What Kind of European Future Do Romanians Want?

On the Eve of Elections, Voters and Candidates Alike Are Vague on the Issues

To be Romanian is to live as a denizen of your city or town, of Romania, and of Europe.

In 2024, almost 19 million of us will choose elected officials to represent us at all three of these levels: 33 new members of the European Parliament (MEPs), 3,000 new mayors across Romania, 588 new members of the Romanian Parliament, and 1 new president.

So why is there fatigue, rather than campaign excitement? And are the Romanian and European contests functioning in opposition to each other—distracting citizens from the important issues in both …

by Tana Foarfă | June 7, 2024

Why the ‘New Nationalism’ Can Only Flourish in Conflict

Built on Hatred, and the Need for an Adversary, It Thrives on Contempt for Other Cultures, Religions, and Even Languages

by Anthony Pagden | November 19, 2018

Nationalism as we know it today—a global movement of states led by strongmen decrying globalization—is a recent invention. But a brief and broad history of nationalism reveals its important paradoxes …

Why Taiwan Would Be Better Off Neutral

A Citizen of Switzerland and Sweden Argues That a Stance of Non-Aggression Can Protect Small, Vulnerable Democracies

by Bruno Kaufmann | July 3, 2018

How can Taiwan best defend its democracy from the explicit threats of mainland China—and the security machinations of great powers in the Pacific?

Neutrality might be the answer.

I was born and …

How the EU’s Greek Tragedy Became a British Farce

Out-of-Touch Elites Have Themselves to Blame for Losing Voters to "Populism"

By James Galbraith | October 18, 2016

British citizens took to the polls to cast their “Leave” ballots—and their grievances—in the now-infamous Brexit vote last June, seeking to escape the overarching power of the European Union. Their …

The Cure for Your #Regrexit Democratic Hangover

For Remorseful Brits and Other Voters Who Found Themselves Uninformed on a Major Decision, Experiments in the Western U.S. Could Solve Ballot Measure Blues

By John Gastil | June 29, 2016

The #Regrexit hashtag encapsulates Britain’s morning-after regrets since a referendum in which nearly 52 percent of voters opted to leave the European Union. A Daily Mail poll estimates that more …

Brexit Succeeded by Playing to Britons’ Imperial Nostalgia

Searching to Become “Great” Again, British Voters Ignored Their Empire’s More Recent History

By Philippa Levine | June 28, 2016

Shortly after the result of Britain’s referendum on the European Union was declared last week, an academic colleague remarked to me, “the final curse of the empire is that the …

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