Everywhere we look, we keep hearing that the wealthiest 1% keeps getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. While this is not exactly true…
Thought Babble
Think pieces, Babble style.
Austria, the Nordic country in the heart of Europe
2020 has only just begun, but it is already proving to be an interesting year. A new European Commission takes office and promises us a…
Czechia – Still Velvet 30 Years Later?
In November 2019, thirty years after the Velvet Revolution, hundreds of thousands of Czechs commemorated the events of the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia of…
The EU’s Eastern Partnership needs a new approach
Nowhere is the Union’s neighbourhood policy more mature than in the East, yet expectations are high and successes manageable. Political balancing act The Eastern Partnership…
Boris Johnson: riding towards a place with no name
Discussing the protracted negotiations to end the Vietnam war, the American diplomat John Negroponte once said that it had taken a long time to “force…
Can logic prevail and the UK find an ‘Exit from Brexit’?
The Brexit debate in the UK has never been about reason and logic. For many protagonists on both sides of the argument, it is not…
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe… The next Austrian government
The Austrian elections are over and Sebastian Kurz’ conservative ÖVP has come out on top. The night ended in bitter tears for the socialist SPÖ,…
A Tale of Two Parliaments
The Oxford English dictionary is known for its new words of the year list. But do we have any such celebration for reclaiming old words…
Turkey – A fundamentally divided country
The recent Istanbul mayoral election in June 2019 demonstrated the divisions in Turkish politics – between those on the left who aspire for Turkey to…
Albania: Justice Reform or Judicial Gangs’ Cleansing?
In Albania, Lady Justice doesn’t have a blindfold on her eyes, she wears Armani sunglasses. The balance in her hand is to measure how much…