The specter of authoritarianism looms over Hungary. Once a harbinger of democracy in eastern Europe and a symbol of hope for liberal institutionalists within the EU, the Carpathian nation of ten million has begun to reverse its twenty-year post-Soviet march toward liberalization. Through its political reversion, Hungary has provided us with a humbling reminder that democratization, … Read more
How Hungray’s Conservative Wing Wrote a New Constitution for Itself In 2010, Hungary embarked on one of the most important tasks for the survival of their government by beginning to draft a constitution. Members of the parliamentary drafting committee wrote the document on their iPad. The “iPad” constitution attempts to completely undue the nation’s communist … Read more
Europe has been shaken by a social and political crisis. A collection of nations striving to create a community has been forced to reevaluate their relationships with each other. Today, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain all faced economic insolvency. Despite the establishment of a large bailout fund to heal the Euro crisis, the economic … Read more
When the Euro was introduced, many analysts predicted that centralizing monetary policy over such an economically diverse area would make the common currency unsustainable and prone to financial collapse. Why they were right, why they’re being ignored, and what must be done about it. In 1999, when the Euro was introduced into circulation, economists were … Read more
“How could the whole world sit at home and watch this and do nothing to stop it?” I asked myself this question as I was looking through videos of news reports from the Bosnian war during the 1992-1995. As an intern at Sense News Agency that specializes in covering all of the trials at the … Read more
As horribly small-minded as it is for a foreigner to pass judgment on a culture to which he or she is unaccustomed, while wandering around St. Petersburg, I could not help feeling awfully uncomfortable, even personally affronted. My reaction to the dress of many Russian women was (and still is) prescriptive and culturally insensitive (but … Read more
For a nation often referred to as the economic powerhouse of Europe, Germany has dealt with the global economic recession characteristically well. The nation currently boasts unemployment of just 6.6 percent, compared to 9.6 percent in the rest of the E.U. Further, Germany’s GDP growth of 3.6 percent remains substantially higher than any other developed … Read more
Just like most of the world, Germany has had a fixed eye on the political developments in the Arab World. Embarrassing plagiarism controversies aside, the German media has been following the revolts with almost universal support for the protesters, regardless of political affiliation. This may not seem surprising; after all it’s hard to justify the … Read more
When I visited Estonia four weeks ago, I witnessed the bittersweet, albeit largely temperate, passing of the kroon, Estonia’s national currency since 1992. As I, and indeed most of the country, rushed to dump my krooni before Jan. 1st and the euro arrived, I nevertheless held on to a two-krooni note—a relic, no doubt, of a … Read more
The Merkel government should nip growing xenophobia in the bud Germany’s recent commemoration of the 20th anniversary of unification was marred by a startling report on the rise of German xenophobia. Conducted by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, a research organization associated with the opposition Social Democratic Party, the study found that public attitudes regarding immigration … Read more