Uncommon Decency

Timothy Garton Ash, the British historian and columnist, wrote in The Guardian 's op-ed page three days after America's 2016 election secured Donald Trump the White House that the phrase "leader of the free world" is usually applied to the US president, "and rarely without irony". Garton Ash was tempted to say, at that time, "that the leader of the free world is now Angela Merkel". This should be...

"The Treaty includes no provisions for the economic rehabilitation of Europe, nothing to make the defeated Central Empires into good neighbours, nothing to stabilise the new States of Europe." This damning critique of one of history's best-known peace treaties by a little-known UK Treasury official keeps shaping popular understandings of the accord's legacy. John Maynard Keynes published The Econo...

What France has just lived through can only be described by the words of Vladimir Lenin: "there are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen". In just a month, the country's political landscape was upended by Emmanuel Macron's shock decision to dissolve the National Assembly after his party, Ensemble , trailed behind the right-populist Rassemblement National by seven...

Welcome to another Decency Deep Dive. This week we tackle the forthcoming European Parliament (EP) elections on June 9, widely expected to deliver a significantly more right-wing supranational legislature. Russia's ongoing efforts to intrude into the news cycle, public debate and imaginary of Western societies are on the agenda, too, as we address its recent efforts at disinformation and lobbying....

"I think it is obvious that NATO's expansion does not have any relation with the modernisation of the alliance itself, or with ensuring security in Europe. On the contrary, it represents a serious provocation that reduces the level of mutual trust. And we have the right to ask: against whom is this expansion intended?" That was Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Munich Security Conference in...

"Day by day, however, the machines are gaining ground upon us; day by day we are becoming more subservient to them; more men are daily bound down as slaves to tend them, more men are daily devoting the energies of their whole lives to the development of mechanical life. The upshot is simply a question of time, but that the time will come when the machines will hold the real supremacy over the worl...

"You didn't pay? You're delinquent? No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them—Russia—to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay!" In February, former—and possibly future—US President Donald J. Trump launched a spine-chilling injunction to America's allies in the sheer style of a New York City mob boss. If you'd like to enjoy the blessings of NATO membership, pay up or face...

China might be the world's factory, but America remains the earth's cultural hegemon. And perhaps its greatest export of the last decade has been "wokeism" or "wokeness". Once inhabiting the fringiest recesses of American academia, the past decade has seen the global dissemination of concepts like "cultural appropriation", "systemic racism", "critical race theory", "intersectionality"—and they hav...

Welcome to another Decency Deep Dive. This week we tackle various topics on the heels of the Munich Security Conference, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged the world to re-anchor security at the heart of global politics. Ukraine's defense pacts with France and Germany are on the agenda, as is Donald J. Trump's earth-shattering remark that he wouldn't budge the moment Russia we...

"The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia." Former German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's advice seems to have resonated with an entire generation of German leaders in the 21st century, from the Social-Democrat Gerhard Schroder to the CDU's Angela Merkel. For years, Germany built its economic ties with Russia, but also simultaneously its dependence on Vladimir Putin's increasingly aut...

In 1789, members of the newly-created National Assembly in Paris split between those for whom the king should retain an absolute veto, sitting to the Assembly President's right, and those who thought he shouldn't, sitting to his left. The primordial version of our structuring political cleavage was born: the party of order vs. the party of progress. This left-right divide has served as the foundin...

Every new year seems to heighten the impression that History is accelerating, and this may well not be new. The novelty lies in the fact that with every passing year, that impression seems to root itself in firmer ground. This is not just about the Ukraine conflict, which will turn two years old in February, and seems to have trapped the European Union (EU) in a quandary of indecision between scra...

In a daring move, we kicked off March 2021 quoting none other than Francis Fukuyama, titling our episode "Getting to Holland" as a twist on Fukuyama's famous cliché of "Getting to Denmark". The episode came in the heels of Mark Rutte's re-election as Dutch Prime Minister, which seemed like an apparent vindication of the Fukuyaman ideal of Northern Europe as the endpoint of political development. N...

Dive into the conundrums and riddles of Spanish politics with our latest riveting episode. Picture this: a high-stakes election, an unexpected coalition, and a political landscape teetering on the edge of ungovernability. In a plot twist that kept the nation on edge, the anticipated "right-wing tsunami" fell short, leaving the ruling socialists hanging by a thread. As the political chess game unfo...

On October 15, Poles were called to the polls—no pun intended. The ruling Law & Justice party—or PiS in its Polish acronym—came first with a plurality of ballots and parliamentary seats, but fell short of a majority. As a result, after eight years of rule, PM Mateusz Morawiecki's party will likely be replaced by a large and disparate coalition that ranges from the far-left to the right-of-center,...

"As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Romans, I seem to see "the Tiber foaming with blood". That tragic and intractable phenomenon which we watch with horror across the Atlantic but which is interwoven with the history and existence of the States itself, is coming upon us here by our own volition and our own neglect. Indeed, it has all but come. In numerical terms, it will be of...

Welcome to another Decency Deep Dive. This week we tackle three thorny topics. Non-subscribers will hear us lay out the ongoing coalitional dynamics on the Spanish right in the wake of last month's regional and local races, as well as the looming migration crisis knocking on the EU's door. Yet only Patreon subscribers will get to hear the sauciest part of the episode: a debate on whether the much-...

We are extremely lucky this week to host Ben Judah, Director of the Atlantic Council's Transform Europe Initiative, but most importantly for our purposes, the author of the recently published  This is Europe (2023), a travelogue of sorts that compiles short stories from all around the continent in an attempt to capture the spirit of being European. It's a special episode for many reasons. Firstly,...

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was re-elected as President of Turkey in a run-off on May 14th this year, all but assuring him a spot as one of the world's longest-serving leaders (he will have served 25 years altogether after this historic third term). His election victory cements Erdoğan's status as modern Turkey's preeminent leader alongside—and perhaps even surpassing—Kemal Ataturk. But what does another...

It's debating season again at Uncommon Decency. This week we are chatting about Zelensky's rock star world tour, unpacking the Greek center-right's triumph and weighing the Conservatives' (low) chances for a similar performance in the UK. Join us for our second Decency Deep Dive! As always, please rate and review Uncommon Decency on Apple Podcasts, and send us your comments or questions either on...

"Soon there will only be five kings left: the king of spades, of clubs, of hearts, of diamonds, and the king of England". King Farouk of Egypt was off in his prediction, but the permanency of the British monarchy has recently come under heightened scrutiny. The threat of independence from Britain's constituent kingdoms, accelerated by Brexit, means that this could well be the Last King of Britain...

In the mid-1990s, the mayor of Istanbul was quoted saying: "democracy is like a tram. You ride it until you arrive at your destination, then you step off". That mayor is now president and his critics fear he believes Turkey has reached its democratic destination. Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rise to power, his consolidation of it, and his ability to shape world events makes him one of the 21st century's...

It's debate season on Uncommon Decency. This week we evaluated President Macron's visit to China, and the premiership of Giorgia Meloni. As well as what stood out to us from the first part of this year. Enjoy! As always, please rate and review Uncommon Decency on Apple Podcasts, and send us your comments or questions either on Twitter at @UnDecencyPod or by e-mail at  undecencypod@gmail.com . And...

"If only mine were the last drop of Spanish blood to be spilled in civil strife. God willing, may the Spanish people at peace, so replete with extraordinary virtue, at last find homeland, bread and justice". Who among today's Spaniards could possibly disown this quote? The man who uttered in November 1936 shortly before being shot by firing squad, in whose tombstone the epitaph is inscribed, is Jo...

"I was born in 1881 in the great and mighty empire of the Habsburg Monarchy, but you would look for it in vain on the map today; it has vanished without trace". We begin with this quote from Stefan Zweig's memoir The World of Yesterday (1942) for two reasons. First, because it is a wonderful book that beautifully describes this powerful sense of loss—do give it a read. But more importantly, becaus...