Category: Central/Eastern Europe

Ukrainians want success stories, not reform façade

     

On the anniversary of Ukraine’s Maidan protests on Monday, Russia’s REN TV aired a documentary produced by American film director Oliver Stone entitled “Ukraine on Fire,” Deutsche Welle reports: Nina… Read more »

The Crisis of Postnationalism

     

Nationalism paired with democracy makes for a difficult marriage, but any prospect of divorce is wishful thinking, according to a leading scholar. Like religion, nationalism was supposed to wither away… Read more »

Broken Embraces: Central Europe Falling Out of Love with the West?

     

A confluence of events and decisions involving American leadership over the past decade has weakened the US role in Europe and its perception by transatlantic partners abroad, according to Senior… Read more »

Europe’s populist threat: reframing the debate

     

‘Populism’ is often used in such a broad, catch-all fashion that it makes for extremely imprecise analysis and policy prescription, according to Richard Youngs, a Senior Associate with the Carnegie… Read more »

How to address the crisis of democracy

     

Democracy today is facing greater challenges than at any time since the fall of communism a quarter of a century ago; greater than at any time, in fact, since the… Read more »

Why Ukraine is losing the war on kleptocracy

     

Few politicians in the world have had to undergo the same experience twice in their career and in different countries, notes Mikheil Saakashvili, the president of Georgia from 2004 to… Read more »

Democracy ‘still the most effective form of government ever devised’

     

U.S. President Barack Obama warned today against a rise in nationalism and populism – from both Left and Right – noting that a backlash against globalization had stoked illiberal movements…. Read more »

Facing up to authoritarian influence-peddling

     

For 25 years, open societies saw themselves as the uncontested winners and expected that the remaining autocracies, with the help of western pro-democracy actors, would be relegated to the dustbin… Read more »

Pro-Russian candidates win elections in Bulgaria and Moldova

     

Voters in Bulgaria and Moldova elected pro-Russian populist presidents on the weekend, adding to mounting concern about Western unity,The Daily Telegraph reports. Bulgarian Socialist ally Rumen Radev, a Russia-friendly newcomer… Read more »