debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
A couple of years ago I wrote a report on the Polish elections of 2005. With characters and parties such as the (since then fortunately marginalised) extremist political loony Andrzej Lepper, the racist and homophobic League of Polish Families, and the populist Kaczynski twins taking over government, I mused in a private message how such [...]
Success stories in what it calls the neighbourhood have been hard to come by for European Union. Over the last few years Georgia, then Ukraine, and most recently Moldova have all been the big EU hope – but in each case those hopes were dashed by prompt a worsening of the situation on the ground. [...]
The greatest story the EU has to tell is, without a doubt, its enlargement process. By offering the prospect of membership to all European countries that meet its basic entry criteria, it has driven economic and political reform throughout the continent. Enlargement has delivered peace, stability and prosperity to the region despite potentially dangerous and [...]
Turkey’s “no” last month (a vote cast together with Brazil) to the new sanctions against Iran approved in the United Nations Security Council dramatically reveals the full extent of the country’s estrangement from the West. Are we, as many commentators have argued, witnessing the consequences of the so-called “neo-Ottoman” foreign policy of Turkey’s Justice and [...]
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