As the curtains rise on the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, the picturesque landscapes of Switzerland serve as a reminder of the contest’s origins and its enduring mission to unite Europe in harmony (pun intended). Walking through the host city Basel, Switzerland’s cultural capital, there is a buzz in the air. Eurovision brings together artists and…
“Make Politics Great Again.” That was the parting remark following a conversation I shared with fellow participants at the Delphi Economic Forum (9-12 April 2025), featuring none other than Dimitrios Avramopoulos, former European Commissioner, former Mayor of Athens, and a long-serving Minister across more government portfolios than one can count. The discussion covered a wide…
On July 4th, 2024, about half of all adults in the United Kingdom turned out to vote, the lowest turnout since universal suffrage was introduced in 1918, according to an Institute for Public Policy Research report. Turnout was 59.8% of registered voters, down from 67.3% in 2019. While the narrative that Keir Starmer’s Labour Party…
Unprecedented challenge reveals a weakness in Russia’s centralized power structure The recent coup attempt in Russia, led by the Wagner Group, has shaken the country’s political landscape and led analysts to question the stability of President Vladimir Putin’s regime. The armed rebels’ incursion into Russian territory and their march on Moscow directly challenged Putin’s authority…
The attack on Ukraine has had tragic consequences for all Ukrainians and many Russians. The horror of families being killed and divided is a spectacle that nearly all Europeans believed had been banished forever from our Continent. Even most of the attacking troops and the Ukrainian population refused to believe it might happen. But the…
Lately, I came across a very interesting article “The Roots of Russia”, written exactly sixty years ago by Dr. Lev Dobriansky (1918-2008), a renowned Professor of Economics at Georgetown University and former US Ambassador to The Bahamas[1]. Dobriansky’s article was re-published in January 1964, in An Cosantóir (The Defender), The Irish Defence Journal, courtesy of…
In the West, there are two different competing narratives about the war in Ukraine. The prevailing narrative is that it is a struggle between the “bad guys” and “good guys”. For many, Russia led by dictator Putin represents imperialism and is alone responsible for this unprovoked war, whereas Ukraine represents freedom and democracy as well…
Whom to call when you want to talk to Europe was the famous question attributed to Henry Kissinger that pointed to the lack of a central node of international contact and decision-making in the European integration project. The question remained unanswered for decades, despite earnest efforts to provide a credible answer, notably with the establishment…
The nineteenth-century German poet Heinrich Heine’s words inspired Raphael Lemkin, the drafter of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide: “Burning books is not the same as burning bodies…but when one intervenes … against mass destruction of churches and books one arrives just in time to prevent the burning…
War undermines the lives, health, and safety of all human beings, but for approximately 2.7 million persons with disabilities and their families living in Ukraine, the situation is much worse. Although accurate statistics are hard to come by, many Ukrainians with a disability, especially those with the most severe conditions, have not been able to…
