New Eastern Europe Magazine Nov-Dec 2016 Vorige editie

Five years since the first issue of New Eastern Europe, we return to the our first topic: Border. Thus, this issue, titled “Brave New Borders”, debates Europe as a border-free continent as well as offers analyses on the border changes 25 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. At that time new borders emerged. Not all of them, as Tom de Waal and Maciej Falkowski argue, fit the social context of the countries they are meant to demark. This, in turn, can spark conflicts and lead to separatist tendencies as well as other undesired developments. Borders can also be rendered meaningless by massive migration movements, as Vesna Goldsworthy illustrates in the case of Great Britain and the Balkans. Memory can also create borders, it is argued by Ukrainian writer Andriy Lyubka who takes us on a journey to search Ovid’s traces in the places where the Roman poet spent his last days. Lastly, Ulrike Guérot (Germany) and Dániel Mikecz (Hungary) debate as to whether we are truly ready to live in a borderless world.

Clearly, the thematic scope of this issue goes beyond borders and includes the critical essays on the most current and pressing developments. They include Francisco de Borja Lasheras’ in depth analysis of the reform process (or lack thereof) in Ukraine and Taras Kuzio’s unmasking of Europe’s extreme politics rooted in Soviet narratives.