European leaders knew that Vladimir Putin in the East and Donald Trump in the West would be a strategic nightmare scenario. Yet they did almost nothing to achieve greater political unity and stronger defense capabilities in anticipation of precisely this outcome.
thinks the continent has become a sitting duck in the face of the US administration’s strategic revisionism
History and social science research show that voters take their cues from elites. When politicians who are seen as mainstream treat an extremist far-right party as normal, public opinion will tend to follow; and once such normalization has happened, as in Europe today, it is virtually impossible to undo.
explores the most common justifications that politicians offer for working with anti-democratic forces.