attack from Russia’s military, Putin maintains that his forces are liberating the region. Propaganda that turns conflict into …
The arc of world war memories
War memorials and faded names on plaques have lost their power to remind us of battlefield realities in the past. We need new ways to make us remember, force us …
Restoring masculinity
Today’s world once again demands strength and the ability to defend oneself. But these manly virtues have almost disappeared from the lives of boys and men. Modern men should be …
Guilt and repentance in Berlin
Hans-Hermann Tiedje, former advisor to Helmut Kohl, has entered the debate about German culpability in the current war in Ukraine. It is the biggest mistake in the history of the …
When self care is guilty pleasure
Testimonies of women in war Who can focus on interior design after the massacres of Mariupol, Borodyanka and Bucha? Ukrainian women tell how their relationships with self-care, beauty and consumerism were …
Migrant women staying behind
Out of cities and work, India´s working women struggle to rebuild their lives. Millions of internal migrants were sent back to their homes across India since the first coronavirus lockdowns. …
When vegetarians get a craving for meat
The war in Ukraine is strengthening Europe’s internal constitutionalism. It redefines the East-West divide and replaces the conventional Cold War narrative with one of decolonization. In 1995, American anthropologist Clifford …
Russia and China – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Russia and China are working together to limit US influence. They claim that real democracy is in their countries, not in the US. The former regards Ukraine as its errant …
No empire without end
Putin’s Ukraine war is drawing a curtain on ‘Pax Rossica’, the notion that Russia can dominate the post-Soviet Eurasian landmass. The Kremlin’s strategy has changed since it failed to gain …
The disintegration of America and the American Ideal
The news in America is full of the recent ruling by the Supreme Court, which in a landmark decision, overturned the 50-year-old right of women to have an abortion. The …
How fetal politics stole Americans’ reproductive rights
The US Supreme Court has overturned two landmark cases that protected a woman’s rights over her own body for 50 years. How did ‘fetal politics’ — a political movement that …
Fighting fatigue
The unspoken aspect of war It’s easy to get exhausted soon after startling news breaks. But dealing with a limited attention span is only one side of the tiredness that …
Reflections of the Russian Empire
The generation of late baby boomers to which I belong is unlikely to see normalized relations or even friendly relations with Russia. This is not a step into the unknown …
Second return to Europe
The second Czech presidency of the European Union will be little burdened by the memory of the inglorious end of the first attempt, when we finally sweetened the deal for …
Making sense of the war
As the shock of war gives way to reflection, Ukrainian public discourse has turned to questions of the past, present and future: When did Russia’s war on Ukraine start? What …
Metaverse wars
War becomes the twin of communication: the development of media has not only changed how warfare is reported, but also how it’s fought. The working rule of the warriors is …
Betrayal of the Conservatives or Democracy in Peril
In the beginning was (…) Adenauer. So might begin a “scripture” on the history of the early Federal Republic. After 1949, the first Federal Chancellor, whom no one knows today, …