Note: This piece was written between October-November 2025. Politics are constantly evolving, and so there may have been multiple developments by the time of publication. Most notably, Andrej Babiš was sworn in as Czechia’s prime minister on Decem...
When the Wagner Group’s combatants advanced on Moscow in June 2023 in an attempted coup d’etat, their abortive mutiny offered a rare glimpse into what happens when a private military company (PMC) grows powerful enough to challenge the state. But...
What can you achieve in 8 minutes? You can hard-boil an egg. You can listen to 80 percent of Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well” (10-minute version). Or, you can walk from the SciLi to Andrews Hall. In Paris, a team of three masked thieves heisted th...
In his recent column on the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands dispute between China and Japan, Carter Johnson raises several interesting points. I agree with most of them, and after reading the article I found myself thinking on a historical analogy of the conf...
In his recent column on the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands dispute between China and Japan, Carter Johnson raises several interesting points. I agree with most of them, and after reading the article I found myself thinking on a historical analogy of the conf...
Last week I missed an important reason why Spain is in a state of absolute disarray. This of course is the growing strength of independence movements, both in the Basque Country (Euskadi) and Catalonia –which may have crossed the Rubicon in its dec...
Last week I missed an important reason why Spain is in a state of absolute disarray. This of course is the growing strength of independence movements, both in the Basque Country (Euskadi) and Catalonia –which may have crossed the Rubicon in its dec...
There are cultural moments when I switch into impartial observer, not the usual crazy-eyed denizen, of the blogosphere left. Say, perhaps, when the Commentariat explodes with excitement curiosity regarding whether a Pope might imminently be thrown ...
There are cultural moments when I switch into impartial observer, not the usual crazy-eyed denizen, of the blogosphere left. Say, perhaps, when the Commentariat explodes with excitement curiosity regarding whether a Pope might imminently be thrown ...
In reading the New York Times yesterday, it struck me that following the news about Syria is becoming almost unbearably frustrating. More and more are dying, and there still doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. Instead, we are treated to an endl...
In reading the New York Times yesterday, it struck me that following the news about Syria is becoming almost unbearably frustrating. More and more are dying, and there still doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. Instead, we are treated to an endl...
There is a famous Spanish saying, éramos muchos y parió la abuela –we were too many, and then grandma had a baby. In military jargon this is summarized as a clusterfuck: a situation in which everything, everywhere, falls apart at the same time. A...
There is a famous Spanish saying, éramos muchos y parió la abuela –we were too many, and then grandma had a baby. In military jargon this is summarized as a clusterfuck: a situation in which everything, everywhere, falls apart at the same time. A...
Fears of ‘Grexit’ has yet to wane, but the press is talking about another country’s possible retreat from the EU—Britain. The Economist claims that ‘Brexit’ has become “increasingly possible;” a columnist at Reuters even warns, “Bre...
Fears of ‘Grexit’ has yet to wane, but the press is talking about another country’s possible retreat from the EU—Britain. The Economist claims that ‘Brexit’ has become “increasingly possible;” a columnist at Reuters even warns, “Bre...
New euro Bills are set to enter circulation in May 2013. Instead of the now familiar imaginary architecture, these bills will feature “a hologram and watermark of Europa, the Phoenician noblewoman who gave the continent its name. In Greek myth, she...
New euro Bills are set to enter circulation in May 2013. Instead of the now familiar imaginary architecture, these bills will feature “a hologram and watermark of Europa, the Phoenician noblewoman who gave the continent its name. In Greek myth, she...
I was hoping to stop writing on austerity and switch to nationalism and the extreme right in Europe. However, France’s recognition of the Syrian National Council (SNC) as the sole representative of the Syrian state/people has forced me to take a Mi...
I was hoping to stop writing on austerity and switch to nationalism and the extreme right in Europe. However, France’s recognition of the Syrian National Council (SNC) as the sole representative of the Syrian state/people has forced me to take a Mi...
If Tuesday’s elections represented the triumph of liberalism in the US, no similar trend is to be found in Europe. Far from capitalizing -irony intended- on a crisis brought upon by markets-turned-casinos, the center left in Europe has systematical...
If Tuesday’s elections represented the triumph of liberalism in the US, no similar trend is to be found in Europe. Far from capitalizing -irony intended- on a crisis brought upon by markets-turned-casinos, the center left in Europe has systematical...
In my last eurocrisis rant I argued three changes were necessary for the EU to begin crawling its way out of the hole it has dug itself into. These were viewing debt as an economic instead of a moral problem, considering the situation a political ins...
In my last eurocrisis rant I argued three changes were necessary for the EU to begin crawling its way out of the hole it has dug itself into. These were viewing debt as an economic instead of a moral problem, considering the situation a political ins...
Yesterday, the French government signed a deal to provide Peugeot-Citroën, Europe’s second largest automaker, with €7 billion (or $9 billion) in credit guarantees. This is yet another example of government intervention in industrial sectors stru...
Yesterday, the French government signed a deal to provide Peugeot-Citroën, Europe’s second largest automaker, with €7 billion (or $9 billion) in credit guarantees. This is yet another example of government intervention in industrial sectors stru...
Europe has not experienced a major war in the last six decades. Today a European civil war, with the ensuing international spillover, is simply unthinkable. That we take this for granted is extraordinary, given that for centuries Europeans have been ...
Europe has not experienced a major war in the last six decades. Today a European civil war, with the ensuing international spillover, is simply unthinkable. That we take this for granted is extraordinary, given that for centuries Europeans have been ...