COLD WAR LEGACY
Beyond the Wall
Last November, celebrations to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall were overshadowed by a palpable sense of unease in parts of Europe. To be sure, the events of those weeks through late 1989 and beyond were hugely significant. Many Europeans felt that a new age of peace and prosperity and democracy beckoned. But in the years since, some of those dreams have turned sour amid rising xenophobia and nationalism in nations that once lay behind the Iron Curtain. Heady enthusiasm has been replaced by growing uncertainty, the world has somehow become darker and more menacing than many ever believed it would be. Things, in other words, didn't quite turn out as the optimists expected.
Jan 9, 2020
Romania: Lifting the Lid
Do the much-feared communist-era Securitate still control the country from the shadows.
15 Nov 2012
The Baltic and the Bear
For months, NATO has been building up its military presence in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania amid fears that, after the Russian sponsored separatist conflict in Eastern Ukraine, their turn may be next.
But have these nations, part of the Soviet Union until the early 1990s, been adding to the tension by discriminating against their large ethnic-Russian minorities?
29 Jul 2015
Germany’s Records of Repression
Decades after the Berlin Wall was erected, the spectre of the Stasi continues to loom over Germany.
23 Aug 2011
Moldova: Under the influence
The central European Republic of Moldova is divided along many of the same political fault lines similar to that of its eastern neighbour Ukraine, of which it has witnessed a descent into violence in recent months.
Now, with the conflict between Moscow-backed separatists and the government in eastern Ukraine getting bloodier by the day, there are increasing fears that Moldova could be next.
17 Jul 2014
Bulgaria: Wrestled to the ground
For over a year now Bulgaria, a modern EU member state, has been struggling with its troubled history and torn over where to go next. But what lies behind these divisions, and can they ever be reconciled? Are they really, as many Bulgarians seem to think, the consequence of a toxic legacy from its communist years?
24 Apr 2014