The Hungarian elites strongly believe that with Chinese help, Central Europe can become the most competitive part of our continent.

In terms of energy, Poland and Czech Republic are considerably dependent on Russia. That ought to result in a more intensive cooperation in their eastern policy.

Twenty years after gaining independence Ukraine is a politically polarized country. Groups of oligarchs have divided it up amongst themselves. Reforms are out of the question—stagnation is their plan to keep themselves in power, and in money.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is the only guarantor of Western civilization’s safety. Yet, never before has it been so weak and fragmented.

In May I signed books at the book fair in Prague. There was a gentleman there who did his share of standing in line in order to tell me about an unforgivable deficiency in my book “Gottland”. You do have painful defects there, he claimed. – Defects? – I was intrigued. – Well yes, the…

An interview with Petr Nečas by Aleksander Kaczorowski and Robert SchusterI think it is completely legitimate for citizens to have the chance to confirm their willingness to adopt the Euro in a referendum—says Petr Nečas, the Czech Prime Minister in an interview with Aleksander Kaczorowski and Robert Schuster.

While media-debates, political expectation and widespread fears are painting a picture of German preponderance in the new European Union, reality draws a rather different portrait.

A Central European block with Germany is a nightmare and without them it’s a pipe dream.

An interview with Marcel Gauchet by Maciej NowickiFor Germany, eastern neighbors (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary) are today a sort of ersatz of the European Union. It might come to be that, in the near future, this Mini-Europe will be absolutely enough for Berlin, says French historian Marcel Gauchet, in a conversation with Maciej…

If the current European Union is really close to a “German Europe”, what say the Czechs?

To save Europe, Germany needs to say goodbye to the rules underlying its current success. This is a far more serious task than just reaching deeper into its pockets.

Almost one hundred years ago, in his Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man (1918), Thomas Mann wrote about the “German loneliness between the East and the West” and claimed that the principles of Western democracy could not be reconciled with Germanness. He changed his mind after the lost war; he broke with the myth of German…

Dear Reader, After a year of intensive preparations, the Aspen Institute Prague is now beginning its operation. Like the Aspen Institute in the U.S., its branch in Prague will be a strictly independent, non-partisan and non-ideological organization. Indeed, the composition of the Board of Directors will guarantee the Institute’s independence not only in theory but…

When on May 17, 1989 a visiting TIME magazine correspondent and a Prague correspondent for REUTERS together watched Alexander Dubček congratulate Václav Havel on being released from jail earlier that day, little did we know that in six months the Iron Curtain will be no more and that in eight months Havel would be the…

In the not-so-distant past summers were for time-outs. This was rather a common perception that in fact never really corresponded to reality, but today with news-cycle driven by Twitter feeds and shaped by instant blogging, not even that impression could be excused. There are no summer time-outs in the world of international affairs, which more…

The Czech Republic as an economic and political lightweight is valuable to the PRC largely as a gateway for future activities in the EU. At the moment, the gateway is being opened by the servile Czech political representation and their business partners hoping for deals with Chinese enterprises connected within the authoritarian partystate. On Easter…