Category: Central/Eastern Europe

Civil society the target in Hungary’s attack on Soros-funded university

     

Students and staff at the Central European University (CEU) in Hungary are protesting against what they say are government plans to close it down, the BBC reports: The university says… Read more »

Populist infection need not mean democratic deconsolidation

     

  Whether recent signs of democratic de-consolidation are a predictor of a possible non-democratic backlash, is far from being ascertained, according to Daniele Archibugi, professor of innovation, governance and public… Read more »

Bulgaria poll a setback for Putin?

     

Bulgaria held parliamentary elections on 26 March, with preliminary results indicating that GERB, led by Boyko Borisov (left), had emerged as the largest party, says Dimitar Bechev, a Nonresident Senior Fellow… Read more »

How political populism has taken root

     

Populism and political extremism has been on the rise for years, especially in Europe, with both left and right wing authoritarians gaining in popularity, according to analysts at Deutsche Bank…. Read more »

Global Civic Activism in Flux

     

For civic activism, it appears to be both the best and worst of times, argues analyst Richard Youngs. The positive dynamics of empowerment and the negative trend of constraints on… Read more »

Kleptocratic Russia’s plot against the West

     

With Europe’s political stability, social cohesion, economic prosperity and security more threatened today than at any point since the Cold War, Russia is destabilizing the Continent on every front, argues… Read more »

Soft power not enough in the Balkans

     

The 21st century in the Balkans is starting to look dangerously like the 19th — with one important difference. In the 19th century, Russia and Turkey were big rivals in… Read more »

Ukraine: Europe’s East Faces Unsettled West

     

The Kremlin’s attempts to destroy Ukraine’s European aspirations is simply one of Russia’s many challenges to the post-World War II international liberal order, notes analyst Natalie A. Jaresko. The actions… Read more »

Lithuania’s struggle for freedom continues

     

NATO’s European members have increased defense spending for the first time in seven years, Euronews reports: The hike was driven by Latvia, Lithuania and to a lesser extent Estonia, three… Read more »

Ukraine’s soft-power struggle faces hard reckoning

     

When “little green men” invaded Crimea in the spring of 2014, Russian media went into overdrive, smearing Ukraine’s Euro-revolution as a “fascist coup d’état,” POLITICO reports: A group of professors and… Read more »