Dec 18, 2024
Timothy Garton Ash, the British historian and columnist, wrote in The Guardian’s op-ed page three days after America’s 2016 election secured Donald Trump the White House that the phrase “leader of the free world” is usually applied to the US president, "and rarely without irony”. Garton Ash was tempted...
Jul 25, 2024
"The Treaty includes no provisions for the economic rehabilitation of Europe, nothing to make the defeated Central Empires into good neighbours, nothing to stabilise the new States of Europe." This damning critique of one of history's best-known peace treaties by a little-known UK Treasury official keeps shaping popular...
Jul 10, 2024
What France has just lived through can only be described by the words of Vladimir Lenin: “there are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen”.
In just a month, the country's political landscape was upended by Emmanuel Macron’s shock decision to dissolve the National Assembly after...
May 8, 2024
Welcome to another Decency Deep Dive. This week we tackle the forthcoming European Parliament (EP) elections on June 9, widely expected to deliver a significantly more right-wing supranational legislature. Russia’s ongoing efforts to intrude into the news cycle, public debate and imaginary of Western societies are on...
Apr 3, 2024
“I think it is obvious that NATO's expansion does not have any relation with the modernisation of the alliance itself, or with ensuring security in Europe. On the contrary, it represents a serious provocation that reduces the level of mutual trust. And we have the right to ask: against whom is this...