...plete with “facts” showing how Turkish immigrants are destroying the fabric of German society and “statistics” proving their intellectual inferiority, is just one striking example of a phenomenon that has swept across Western Europe: the spectacular resurgence of nativism. Sarrazin paints a picture of a Germany fighting to preserve a grand national heritage against a modern-day Ottoman invasion of barbarian infidels. He is not alone. Europe, the...
For the last three years, Europe has been on the edge. Time and time again, the collapse of the euro has seemed alarmingly close. However, European politicians have been able to muddle through, coming up with half- baked solutions to buy time. Meanwhile, the suffering endured by the people of Spain, Greece, Italy and Portugal has been immense – on a scale comparable to the Great Depression. The youth has been the hardest hit; consequently, we ar...
2012 was meant to be the year of reckoning for the eurozone. The Spanish banking system lay in tatters, the long-term interest rate on Italian debt was unsustainable, and the prospect of a Greek exit seemed frightengly plausible. Yet the doomsayers, of whom there were many, have had to think again as the euro is still completely intact, mainly due to Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank. In July 2012, he remarked that he would do...
by Mikhail Klimentov Out of the exponential growth of the European extreme right has emerged a new archetype – the intractable and furious Islamophobe. The Islamophobe cares about one issue only: immigration. Afraid of economic competition and cultural dilution, the Islamophobe reacts with violence, hatred, and bigotry. In the press this individual becomes “anti-immigrant,” “anti-Muslim,” a “right-wing racist,” or merely someone who is “scared”...
With the fervor of the #occupy protests that swept most of the continent over the past months, Europe now finds herself awash in grassroots discontent over the planned ratification and enforcement of the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Having already been signed by both the European Union and an overwhelming majority of its member states, the document would establish a supranational organization, much like the European Union itself (...
...unt for 56.4 percent of the world’s population, Obama is favored to Romney by an average of 5:1 (or 50 percent to 9 percent). Another poll, by the firm Angus Reid, reveals that the President’s approval rating is 71 percent in Europe and that Britons prefer Obama to Romney by a 10:1 ratio. In terms of outright numbers, France is the most strongly pro-Obama, with 72 percent wanting his re-election versus 2 percent favoring a president Romney. Anoth...
photo from Wikimedia Commons Every week I scroll through the news and keep an eye out for interesting articles pertaining to Europe so that I’ll have something to scribble about when my CPR deadline rolls around. This week, however, what caught my eye was not any article in particular but rather a gaping and comical discrepancy between two New York Times pieces covering America and Europe, respectively. People often discuss the different mental...
...ar is a rather selfish enterprise; it is often a calculated act of domestic policy and, maybe most importantly, history matters. WikiCommons Let us start with Henry Kissinger’s famous joke “Who do I call if I want to contact Europe?” In no other policy field is this question as salient as in foreign policy. The Lisbon Treaty of 2009 was supposed to be the answer to this question: the position of “High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affa...
...’s financial crisis as a free ride to fish for votes through xenophobic discourse really deserve that honor. The fact is, however, that the vague and often confusing entity floating (seemingly pointlessly) over our heads, the European Union, does deserve to be singled out as one of institutions that have best contributed to peace and the building of democracy in the world. Thus, if the Nobel Peace Prize is to be considered a legitimate award (and...
Disturbing trends are cropping up in Europe. Far-right political parties are now joining government coalitions, which is leading to an improvement in the radical right’s electoral success in traditionally open societies – even in the Netherlands and Denmark. With rising xenophobia toward the large number of Muslim immigrants in Europe, immigration policies are more stringent than ever before. And it’s plausible that Marine Le Pen, the le...
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