In this year’s election campaign, argue Katinka Linnamäki and Emilia Palonen, Orbán is facing a formidable, new force. Emerging from the Fidesz cadres in 2023, Péter Magyar launched his attack on Orbán. He has since managed to avoid many of the pitfalls of polarisation that have favoured Orbán previously
The recent rescue of a US airman from Iranian soil obscures a deeper truth. As contested casualty figures emerge from America’s war, Kandida Purnell argues that what we see, count, and mourn in war is never neutral. Rather, it is carefully governed through a longstanding necropolitical logic that shapes public perception and sustains conflict
France’s new nuclear posture and Russia’s nuclear build-up in Belarus have made Europe feel vulnerable. But, argues Olamide Samuel, stronger nuclear rhetoric will not make Europe safer or more independent. Europe’s real task is to rebuild arms control, consultation, and dialogue before nuclear danger becomes harder to contain
From the Strait of Hormuz to Europe’s gas crisis, energy dependence lets states project power through prices, not troops. This, says Ilan Kapoor, is reshaping geopolitical influence
As Hungary heads to parliamentary elections on 12 April, Cristian Pîrvulescu argues that the billboard campaign targeting Zelensky is not merely anti-Ukrainian rhetoric. Rather, it is the latest iteration of a calculated antisemitic strategy, rooted in the 'Horthy tradition', that has powered Fidesz through four consecutive victories
Politically active people — including protesters and those engaging outside elections — are better represented than inactive citizens, write Jesper Lindqvist, Jennifer Oser, Ruth Dassonneville, Mikael Persson, and Anders Sundell. Images of placard-wielding protesters are a common feature in global media reporting. But do they affect policy outcomes any better than inactive people?
Young people in Europe and, by extension, the West, are increasingly disengaging from electoral politics. Academic studies are still trying to understand the phenomenon. But Kevin Meyvaert argues that without a moral narrative of justice and fairness, we will never succeed in reconnecting all citizens to democratic life
Hossein Kermani argues that a largely voiceless majority in Iran is routinely misrepresented by both the Islamic regime and its loudest opponents. Amid the current Iran-Israel-US conflict, he shows how many Iranians are rejecting simplistic binaries and instead are confronting the war’s causes, costs, and uncertainties
Swaptik Chowdhury argues that the postwar model of governing through economic growth and trade can no longer address planetary-scale crises. Drawing on deliberative democracy experiments and emerging AI tools, he makes the case for governance grounded in shared decision-making rather than market coordination alone
In 2024–25, Serbia’s leaderless, decentralised, nonviolent student movement made a rare thing happen: it made fear change sides. In 2026, the government has shifted from managing crowds to tightening procedural control, targeting the institutions that sheltered resistance. Universities, argues Marina Milić, are now the frontline rebels – disciplined through labour rules and a financial ‘kill switch’
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