Tussen Versailles en de bedoeïnentent
Birol
2006: Daar waar we de vorige keer nog moesten stellen dat de strijd tussen regering en opstandelingen in Libië nog niet beslecht was, hebben we nu te maken met een…
Politics
Europe needs a shared social identity, and fast!
Comparing the recent rise of populism in Europe (or really across the world) with the rise of fascism and Nazism in the 20th century is sometimes presented as inflammatory, distasteful…
Evolutionary flaws and right-wing populism
Right-wing populism is undeniably on the rise in Europe. Parties such as the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) are on all time highs in the polls, while their counterparts, most notably…
Tsipras, Corbyn, Sanders: signs of a trend?
It was in 1992 when the political scientist Fukuyama famously declared the ‘End of History’. The Iron Curtain had just come tumbling down (quite literally in some places) and communism…
The Cologne Incidents: Sexism and misogyny, or us versus them?
2016 didn’t start under the best auspices, especially in Cologne, Germany. We may not know every detail currently, but it sure seems that numerous women were assaulted, harrassed and even…
The Greece crisis: What’s Culture got to do with it?
No need to reiterate or even summarize the many accounts of how the draconian ‘deal’ with Tsipras’ Greece was conceived. We don’t know what we know or don’t know, until…
Understanding Pegida: fear for cultural change as political drive
The reaction in Germany to the rise of Pegida (Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes) was predominantly one of shock and shame. How could Germans, of all people, after…
Turkey Elections 2015: the last elections, or was that the one before?
You might think it’s quite late to give a prediction, just two days before the elections. That might be the case, but that doesn’t make it easy or even more…
Rejhaneh Jabbari, hanged for killing her rapist, and her last words to her mother…
I don’t believe in deities, and as such would be considered a criminal myself in Iran. I do believe in justice and Rejhaneh Jabbari certainly wasn’t afforded it by the…