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Articles published in Eurozine
Turkey, from Tahrir to Taksim
Kerem Öktem explains why the occupation of Gezi Park in Istanbul's Taksim Square quickly turned into an enormous eruption of protest; the key factors being increasingly uninhibited neoliberal development, the government's conservative zeal and a troubled foreign policy. [more]
Woolwich and Afghanistan: The connection
Professor of peace studies Paul Rogers insists that there is a connection between the shocking murder of a young soldier on a London street and "remote-control" attacks by western states. It's crucial to recognize this if we are to avoid such extreme violence in the future. [more]
Cyprus crisis: Swan song of the Eurozone
Fouskas and Dimoulas look at the bigger picture surrounding the Greek Cypriot crisis, as economic contraction reaches levels not seen since the Turkish invasion. Meanwhile, external economic and geopolitical interests leave little prospect of European politics furthering the cause of integration. [more]
Bulgaria's anger: The real source
As the Bulgarian post-communist transition faces its moment of crisis and the government resigns, the political class and the economic model it oversaw are the subject of deep dissatisfaction. Dimitar Bechev outlines what went wrong, and what can be expected of Bulgaria's spring of anger. [more]
Snap goes the crocodile
Marina Akhmedova spent four days in the company of drug users in Yekaterinburg, Russia, and was met with a picture of desperation, punctured by love, humanity and misplaced hope. Shortly after it was published, this harrowing piece of reportage journalism was banned in Russia. [more]
Günter Grass, antisemitism and the inflation of evil
Denunciation of Günter Grass's poem "What must be said" typifies a fundamentalist understanding of antisemitism that operates outside the realm of fact, argues Antony Lerman. If the poem is so heinous, what response would ever be appropriate to genuine antisemitism? [more]
From multiculturalism to interculturalism
The British Conservative Party's alternative to "state-sponsored multiculturalism" encourages community activities promoting "mainstream values". Ali Rattansi sees the initiative as the latest in a series of attempts across Europe to blame multiculturalist policies for social fracture. [more]
Democracy put to the test
While democracy evaporates on a national level, it doesn't reappear anywhere else, least of all in Europe. Maintaining the democratic nature of our societies depends on the rules of the game we impose on ourselves at the European level, argues José Ignacio Torreblanca. [more]
Unreal estate
Freemarket disregard for the elementary moral truths of debt and obligation is to blame for the current crisis, says Roger Scruton. But the call for a return to economic morality is no endorsement of the financial fictions of the social democratic state. [more]
Five reasons why Europe is cracking up
Can Europe really break apart? Yes, of course it can, writes José Ignacio Torreblanca. Few times in the past has the European project been so questioned and its disgraces so publicly exposed as now. It's time to stop looking the other way. [more]
Multiculturalism and the politics of bad memories
Behind the recent attacks on multiculturalism is a false memory of stability disrupted by the arrival of people of other cultures, writes Markha Valenta. A row over the absence of non-white characters in the detective series "Midsomer Murders" says a lot about our idea of "home". [more]
Which "multiculturalism" has failed, David Cameron?
The multiculturalism recently attacked by David Cameron bears little in common with the integration policies of previous British governments, writes Cécile Laborde. What it does resemble is a securitization approach that places citizens under suspicion on the basis of their religion. [more]
Scapegoater hunted down as a witch
Geert Wilders and the Dutch press
Judgmental journalism directed at members of parliament is an orchestrated form of "mob-justice" in the Netherlands today. Self-appointed media watchdogs present a bigger danger to society than the persons they pursue, writes Tjebbe van Tijen. [more]
The intolerance of the tolerant
The advance of populist anti-Islamic forces in the liberal bastions of northern Europe -- Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden -- appears to reflect a betrayal of these societies' renowned social tolerance. But there is a more subtle logic at work, says Cas Mudde. [more]
Foam on the tide of time: The ICJ ruling on Kosovo
The International Court of Justice ruling on Kosovan independence will not herald a sea-change in Serbian public opinion, but it is likely to facilitate a coming-to-terms with the fact that Kosovo is "lost", writes Florian Bieber. The much-feared domino effect is also unlikely to occur. [more]
Elitism, philistinism and populism
The sorry tale of British higher education policy
With government pressure increasing to make employability the sole goal of higher education in all but the elite institutions, universities in the UK will soon be providing no more than tertiary training for the service, retail and media industries, writes Jeremy Gilbert. [more]
"The most important thing here is self-discipline..."
The Khodorkovsky-Ulitskaya correspondence
"Looking for loopholes in the law and exploiting them - this was the most that we allowed ourselves. And we got our kicks from showing the government the mistakes it had made in legislation." Mikhail Khodorkovsky confides in novelist Lyudmila Ulitskaya. [more]
Plan B on climate: National deals
There is near universal consensus that a multilateral treaty is the only way to reduce global carbon emissions. Yet experience shows that deals focused on top-down mechanics fail. Unilateral action based on national self-interest is the only hope [more]
Fragmented memory
Stalin and Stalinism in present-day Russia
As contemporary witnesses disappear, collective memory in Russia is altering, writes the director of Memorial. The hardships of war and the Stalinist terror are being forgotten and Stalin is being remembered as the victor over the essence of evil. [more]
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