Tag: Europe

  • The World of Yesterday

    Ninety years ago (1934), the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig began writing the book published posthumously in 1942 as Die Welt von Gestern. In 1932, Joseph Roth published Radetzkymarsch. Both authors died in exile essentially by what in German is so prosaically called “Freitod” or suicide. Their principal subject was the end of Austria-Hungary. However for both […]

  • The media’s Nord Stream lies just keep coming

    The media’s Nord Stream lies just keep coming

    Want to understand why the media we consume is either owned by billionaires or under the thumb of government? The latest developments in the story about who was behind the explosions that destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines that brought Russian gas to Europe provide the answer. Although largely forgotten now, the blasts in the Baltic […]

  • The Peace of Westphalia as a Lesson in Solving Religious Wars Past Present or Future

    The Peace of Westphalia as a Lesson in Solving Religious Wars Past Present or Future

    In 1999, a seemingly innocuous speech occurred in Chicago that unveiled a new paradigm in world affairs that was dubbed “the Blair Doctrine”. In this speech, Tony Blair asserted that the realities of the new age of terrorism had rendered the respect for sovereign nation states irrelevant and obsolete requiring a superior doctrine compatible with the need […]

  • Vacation Autopsy

    There’s something about a mass-market Luxury Cruise that’s unbearably sad. Like most unbearably sad things, it seems incredibly elusive and complex in its causes yet simple in its effect: on board the Nadir (especially at night, when all the ship’s structured fun and reassurances and gaiety ceased) I felt despair. — David Foster Wallace, A […]

  • Another Act of Terror: How the Media do PR for Biden and Zelensky

    Another Act of Terror:  How the Media do PR for Biden and Zelensky

    The hypocrisy gets starker by the day. The same western media that strains to warn of the dangers of disinformation – at least when it comes to rivals on social media – barely bothers to conceal its own role in purveying disinformation in the Ukraine war. In fact, the propaganda peddled by the media grows […]

  • Can the European Leg of the Triad Break Free from the Atlantic Alliance?

    Zoulikha Bouabdellah (Algeria), Envers Endroit Geometrique (‘Geometric Reverse Obverse’), 2016. It is difficult to make sense of many events these days. France’s behaviour, for instance, is hard to square. On the one hand, French President Emmanuel Macron changed his mind to support Ukraine’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). On the other hand, […]

  • Greater Selfishness is Lurking Behind US’ Seeming Impartiality

    The sudden escalation of the situation in the Balkans in the past few days has drawn great concern from the international community. From May 26, when the Kosovo authorities forced the inauguration of the Albanian mayor, triggering protests and demonstrations from the Serbs, to May 29 when violent clashes broke out between NATO “peacekeeping” troops […]

  • Resurrecting the Concept of the Triad

    Yayoi Kusama (Japan), Infinity Mirrored Room – The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, 2013. At the close of the May 2023 Group of Seven (G7) summit in Hiroshima (Japan), the foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States and the High Representative of the European Union […]

  • Reflections on Russia and Crimea

    Reflections on Russia and Crimea

    We spent nearly 20 days in Russia, including 5 days in Crimea. During our journey, we spent around 70 hours in trains riding in close quarters with Russians who we had never met before but who freely shared food and drink with us.  Indeed, throughout our travels, we were treated invariably with kindness, generosity and hospitality. When […]

  • Journey to St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Crimea

    Journey to St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Crimea

    At the end of April of this year, the two of us ventured together to Russia. We went with the purpose of fact-finding and also to make a point that we do not believe that Russia should be isolated from the world through sanctions and travel bans. At this moment, Russia is more isolated from […]

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