The Patriot’s Ball
American intellectual Leon Wieseltier shared with us an essay that will appear in the upcoming issue of Liberties, the magazine he founded in 2020 after his years at The Atlantic and The New Republic. In the essay, written to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Wieseltier identifies and examines the different forms […]
Sabotage at the bottom of the sea
The waves were more than two metres high, tossing the sailing boat around like a walnut shell. The Baltic Sea turned the colour of ink around it. Below deck on the Bavaria C50 yacht, just 15m (50ft) long with five small cabins, a Ukrainian diving crew waited nervously. The skipper had seen much worse and […]
The Olympic flame is like democracy: if you let it go, it dies out
“Behind every problem there is an opportunity.” This maxim of Galileo Galilei seems to me the right philosophy in approaching the preparation of a major event like an Olympic ceremony. Especially when you’re playing at home and, nemo propheta in patria, everyone is ready to judge. All the better! It’s good this way: the pressure […]
Let’s strengthen the EU’s eastern border, the frontline of Russia’s war against us
The thick snow, the biting cold, the barbed wire that draws a sharp line in the landscape. On this side is Europe: the largest space of peace, freedom and prosperity built on our continent after World War II. On the other side, just a few meters away, is Russia. The aggressor country that, on February […]
To truly innovate, Europe must move from defeatist fatalism to courage
When any audience in Europe is asked whether – under identical conditions of profitability and available skills – they would make an investment in the United States or in Europe, over 90 percent regularly raise their hand in favor of the United States. We Europeans are the first not to have confidence in our innovation […]
Defense is a serious matter in Iceland, especially against fierce hostility
Defence and security have been among the most politically sensitive and polarising issues in Icelandic public debate since Iceland became a republic in 1944. These matters were not absent from political discussion. On the contrary, they were frequently addressed, often intensely so. What was lacking, however, was sustained space for professional, legal, and strategic analysis. […]
The invasion of nicotine pouches, a dangerous frontier of coolness
Finance student Lilian Clair was drinking beer in a bar in the French city of Lyon when one of his friends took out a tin of what looked like mini teabags filled with white powder. Never more than a casual smoker, Clair, 22, was about to experience the tobacco industry’s latest sales weapon: the nicotine […]
Nikol Pashinyan turned defeat into a vision for the future
Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia’s prime minister, is one of the most consequential political figures to emerge in the South Caucasus since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In a region shaped by unresolved conflicts, fragile states, and leaders often locked into nationalist posturing, Pashinyan has achieved something rare: he has turned a military and territorial defeat […]
The single market is a huge protection for the Europeans – it must not remain uncompleted
We asked some Eu economists how and where they think Europe’s economic and commercial power manifests itself, and what its aims should be in order to be competitive in this world. The most important manifestation of Europe’s economic power is the fact that since the withdrawal of US aid financial support from the European Union, […]
The Louvre heist and the failed darknet negotiation to recover the jewels
In the aftermath of the sensational Louvre theft, carried out on October 19th by four bandits dressed as workers, French authorities decided to mobilize around one hundred investigators to recover the priceless jewels of the French Crown: about sixty from the Brigade de répression du banditisme, a special police unit dealing with major thefts, including […]