Our weekly English-language bulletin featuring our pick from European print and one of our top articles from our weekly Přítomnost.
A pluralist mainstream requires a flourishing media ecosystem outside it. The mainstream has important democratic roles, but catalysing change is not one of them. By the time reports of the …
Interview between Martin Ulč and the Czech historian and anthropologist Professor Ivo Budil, on the “Old World” versus new geopolitical constellations.
How Slavenka Drakulić made space for women’s issues in Yugoslavia
When I think about the near future of Europe, I’m at a loss. My thoughts run between a dynamic and at the same time crumbling Europe, a fully integrating Europe …
Coup attempt or assertion of supremacy? It is still not clear what has happened in Kazakhstan. Whatever the case, the hijacking of the demonstrations has severely damaged prospects for the …
The World Health Organization (WHO) is once again pointing to global inequalities in vaccine redistribution. Specifically, the WHO criticized widespread third-dose booster programs, introduced at a time when the poorer …
Almost two years after the onset of the pandemic, young people in Europe are reflecting on the impact it has had on their lives and questioning what it will mean …
The findings of the recent inquiry into paedophilia in the French Catholic Church exceeded the worst expectations. But despite the shock and anger among Catholics and the wider public, the …
Asking historians to dig deep into bluntly ahistorical political claims is like sending a scuba-diving team into a bathtub. But beyond fact-checking obviously false claims, of what use can professional …
For many, place of birth is an identity keystone. That first point of arrival seems assured, an irrefutable fact. But there are those made to feel foreign in their home …
The structure of pseudoscientific revolutions Scientific pundits fear that the spread of anti-science will destroy western civilization, while covid-sceptics panic about a lurking dictatorship in which freedoms are sacrificed to …
Just before Christmas 2021, Russia presented NATO and Washington with a list of harsh and provocative demands. Their acceptance would be tantamount to loss of sovereignty and agency of Eastern …
US President Biden’s announcement that the United States will diplomatically boycott the Winter Olympics in China based on China’s human rights record is no real surprise. French President Macron has …
On a recent weekend, about 2,500 vaccine opponents gathered on the Letná plain in Prague to protest the current Covid restrictions. There were also the usual stands of several parties …
For three decades, Memorial has delivered the facts that have enabled Russians to seek the truth about the Soviet past. Without its research, international accounts of the GULAG would …
Osteuropa focuses on the ‘key country’ of the Czech Republic: with articles on the state of democracy and the transformation of the party system as mirror of wider processes. …
Unlike a historical dispute or ideological debate, the ‘politics of morality’ is primarily about power, a concept with American origins, now playing out in Europe. But what lies even further …
Italy’s enthusiasm for Chinese investment has recently cooled, as transatlanticism, security risks and domestic resentment become decisive factors. The Italian change of heart is shared by the EU, which is …
The idea of Europe – and its consequences The myth of European exceptionalism no longer holds: the continent’s boundaries are arbitrary, its heritage mixed and controversial, and unfit for a …