Why did Viktor Orbán bring pickles to Parliament? What made Kamala Harris lean into 'brat summer'? And why do politicians flood social media with pets, food, and everyday objects? Ilana Hartikainen and Zea Szebeni argue these aren't random quirks: they're examples of 'banana populism', where politicians build powerful emotional connections with voters through whimsical, mundane imagery
Who should decide what counts as democratic, and how? This series argues that such a challenge raises an ethical, a practical, and a philosophical difficulty. Leonardo Fiorespino questions the ethical issue and suggests that the practical and philosophical problems require ad hoc solutions
China and Russia march in unison on the global stage. Behind the choreography, however, lies a partnership of limits and unequal leverage. United in criticising Washington and trading weapons, the two countries diverge sharply on nuclear doctrine. Mariam Mumladze shows how shared opposition to the West conceals deeper strategic differences, exposing the limits of their so-called 'no-limits' partnership
The Dead Internet Theory, once dismissed as 'paranoid fantasy', now offers a disturbingly useful framework for understanding digital politics. Mimi Mihăilescu argues that the theory's growing credibility masks deeper questions about whether we're overestimating AI's political power while underestimating our willingness to accept technological determinism
How do small and medium-sized states safeguard their sovereignty and national interests amid intensifying great-power rivalry and a fragmented international order? To answer this question, John Karlsrud, Maryna Rabinovych, and Marianne Riddervold introduce the concept of diplomatic resilience
Few moments captured the volatility of transatlantic relations better than the explosive Oval Office meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 28 February 2025. Sebastian Jäckle, Ronald Schleehauf, Judith Reinbold and Marius Fröhle studied its impact on German public opinion using a natural experiment based on an online survey
Many PR firms work for brutal regimes — polishing their image, attacking critics, and helping dictators cling to power. Alexander Dukalskis, Christian Gläßel, and Adam Scharpf ask: why does this happen, and what can democratic societies do to stop it?
Institutional theories rooted in the works of Joseph Schumpeter and Robert Dahl still dominate the study of democracy. But, argues Ryusaku Yamada, this Science of Democracy 2.0 discussion reveals the emergence of another current: scholars who engage democracy from critical perspectives and who seek to move beyond such frameworks
Technology is not a cure-all. But it can help reduce the risk of nuclear weapons crises. Jamie Withorne shows how increasingly accessible information can harness transparency and 'fact check' the credibility of nuclear threats
The promise of revolutionary advances in healthcare is not a mainstay of the EU’s artificial intelligence policies. Jason Tucker explores how the outcomes of the EU’s instrumentalisation of healthcare in the AI race doesn't look good for the waning political legitimacy of the EU
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