“Too good to be true”, the Czechoslovak people’s dream of freedom, brought about by liberal reforms of the new 1968 government, came crashing to a dramatic end with the Warsaw Pact invasion of the ČSSR, just half a year after the Prague spring had begun. Though the Soviets’ reaction was forceful, one question remains: was…
Category: Europe
Introduction Adolf Hitler’s “Machtergreifung”[1] on the 30th of January 1933 created the foundation for open anti-Semitic violence, which would eventually pave the way into what became known as the holocaust: the “systematic, state-organized persecution and murder of at least six million Jews … by Nazi-Germany”.[2] Antisemitism was nothing new when the NSDAP[3] gained power in…
“Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person”. Except when they don’t. “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth [in the Declaration of Human Rights], without distinction of any kind” Except when they are refugees. “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity…
Europe’s diplomats and heads of state are playing with an idea that, until a few years ago, seemed almost unthinkable: creating Europe’s very own nuclear force, a “Eurodeterrent” of sorts, with the main aim of becoming less dependent on the US while still being safe from Russia. Europe is in a difficult situation. On the…
With all the headlines of a Catalan independence referendum lately, it is easy to forget that another European nation may be a whole lot closer to independence. Greenland is on the right track for complete independence, so much so that it has become a prime candidate for the position of “next country to become…
Title Image: A protester holds up a copy of the Polish constitution. Image: @DukaKofi via Twitter. Over the last months, Poland’s nationalist ruling party Law and Justice (PiS) has tightened its grip on power through a series of authoritarian laws, placing the country’s media and highest constitutional court under its control. Human Rights organizations, the…
The early 21st century has seen a resurgence in dictatorships and authoritarian governments throughout the world, including regions like Europe previously thought to now be stable democracies. However, models like the Soviet-inspired communist state or “traditional” dictatorships are outdated and will not survive through the 21st century. Instead, a new form of authoritarian regime is…
The European Union can now cut ‘hate-inducing’ live broadcasts and delete sections from their online archive. The Guardian, the 9-million reader newspaper that published Snowden’s revelations on global surveillance, published an article titled ‘is it ethical to punch a Nazi?’ Anti-Trump protesters in Berkeley turned a peaceful demonstration into a riot, burning things and smashing…
Here’s a topic, for a change, that isn’t really new at all but all the more puzzling – Number Stations. Spy stations, or (admittedly less catchy) number stations, are shortwave radio stations operated by intelligence agencies, embassies and militaries around the world, broadcasting strings of seemingly random numbers, at seemingly random times, on seemingly random…
Article by Linus H. Right-wing populism is sweeping through the world, with a president Trump being elected in the United States, the UK being in the process of leaving the European Union, and neo-fascist parties receiving unprecedented numbers of votes in many European countries. But a large part of the younger population, those that will…