Recent Posts

Climate Emergency: Turning Up the Heat

Politicians in Central Europe have so far failed to offer comprehensive strategies to fight climate change. A new European Commission, forged in the wake of pandemic and war, is unlikely to either. 2024 was the hottest year on record, EU scientists have confirmed, and was the first year in which …

Read More »

Migration: A New Pact Doomed to Fail from the Start

Just over 220,000 migrants were detected trying to cross into Europe illegally in the first 11 months of 2024, according to Frontex data. That represents a decrease of about 40 per cent from 2023, and is several orders of size smaller than the numbers seen in 2015, when around 1 …

Read More »

Central European Economies: Trump, Trade and Tariffs

Trump’s victory was cheered by populists across Central Europe, but his return looks anything but good news for regional economies already faltering as they enter 2025. The economies of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are among the most vulnerable in the EU to the repeated threats by incoming US president, …

Read More »

Trumpian Populism: On the March in Central Europe

Europe’s far-right and illiberal populists are convinced of being “on the right side of history”. But if history is anything to go by, a Trump win could hold a few bitter surprises. “Americans are so enamoured of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom,” …

Read More »

Ukraine War: Decision Time

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the US has provided 43 per cent of countries’ direct military commitments to Kyiv, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. After the US, the only other double-digit contributor is Germany at 12 per cent. The third largest contributor …

Read More »

Clueless in Gaza

Donald Trump’s latest remarks aim to erase the Palestinians and ignore international law. Since his election, President Donald Trump has insisted that he can achieve “peace” in the Middle East. In January, during the first phase of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, he even declared that …

Read More »

US Aid To Ukraine: The Hard Truth – OpEd

President Donald Trump claims Ukraine has received $200 billion from the US. “We are in there for $200 billion more than the EU. I mean, what are we, stupid?” Trump said last month. US Vice President Vance referenced the figure as early as last July, saying, “We have now spent …

Read More »