The effectiveness of Kremlin propaganda is based on a tangled bundle of lies and half-truths. Reality, however, cannot be distorted forever. As Europe needs to bring vision back to politics, can Russians finally emerge from their echo chamber?
Articles
Speaking of hate
Dwutygodnik 85 (2022)
Dwutygodnik touches on a contemporary taboo: why hatred and other base emotions are no less valid than cool impartiality; how hating Russia doesn’t help; and why there’s hope in hate if we can channel it into change.
For far too long governments in the West have trusted the Iranian reformers, misunderstanding the nature of power in the Islamic Republic. A Europe committed to human rights and feminist values must stand up for the people of Iran and give them a chance to speak.
In socialist Czechoslovakia, one of the world’s biggest arms exporters, issues of durability and demise were taken into account. Why, then, do Cold War weapons continue to resurface in deadly attacks and armed conflicts across the globe, well beyond their alleged obsolescence?
Recommended topics
Clownism
Italy between instability and political transformation
Italy is the cradle of the far-right populism now seen across Europe. A system of perennially instable government engenders a form of politics that exploits Italians’ insecurities and distrust, while grinning all the time.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has revived fears of looming nuclear apocalypse. Amidst weakened institutional frameworks and the great powers’ will to preserve the status quo, the non-proliferation doctrine is under increasing pressure.
The removal of Potemkin’s remains from St Catherine’s Cathedral in Kherson was not without irony, given the flimsiness of Putin’s version of history. On the meaning of Russia’s macabre new ideology.
The Qatar World Cup is a vast soft-power operation for the militarily weak, gas-rich emirate. But reforms prompted by international attention – from sustainability to women’s rights and labour conditions – are likely to fade along with the stadia lights.
Eurozine review
Speaking of hate
Dwutygodnik 85 (2022)
Dwutygodnik touches on a contemporary taboo: why hatred and other base emotions are no less valid than cool impartiality; how hating Russia doesn’t help; and why there’s hope in hate if we can channel it into change.
Totalitarian China
Esprit 11/2022
Esprit focuses on China: Xi’s rhetoric of struggle; why the CCP passes the test of totalitarianism; how ideology is exacerbating the slowdown; and what’s at stake in Taiwan. Also: Meloni and the politics of clownism.
Superstructural froth?
Soundings 81 (2022)
How culture in the UK has become the soft target for an improvised neo-Thatcherism; why the Left makes a mistake to denigrate cultural politics; how to understand the far-right’s online power-base; and why the BBC prefers to manufacture dissensus.
Focal points
With new variants mutating around the globe, COVID-19 is no longer a novelty. The pathogen is seemingly here to stay, inducing social, political and economic turmoil. This is not a crisis to emerge from quickly. It is a prelude to further emergencies linked to climate change-related transformations and environmental destruction. How will societies deal with its tangible effects? And which issues might be perilously left by the wayside? In this new focal point, supported by the European Cultural Foundation’s Culture of Solidarity programme, Eurozine and partners take stock of this public health crisis and its accompanying crises of values and meaning.
Traditionally, a young woman used to be presented with a bundle of goods to send her off with to adult life. Today’s bottom drawers aren’t necessarily tied to marriages, nor are they strictly material. Yet, the bundle one leaves the house with is as important as ever. In this focal point, we take stock of the notions our foremothers presented us with: women’s ideas and achievements that define our understanding of power, gender and violence, bodies, connection and agency.
The focal point presents the findings of the project ‘Eurasia in Global Dialogue’ being carried out at the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna (IWM). The focal point is an extension of the earlier focal point, ‘Russia in Global Dialogue’ that ran in Eurozine and at the IWM from 2012–2018.
Post-revolutionary Ukrainian society displays a unique mix of hope, enthusiasm, social creativity, collective trauma of war, radicalism and disillusionment. With the Maidan becoming history, the focal point ‘Ukraine in European Dialogue’ explores the new challenges facing the young democracy, its place in Europe, and the lessons it might offer for the future of the European project.
Eurozine Network
Eurozine monitors upcoming funding opportunities on the international level relevant to cultural journalists, such as translation funds, mobility grants and project funding.