Europe Archive

After a political shake-up last month, Austria is set to be Europe’s next battleground in the fight between mainstream politicians and far-right populists. On May 10, after months of political bickering and party infighting, Reinhold Mitterlehner stepped down as Austria’s vice chancellor and chairman of the center-right Austrian People’s Party, or OVP. That effectively ended Austria’s grand governing coalition between the OVP and the center-left Social Democratic Party, or SPO. A few days later, Chancellor Christian Kern, who leads the SPO, announced that Austria would hold snap parliamentary elections on Oct. 15. Aside from growing frictions within the ruling coalition, […]

Is there any reason to feel good about this year’s miserable British election campaign? The process has been messy, cantankerous and punctuated by appalling acts of terrorism. With the opposition Labour party unexpectedly gaining ground on the ruling Conservatives, it is possible that this Thursday’s poll will leave Great Britain looking even more confused, less united and less consequential on the global stage. Liberal internationalists should nonetheless take a soupcon of comfort from this rather poor exercise in democracy. Despite the storm of Brexit, the campaign has at least for now defused fears that the United Kingdom could renege on […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series about NATO members’ contributions to and relationships with the alliance. Since joining NATO in 1999, the Czech Republic has been able to modernize its military capabilities while gaining extensive experience with the alliance’s expeditionary missions. But concerns about security in Eastern Europe have caused the government’s focus to shift toward collective defense. In an email interview, Zdenek Kríž, an associate professor of political science at Masaryk University, explains why support for NATO remains high among the Czech population as well as the country’s political and defense establishment. WPR: What is […]