European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel, representing the EU-27 “losers” are seen signing the post-Brexit trade deal with the UK. Photo: Charles Michel on Twitter; Above: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, representing long-time historical winner England/Britain, is jubilant after the signing the of the deal. Photo: Boris John on Twitter
For the first time in 47 years, the EU is made up solely of historical losers. And being the losers has resulted in much invalubale wisdom that the world should look up to.
The Prime Ministers of North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev (L), and Bulgaria, Boyko Borisov (R), are seen here in Sofia on November 10, 2020, in a last-ditch effort to avoid the veto. Photo: Bulgaria’s Council of Ministers; Above: The two mass murderers who cleansed North Macedonia of ethnic Bulgarians in the 1940s, Tito and Stalin, are seen atop of the Lenin Mausoleum, reviewing the May Day parade on Red Square, 1945. Photo: Wikipedia
(*This opinion / analytical article was written by Ivan Dikov for The European Views website.)
In a 1990s Bosnia- and Kosovo-style ethnic cleansing terror, communist Yugoslavia killed and displaced tens of thousands of Bulgarians in today’s North Macedonia in the 1940s. But there was no “international community” to intervene.
The challenges underlying the EU-US relationship won’t be gone simply by Biden’s replacing of Trump. Photo: Video grab from YouTube. Above: Video grab from the EC Press Service
(*This opinion / analytical article was written by Ivan Dikov for The European Views website.)
Not to worry: the Biden years ahead will be no less challenging for the European Union and the Trans-Atlantic relations than the Trump years just past!
US President Donald Trump and then EU chiefs Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker are seen here in Brussels in 2017. Photo: EC Press Service; Above: Photo: Video grab from EC Press Service
(*This opinion / analytical article was written by Ivan Dikov for The European Views website.)
Somehow Donald J. Trump seems to be on his way out of the White House some time by early 2021. The ripple effect from his one-term “reality show” presidency is going to be hovering around US and world affairs for quite some time. And European and EU affairs, for that matter.
Professor Dlawer Ala’Aldeen, the founding president of the Middle East Research Institute (MERI), based in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). Photo: MERI; Above: Map of the KRI from Wikipedia
There is no doubt that some Middle Eastern states have used the pandemic in order to suppress the opposition, the Middle East security expert says.
Matteo Salvini on Twitter. Photo above: Matteo Salvini, then as Deputy Prime Minister of Italy, (left) with US Vice President Mike Pence in Washington, DC, in June 2019. Photo: Wikipedia
(*This opinion / analytical article was written by Ivan Dikov for The European Views website.)
Salvini’s quest for power has just been aided by those who want to stop or punish him by putting him on trial.
Putin and Erdogan looked notably more serious, and Borisov and Vucic seemed far more jovial during the entire set of TurkStream launch events in Istanbul. Photo: Boyko Borisov’s Facebook Page. Map (above) of the TurkStream pipeline by Gazprom
(*This opinion / analytical article was written by Ivan Dikov for The European Views website.)
Street-savvy neo-Nazis are only part of the picture of the rising far right in Europe. Photo: Pixabay
(*This opinion / analytical article was written by Ivan Dikov for The European Views website.)
In 2019, Europe was once again spared from an overt rise of stereotypical “brownshirts”. Yet, diverse as it is, the far right is bound to keep growing because its two major root causes are not being addressed by the political mainstream. Hands down, the most crucial development of 2019 as far as the entirety of the European Union is concerned has been the seemingly sustainable and stable surge of the far right.Continue reading “2019: The Year the Far Right Sustainably Surged in Europe and Why It Will Keep Growing”→
The laureates of The 2019 Right Livelihood Awards – also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize – are human rights defender Aminatou Haidar, lawyer Guo Jianmei, indigenous leader Davi Kopenawa and the Hutukara Yanomami Association, and climate activist Greta Thunberg. Photo: Right Livelihood Foundation
*All You Need to Know in Today’s World. Ranked. Daily.*
An official photograph of the British Royal Family with the NATO leaders during NATO’s 70th anniversary summit in London, UK, Dec. 3, 2019. Photo: British Royal Family on Twitter
*All You Need to Know in Today’s World. Ranked. Daily.*
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaking at the opening of the UN Climate Change Conference COP 25 in Madrid, Spain, December 2, 2019. Photo: Antonio Guterres on Twitter
*All You Need to Know in Today’s World. Ranked. Daily.*
French President Emmanuel Macron’s deeds and words with respect to NATO, the EU, and the West seem to be growing ever more perplexing to the unbiased, well-meaning citizens of the West. Photo: Jens Stoltenberg on Twitter
(*This opinion / analytical article was written by Ivan Dikov for The European Views website.)
If France’s President doesn’t know who Europe and the West’s enemies are, Europe and the West are in a very, very serious trouble.
This isn’t a “Recylce Eastern Europe” sign but my gradation arc of post-communism in Eastern Europe – from most to least westernized, and from least to most oligarchical – going from the northwest down south and up to the northeast. Original map template derived from LizardPoint.com
(*This opinion / analytical article was written by Ivan Dikov for The European Views website.)
Western failures in Eastern Europe and at home, coupled with Eastern Europeans’ impotence, have entrenched post-communism, the highest stage of communism.
Franco-Germany’s potential as a “vanguard of democracy” badly needed by the West is heavily limited by its unwillingness to commit to such a cause, its historical legacy, and some cracks that are emerging along the Rhine. Map: Wikipedia
(*This opinion / analytical article was written by Ivan Dikov for The European Views website.)
Franco-Germany seems like the only candidate capable of filling the Western leadership gap opened up by Trump and Brexit.
A grand bargain between Trump and Putin that Macron has been trying to broker has been one of the explanations for the recent perplexing behavior of the French President, at least according to some Russian analysts. Photo: Emmanuel Macron on Twitter
(*This opinion / analytical article was written by Ivan Dikov for The European Views website.)
Western Europe has overwhelming reasons, both geopolitical and civilizational, to prioritize Eastern Europe above other regions.
The EU integration prospects of the Western Balkans have been thrown in disarray by French President Emmanuel Macron, hopefully not as part of some sort of a nasty backstage deal among world powers. Map: EPP
(*This opinion / analytical article was written by Ivan Dikov for The European Views website.)
The rationale for Macron’s decision doesn’t make sense as purely “enlargement fatique”.
A voluntarily downshifting world power, Britain is looking at a post-Brexit future of a large “New Zealand”. Image: Pixabay
(*This opinion / analytical article was written by Ivan Dikov for The European Views website.)
Losing influence inside and through the EU as a result of Brexit will amount to Britain’s loss of one its last trappings of being a first-rate great power.
Seemingly organized soccer hooligans, for whatever reason, have brought major international disgrace to Bulgaria. Photo: Video grab from BNT
(*This opinion / analytical article was written by Ivan Dikov for The European Views website.)
Modern day acts of racism are especially perplexing and worrying given Bulgaria’s own tradition of tolerance, fighting for freedom, and sympathy for the oppressed.
Unlike larger countries geographically eligible to join the EU, Ukraine isn’t enticed by the notion of its own empire from the past, present, or future. Map: Wikipedia
(*This opinion / analytical article was written by Ivan Dikov for The European Views website.)
Size and a desire to join set Ukraine apart from the rest of the world in a unique way as far as the European Union should be concerned.
The question of whether non-EU countries beat the EU for major investments because of its own self-imposed rules should be tackled as soon as possible by the entire Union. Map: Wikipedia
(*This opinion / analytical article was written by Ivan Dikov for The European Views website.)
The EU should rethink its state aid rules when it comes to foreign competition, and the EU multinationals – their approach towards the Union’s home turf.
Continuing Brexit uncertainty is a recipe for a disaster of missed opportunities for the entire EU. Photo: MasterTux, Pixabay
(*This opinion / analytical article was written by Ivan Dikov for The European Views website.)
In the three-and-a-half years since the Brits voted to leave the Union, the opportunity cost from the Brexit process has been enormous – for the EU, for the UK, and for the entire West.
The world’s largest and perhaps oldest prehistoric gold treasure was discovered by chance back in 1972 in graves of what has become known as the Varna Chalcolithic Necropolis in Bulgaria’s Black Sea city. Photo: BGNES
(*This history feature + listicle article was written by Ivan Dikov for Pax Glocalica's sister publication ArchaeologyinBulgaria.com)
The growing popularity of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the five former East German provinces has helped turn them into a favorite target for “political correctness” warriors. Photo: Guvo59, Pixabay
(*This opinion / analytical article was written by Ivan Dikov for The European Views website.)
The main difference between East and West Germans 30 years after the Reunification seems to be that the former are less constained by the paradigms of political correctness.
The excited headlines of the British press when the UK got into the EU back in 1973 remind of an era long gone. Photo: FlickR
(*This opinion / analytical article was written by Ivan Dikov for The European Views website.)
The Irish border backstop quagmire is certain to make all EU countries think of their border regions if they are ever tempted to consider leaving the Union.