democracy

How does the war in Iran affect Europeans? What is the impact of the Greenland issue on the Danish view of NATO and the transatlantic alliance? Should the Nordic countries acquire nuclear weapons? And what does Europe\'s path to competitiveness look like? Leszek Jazdzewski talks with Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a Senior Fellow at Bruegel in Brussels.

Nordic and Baltic cooperation has been growing stronger for a long time and could culminate in a United North as a new pillar of strength for the free world grounded in democracy, trust, and a shared responsibility for security, writes Marko Mihkelson.

In the 5th year of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, how is the civil society in Ukraine currently faring? Is the Ukrainian identity under pressure? What is the impact of the war on the mental health of people, particularly children? And what should we know about paganism?

How is the Iranian society coping with the crackdown on the protests? What is the current state of the regime and its prospects for the future? Who is Reza Pahlavi and what might be his role in the near future? And how do Iranians view the U.S. intervention in their affairs? Leszek Jazdzewski talks with Touska Gholami Khaljiri, an Iranian women’s and children’s rights activist and researcher based in Łódź, Poland.

When I first walked into the room where the Balkan Women’s Academy BAZA was about to begin in 2023, I had no idea that these meetings would become a source of strength, courage, and solidarity. Today, after three editions of the Academy, BAZA has brought together 35 women from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia, women connected not only by geography, but by shared values.

Foreign influence and malign interference are most often associated with adversarial actors such as Russia or China. Yet there are also areas in which US-based actors—both public and private—exercise pressure on European decision- and policymakers in comparable ways. Disputes over freedom of speech, censorship, and digital rights have become a new front line in transatlantic relations.

What is the future, if any, of the transatlantic relationship? Where do we stand on European sovereignty versus President Donald Trump? What should we know about the \'brave new world order\' proposed by Canadian PM Mark Carney? Should Europe try to keep the United States on board as long as possible or mobilize against it? Leszek Jazdzewski talks with Olaf Osica, a former director of the Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW).

After recent years filled with tragic events, conflicts, and global pandemics, many of us are, above all, hoping for a breakthrough in the form of an ending. An end to populism, an end to war, or an end to the right-wing offensive launched by Trump in 2024; an offensive that has swept across Europe, both Americas, and is steadily pushing us toward an open war with Putin’s Russia.

The daring attack by U.S. forces on the Venezuelan regime and the arrest of dictator Nicolás Maduro sparked a wave of controversy around the world. In Poland, reactions were fairly predictable: from enthusiastic praise of Donald Trump by circles associated with the Law and Justice party (PiS), to reflexive, often complete criticism of the U.S. president’s actions from many left-liberal groups.

The use of participatory budgeting (PB) has appeared in more and more democratically governed municipalities in recent years. According to the 2021 book “World Atlas of Participatory Budgeting,” this method is widespread primarily in Europe and secondarily in South America, in which the residents of the city can propose the use of a certain amount from the municipality’s budget.”