Redefining the Union

A potential “Grexit”. Terrorism. Security threats. The specter of uncertainty continues to loom over the European Union as the migrant crisis increases tensions between member nations. And yet, each pressing issue presents an opportunity—a critical window for change. Tragic events and adversity tend to reveal themselves as key players in relationships, possibly strengthening ties, possibly … Read more

Europe’s Crisis of Faith

This is not the first time in history that Europe has been forced to come to grips with an urgent and overwhelming refugee crisis. Nor, as it turns out, is it the first time that refugees have been slandered with xenophobic hate speech and broadly stroked suspicion. In 1933, T.S. Eliot proclaimed to an audience … Read more

An Ideological Crossroads

Historians have written extensively about the profound political, economic, and cultural changes ushered in by the Second World War. But in the greater narrative of that era they have paid much less attention to the western world’s shift toward a liberal, globalized ideological status quo, central to which is an emphasis on human rights. The … Read more

Identity Crisis

For Europe, the five years since the beginning of the Arab Spring have meant a dramatic influx of Muslim and Arab migrants into the continent. The rhetoric surrounding this influx has become more stern and unforgiving in the past year. Angela Merkel’s administration in Germany, the Financial Times reported, is seeking to eliminate “pull factors,” … Read more

A New Nationalism

The European Union is currently embroiled in a refugee crisis poised to test its member states’ commitments to internationalism and liberal democracy. According to Frontex, the agency in charge of guarding the EU border, to date in 2015 over 340,000 migrants have attempted to cross into Europe, triple the number who attempted migration in 2014. … Read more

Xenophobia and the Refugee Crisis: Poised to Explode

Le Front National. United Russia. Jobbik Hungary. Golden Dawn. These are the names of just a few of the active and increasingly popular nationalist parties in Europe. Once considered unpopular and offensive remnants of the continent’s troubled past, these political groups have reemerged as the voice of a growing population in Europe. Their policies rely … Read more

Lessons From Gaziantep

Of late, newspapers have been saturated with heart-breaking images of the plight of African and Middle Eastern refugees stumbling ashore several Greek islands under the banner “The Refugee Crisis.” Yet while recent events have obviously represented a humanitarian disaster for the desperate migrants, the crisis to which many Europeans refer is in fact how they … Read more