Subterms
Transnational exchanges and movements distinctive of the modern international community slowly came to a halt due to the unprecedented rate of transmission of COVID-19. Many sovereign states closed their borders to all sorts of non-essential travel. These unprecedented actions revived questions over the viability of open border policies, especially in the context that the tightening […] More
The arrival of Podemos and VOX on the Spanish political scene not only meant that voters had new electoral options. It also led to a new, groundbreaking style that was a change from the stereotypical, uncreative and overused rhetoric displayed by other parties for years. With Podemos, a left-wing party, Spaniards have become accustomed to […] More
Like many of the leaders of developed nations, Boris Johnson has been struggling to assert his leadership role in the thankless combat against the current scourge of humanity: a particularly aggressive infectious disease that has now landed even the prime minister himself in hospital. Boris has welcomed on the scene a knight of the realm, […] More
As I reread Anne Frank’s diary — living just a 10-minute walk from her hiding place in Amsterdam and having first read it in an American middle school, only imagining Europe — I immediately recognize many things that were not familiar the first time around. In recounting her life before going into hiding, she describes her […] More
Donald Trump was elected in 2016 on his promise to “Make America Great Again.” Four years later, he presides over a country that would be the laughing stock of the world if the situation were not so dire. The greatest country in the world apparently cannot provide its citizens with toilet paper, is running out […] More
In 1978-79, the United Kingdom experienced the winter of discontent. Trade unions around the country went on strike. On January 22, 1979, the UK experienced the largest strike action since the General Strike of 1926. Even gravediggers and waste collectors joined in, leaving corpses and rubbish piling up. A bitterly cold winter with blizzards and heavy […] More
The far right thrives on fear. It’s no surprise, then, that it would use the latest pandemic, which has generated widespread panic, to bolster its own agenda. All of the hallmarks of the far right are in play during the coronavirus crisis. It has pushed to close borders. It has demonized foreigners and particularly border-crossers. […] More
The triumph of Nazism in the years following the election of 1933 that brought Adolf Hitler to power represents arguably the greatest human catastrophe of the 20th century — a century rich in human catastrophes. Until today, historians, social scientists and writers, from Primo Levy to Jonathan Littell, the author of “Les Bienveillantes,” and filmmakers, from […] More
