If I say “Poland” — what do you think of? Marie Curie? Copernicus? Pierogi? All lovely in their own way, but not exactly cool. Now, however, everything is changing. From dank memes online to unintentionally patriotic rap songs, the …
The West is goading Georgia
Food. Churches. Chacha. This is what Georgia has long been known for. But now this ancient country, flanked by the mountains and the sea in the heart of the Caucasus, is the battleground in a new Not-So-Cold War. Due to …
Why Georgia is the new Ukraine
Before the war in Ukraine, before the annexation of Crimea, there was Georgia. Back in 2008, Russia’s invasion of the country was, to Western eyes, an anomaly — on nearly every other metric, Putin’s Russia was on comparatively friendly terms …
Britain won’t be Balkanised
Imagine: the border with Scotland is closed and your home city of Manchester besieged. Before you know it, you and your family are having to flee to Wales to escape bombs and full-blown civil war. Such is the scenario of …
Sahra Wagenknecht’s insider revolution
When Sahra Wagenknecht founded her new “Left-conservative” BSW party earlier this year, it seemed as if it might fill a gaping void in Germany’s political spectrum. In the UK, Maurice Glasman famously branded this combination “Blue Labour” — but until …
Why Germany is stuck in the slow lane
The three-piece band was doing its best to lift spirits with relentlessly upbeat pop songs and bursts of oompah music as rain plummeted down on a bleak autumnal day. A handful of people sat scattered at tables set up under …
The axis of evil is a fantasy
A terror is stalking Europe. That, at least, is the impression you get from Kyiv. As Andriy Yermak, head of the country’s office of the president proclaimed, a new “axis of evil” is forming right across the planet, developing into …
Compromise killed off the Habsburgs
Keir Starmer has spoken a lot about how he hopes to bring Britain and the European Union closer together. His wish has been realised quicker than he could have imagined. Recently, he met with the Right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia …
Von der Leyen’s authoritarian plot
The European Union is about to enter what could prove to be the most ominous phase in its troubled history. In a few weeks, Ursula von der Leyen’s new European Commission will officially take office, at which point she will …
America is grooming Meloni
Two years ago, a neo-fascist gained power in Rome. That, at least, is the impression you’d have gained from the Western establishment’s paroxysm of hand-wringing at Giorgia Meloni’s elevation. From her erstwhile praise for Mussolini to her fierce Euroscepticism, Meloni …
Inside the dangerous world of papyrus dealing
On 7 May 2018, Kim Kardashian made her annual appearance at the Met Gala. During the evening she posed for a photograph next to one of the museum’s newest acquisitions, a gold Egyptian coffin dated to the 1st century BC. …
Has Sahra Wagenknecht already peaked?
Yesterday, as the dust settled on another regional election in East Germany, commentators were quick to highlight yet another strong performance by the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW). In Brandenburg, the Left-populist upstart secured 13% of the vote — which was …
The Armenian catastrophe
For the first time in over a millennium, there are no Armenians left in Nagorno-Karabakh. They survived the Mongol and Arab invasions and the age of empires, when tsars, shahs and sultans fought for this strategic intersection of trade routes …
How Macron killed Macronism
As soon as the dust settled around Michel Barnier’s surprise nomination as French Prime Minister, the choice was met with something like grudging admiration. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, the President realised an unexpected coup. But in …
How Fritz Lang invented fantasy
It’s one of the sad facts of our miserable climate of miserable prognostications about the state of the cinema that it continually obscures a simple truth: movies are very young. Compared to most artforms, the cinema is still in its …