What Europe needs is an EIIB, not an AIIB
The director of the ECFR’s Asia and China programme sees inconsistencies in the EU’s decision to participate in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank sponsored by China.
Netanyahu’s Victory Is Just as Bad as It Looks
The only silver lining to the Israeli prime minister’s surprisingly strong reelection victory is that Washington and Brussels might finally get fed up with him.
Greece and the European Neoliberal Cage
SYRIZA’s mild Keynesian programme has been gutted. Is a more democratic economic alternative possible within the framework of the EU?
A Spoke in Erdogan’s Wheel
The parliamentary elections in June will decide whether Turkey will irrevocably become an AKP-country or whether for the first time since 2002 other majorities might be possible. The decisive factor will be whether the Kurdish HDP manages to pass the 10 percent threshold.
Spain’s Year of the Polls
Spain appears to be heading towards an evolved party system in which the big players will be now four, not two. 2015 will be the year in which the powerful emergence of recently-funded new political actors will get translated into parliamentary seats.
Battle of Poitiers and the invention of Europeans
Professor of Medieval History Alessandro Barbero examines a defining moment in European history, the Battle of Poitiers in 732 AC when Charles Martel defeated the “wali” of al-Andalus.
Mike Leigh: My Turner, Cinematic Painter
In “Mr Turner” Mike Leigh draws the impassioned portrait of the last 25 years in the life of William Turner, English master of painting (1775-1851).
Of American Warplanes and Dutch Toy Cars
An account of a visit to the southern Turkish town of Suruç, where refugees from Kobanê are being put up in In Suruç’s mosques, sport halls, granaries and hastily created tent camps.
Brussels has fallen
José Ignacio Torreblanca, head of the Reinvention of Europe programme at European Council on Foreign Relations questions whether or not the existence of the European Union can be guaranteed given that half the continent remains entangled in semantic games over whether they are signing up to a programme or an interim agreement – and the other half question whether the project makes any sense at all.
Report thy neighbour: policing Sisi’s Egypt
A regime bereft of legitimacy, save for its promise to guarantee national security, turns citizens into active players in a new culture of surveillance and reporting.