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15 june 2018
Europeanism or Nationalism?
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19 march 2018
The Island of Russia
There is no greater joy for a Russian intellectual than to speculate about a decline of America. The problem is that the Russians still do not see any other worthy role for their country in the 21st century than the role of a superpower, as a state that realizes itself primarily through influence on global processes.
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19 march 2018
The Undying Echo of the Past
There is a great risk of getting mired in counterproductive discussions about the frontiers of the European model of historical development. References to the history of one region or another or one nation or another as “European” or “non-European” are unscrupulously used today inside the EU itself and along its periphery when it comes to discussing whether the region or nation deserves to be a member of a united Europe.
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9 january 2018
Can Movement Politics Renew European Democracy?
One might expect diffuse, grassroots movements that emerge from large-scale street protests to be more inclusive, deliberative, and democratic than traditional political parties. But the proliferation of personality-driven movements on both the right and the left in recent years calls that assumption into question.
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13 november 2017
EU, Russia and the ‘Inglorious End’ of Catalan Self-Determination
The forces inclined to continue the “process” of ever-increasing, but never final, independence of Catalonia from Spain continue to play a crucial role in the politics of this region.
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23 october 2017
How the Catalonia Crisis Could Be Resolved
The Spanish prime minister’s decision to invoke Article 155 of the Constitution will not entail a full-fledged suspension of autonomy, but will probably include the convening of elections in Catalonia in early 2018, putting the Catalan police under control of Spain’s Home Affairs Ministry.
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9 october 2017
The Russian World in a Quest for Meaning
In the endless discussions about the Russian World, our analysts have obscured the issue by vague theorizing, but have failed to produce any recognized scientific concept or school that would explain the idea of the Russian World.
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18 september 2017
Pro-Catalan Independence Party Member: People Need to Go to Polls
The referendum on the future of Catalonia is scheduled for October, 1. With the national government opposing the vote, the results of the upcoming event remains unclear.
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28 august 2017
We Are All From Europe
“I am not afraid,” chanted the crowd that took to the streets in Barcelona after a van was driven into pedestrians on the Las Ramblas promenade, killing at least 14 people and injuring some 130 others. It was the most dignified and appropriate possible response to a terrorist attack, a firm demonstration of unity that transcended internal divisions.
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28 august 2017
Media and Pundits Play a Special Role in Stopping Terror
Once again, a European city was hit by a terrorist attack. La Rambla of Barcelona, ??a tourist, commercial and entertainment center of the city, suffered a deadly assault.
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22 august 2017
Daesh Uses the ‘Power of Its Ideology’ to Spread Terror
The terrorist attacks in Spain have shown that ISIS is able to spread through the power of its ideology.
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18 august 2017
Why the Terrorist Attack in Spain Will Not Be the Last
Over the past 24 hours two terrorist attacks happened in Spain.
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10 august 2017
Orban’s vision of a new Europe will struggle to succeed
Hungarian PM is preoccupied with battling Brussels as country’s citizens lose faith.
A new world order: A view from Russia
Since around 2017–2018, the world has been living through a period of progressive erosion, or collapse, of international orders inherited from the past. With the election of Donald Trump and the rapid increase of US containment of Russia and China—which is both a consequence of this gradual erosion and also represents deep internal and international contradictions—this process entered its apogee.
Will US pullout from Syria increase risk of conflict with Russia?
The announcement of the US pullout from Syria was received with caution in Moscow. Besides the security and political challenges it may bring about, the Trump decision could mean the end of a practical, relatively constructive US-Russian approach to conflict at flashpoints.
What is the ‘New Era’ of the Sino-Russian Relationship?
For a long time, Western commentators did not take the close relationship between Russia and China seriously, because conventional wisdom held that the foundation of this link is fragile. Russia has its “Eurasian complex,” which is considered ephemeral and opportunistic, whereas in China there has been a strong distrust of Russia since the 1949 Communist revolution, as typified by the Mao-Stalin alienation. Today, such analytical logic can no longer hold water.
Is There Life After Arms Control Death?
For several years, serious experts in Russia and the West have repeatedly warned the public about the threat of the collapse of the international nuclear arms control system. They spoke about the system, to be precise, because in the past half a century arms control developed as a sum-total of supplementary elements rather than an eclectic set of separate unrelated bilateral or multilateral agreements.
The INF Treaty: Mirror or Abyss?
The number of nuclear weapon states, their respective arsenals, and transatlantic nuclear arrangements make Europe one of the most “nuclearized” continents. Luckily, even when the total warhead numbers were even higher, nuclear use had been avoided – although the threat remains real.
Common Dreams or Vulgar Delusions? Elite Preoccupations in Discourses about the ‘Commons’
Our age is witness to a proliferation of discourses about the ‘commons’. They are emerging from more and more quarters, and the word is being applied to more things than ever before. One important strand of discourse, claiming to be communist, seeks to apply it to all kinds of spheres, from the earth and its natural bounty to culture, and to all sorts of resources, from the most immaterial, such as common knowledge, to the most material, such as the use of the earth’s finite natural resources. Internet activists refer to information and knowledge that exits on the web as the ‘digital commons’.
Globalization: New Pathways Along the South–South Axis
The year 2018 was marked by escalation in trade tensions among the world’s largest economies, mostly via bilateral trade restrictions.