A referendum is a particularly bad method to make decisions about the European Union.

Diplomatic cultures, like nations, may differ. Whereas it is generally accepted in Europe that a diplomatic agreement represents the end of a negotiating process, in some countries of the Middle East an agreement often marks the beginning of negotiations. It is difficult not to think of this when it comes to the March 18 agreement…

An Interview with Olivier Roy by Maciej NowickiBarack Obama’s policy is very good: The West should not meddle in setting new borders in the Middle East—says Olivier Roy in an interview with Maciej Nowicki.

Who? We, Central Europeans. And why should we be barbarians? Why? Of course, because: (1) We are not prepared to accept (Muslim) immigrants, i.e. we are xenophobic or, to be specific, Islamophobic. (2) We have authoritarian governments, prime ministers, presidents; we are the ones who have elected them. (3) We are Euroskeptic and not as…

How did Germany lose the Visegrad countries?

Fidesz did not start out as an anti-EU party and it still is not one, albeit it has strong reservations about some of the policies of the EU. In many respects, it is the EU that has changed.

The migration crisis has shown—to the astonishment of European public opinion—that Visegrad countries do not want to be Mitteleuropa.

The spread of illiberal tendencies characterize the entire EU, but in the recent months it has become especially evident in the Visegrad countries.

The 60th anniversary of the reign of Emperor Franz Josef in 1908 was one of the most lavish celebrations in the history of the Habsburg monarchy. For three hours, 12 000 people paraded before the Emperor; marching at the head were marshals and representatives of the aristocracy, followed by 19 groups in historical costumes, depicting…

Costica Bradatan, Dying for Ideas: The Dangerous Lives of the Philosophers. London: Bloomsbury, 2015.

Richard Pipes, Alexander Yakovlev. The Man Whose Ideas Delivered Russia from Communism. Northern Illinois University Press, 2015

Karl Kraus, The Last Days of Mankind, Translated by Fred Brigham and Edward Timms, Yale University Press, 2015.

The stereotypical “Turk,” sensual and cruel, was really a product of the pamphlet literature of the 16th century.

Tomasz Szubert, Jak(ó)b Szela. (14)15 lipca 1787 – 21 kwietnia 1860. Wydawnictwo DiG, Warszawa 2014.

Michał Krzymowski, Jarosław. Tajemnice Kaczyńskiego. Portret niepolityczny. Ringier Axel Springer, 2014

It was perhaps more than just an innocent joke when not long after the Velvet Revolution Václav Havel said in conversation with Bohumil Hrabal that he also could have become the head of state.

“Putin is hitting at the Union from outside, while Orbán is undermining it from the inside,” said George Soros, a well-known stock market player and philanthropist born in Hungary, in an interview for the German Wirtschaftwoche. He added that the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán already has a partner, in the person of Jarosław Kaczyński,…

In our current paradigm, the territoriality principle represents the core of the international law thinking on jurisdiction. But as is well known, it is not always easy to determine where events take place online.