A collaboration with The New School & the European Democracy Institute
 
Category: <span>Dispatches</span>

Dispatches

Category: Dispatches

Authoritarianism is Built on Collaboration: How Supporters Enabled and Normalized the Fascist Consolidation of Power

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Photo: “Cover of “La Domenica del Corriere” of February 24, 1929, signing of the Lateran Treaty.” Author: Achille Beltrame (1871–1945).Source. Via WikiCommons. “Copertina della Domenica del Corriere Anno XXXI n. 8 del 29.2.1929 illustrata da Achille Beltrame. La didascalia recita: Uno storico avvenimento. Nel Palazzo Lateranense, il Duce e il Cardinale Gasparri firmano l’accordo tra lo Stato italiano e la Santa Sede. Disegno di A. Beltrame Italiano: Anno XXXI …

Letter to a Ukrainian Friend

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Photo: “President Trump clashes with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy Meeting in the Oval Office on Feb. 28, 2025.” Source: The White House. From Wikimedia Commons. February 28, 2025 My friend, Only hours ago I watched Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, the President and Vice President of my country, publicly berate and attempt to humiliate Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of your country. It was perhaps the most shameful public event …

The Courage That Grows Together

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At 9 a.m. in Bloomington, 14 hours behind Seoul, I received a message that martial law had been declared late at night and soldiers were entering the National Assembly. The news was so frightening that it felt unreal. At first, I assumed it was misinformation, much like the previous heart-wrenching disasters had initially seemed to be.  But it was real. Most Korean people spent the day and night …

Georgia’s Turn Toward Illiberalism and the “Uses and Abuses” of History

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The Erosion of Memory Consensus  The political and symbolic imaginary, the “memory consensus” regarding Georgia’s path toward Europe has come to an end. This consensus gained momentum following the “Rose Revolution” in 2003 and was built on the promise of modernizing Georgia and cutting ties with its Soviet past. Georgia’s pro-Western narrative has been systematically attacked and eroded by the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party. This process began …

Why Tim Walz Is the Right Pick for Vice President

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The few weeks of speculation are over. Kamala Harris has selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her VP running mate. All six of the leading candidates had strengths and weaknesses that have been endlessly discussed. Whoever Harris selected, some of her supporters were bound to be disappointed. I believe that nothing is more important in U.S. politics at this moment than defeating both Trump and Trumpism. And so …

Kamala Harris and the Future of American Democracy

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The prospects for American democracy seemed dimmer than at any time since Donald Trump won the 2016 Presidential election. Harris’s ascendancy has changed everything. Less than two weeks ago the prospects for American democracy seemed dimmer than at any time since Donald Trump won the 2016 Presidential election. Twice-impeached ex-President and convicted felon Trump, surviving a shooting attempt just days before, was exulting in his “martyrdom” and lording …

Joe Biden Is Now Democracy’s Greatest Liability

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Joe Biden’s performance last night in CNN’s so-called “debate” with Donald Trump was a monumental disaster, for his campaign and for everyone who cares about democracy in the U.S.  Ever since first entering the presidential race in 2019, Biden has claimed to personify the strongest political  bulwark against Charlottesville-style neofascism and Trumpist authoritarianism. The claim was redeemed in the 2019-2020 Democratic primary and in the November 2020 election, and …

What Hannah Arendt can teach us about today’s campus demonstrations

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Tomorrow marks the 54 years since the National Guard fired live ammunition on students at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. For three incredibly tense days last week, my colleagues and students at Indiana University-Bloomington, had reason to worry that we might become “the next Kent State,” with Indiana State Police with high-precision assault rifles mounted on the roof of the Indiana Memorial Union (the central building …

The Making of Anticommunist Memory Politics: From Paris to Prague, from the extreme left to the extreme right

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Many thanks to Gérard-Danial Cohen for his critical comments. This text results from a presentation at the workshop After Critical Theory? convened at Queen Mary University London by Eric Heinze, 2 February 2024. Many thanks to him, too, as well as to Jan Čulík, who originally published this piece in Britské listy. May 1968 in Paris must have been great fun. “Beneath the cobblestones lies the beach” claimed …

Understanding the Difference Between Anti-Semitism and Pro-Palestinian Activism

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We must be as clear as possible about what is anti-Semitism and what it is not, so that real political differences are not transformed into existential confrontations. This is not always easy to do, but it is necessary nonetheless. Photo: “Taken in Hyde Park at one of London’s largest protests in many years as tens of thousands walked along Piccadilly and then across Hype Park towards the Israeli …