Unsurprisingly, the twentieth anniversary of 1989 has added to an already groaning shelf of books on the year that ended the short twentieth century. If we extend “1989” to include the unification of Germany and disunification of the Soviet Union in 1990–1991, we should more accurately say the three years that ended the century. The […]

Frank Furedi is a sociologist and commentator. He is the author of many books, including: Therapy Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability in an Uncertain Age (2003); and, most recently, Power of Reading: From Socrates to Twitter (2015). The aim of this slim volume of essays, The Clash of Civilisations? The Debate: Twentieth Anniversary Edition, is to commemorate […]

Over the past decade, Turkey and Brazil have been widely celebrated as star economic performers—emerging markets with increasing influence on the international stage. Yet, over the past three months, both countries have been paralyzed by massive demonstrations expressing deep discontent with their governments’ performance. What is going on here, and will more countries
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Dosud jsme tvrdili, že charakterové rysy vyvolané naším socioekonomickým systémem, tj. naším způsobem života, jsou patogenní a nakonec vytvářejí nemocného člověka, a tedy i nemocnou společnost. Ovšem existuje ještě druhý argument, který ze zcela jiného hlediska podporuje hluboké psychologické změny v člověku jako alternativu vůči ekonomické a
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Analysis In his latest novel, French writer Michel Houellebecq presents a controversial situation: The year is 2022, and France has become an Islamicized country where universities have to teach the Koran, women have to wear the veil and polygamy is legal. The book, which created a stir in France, went on sale Jan. 7. That […]

Last week, I wrote about the crisis of Islamic radicalism and the problem of European nationalism. This week’s events give me the opportunity to address the question of European nationalism again, this time from the standpoint of the European Union and the European Central Bank, using a term that only an economist could invent: “quantitative […]

Sometimes it is easy to forget why we study history. Of course, we use the past to understand the present; but also, ideally, we learn from it too. What a shame, then, that there is no space in the new national curriculum for the history of Byzantium. The eastern half of the Roman empire that […]

Juan Cole is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. For three decades, he has sought to put the relationship of the West and the Muslim world in historical context. The horrific murder of the editor, cartoonists and other staff of the irreverent satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, along with two […]

This is the first time in its history that the European Union has faced a mass influx of refugees from outside the region. Each year, as UNHCR announced record numbers of displaced people, the general assumption – until recently – was that this is a problem for other parts of the world. However, rising displacement […]

Europe is Europe’s last remaining realistic political utopia. But Europe remains to be understood and conceptualised. This historically unique form of international community cannot be explained in terms of the traditional concepts of politics and the state, which remain trapped in the straitjacket of methodological nationalism. If we are to understand cosmopolitan Europe, we
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Europe already accomplished a miracle once before: enemies became neighbours. In the light of the euro crisis, the cardinal question must be confronted once again: how can Europe guarantee its citizens peace, freedom and security in the risk-storms raging in the globalised world? This calls for nothing less than a second miracle: how can the […]

Tyto věci souvisejí s otázkou identity, která se zase týká občanství. Občanství může být něco, k čemu člověka opravňuje místo narození. Kromě toho může být někomu uděleno na základě jeho žádosti nebo jako odměna za dřívější služby dané zemi. V jiných případech utíkají lidé před pronásledováním, a tak žádají o politický azyl a
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