Euroscopic Podcast

If Israel gets its way, the EU will be dragged kicking and screaming into global security relevance. Israel’s double-whammy assassinations of top Hizbollah and Hamas leaders is yet another drip-drip drop closer to making much of the Middle East look like Gaza. In addition to the mortifying human cost on the ground, that would have serious and scary implications for the European Union, which is onc...

Say what you want about democracy, but at least it isn’t boring. That may be the most compelling case right now for the Churchillian worst form of governance except for all the others. Autocrats stay in power for decades, making them pretty banal, but democratic politics have become rather ossified, too. So who knows where the seemingly but definitely not inevitable decision by US President Joe Bi...

A would-be assassin’s bullet didn’t have to kill Donald Trump to fundamentally change the course of the 2024 presidential election in the United States. The incident itself is just the most recent and highest profile example of an apparent increased willingness to resort to political violence. The European Union already felt that in the weeks before its parliamentary elections, as several candidat...

The results are in and France has gotten itself into a bit of a mess. But seeing that the alternative would have been getting itself deeper into the far right, I guess we can call that a win. But not call it a day — because now comes the hard part. Like most centrist liberals, Emmanuel Macron is no fan of lefty ideas. The left, for its part, is not great at keeping its parts together. So this is d...

The schizophrenic politics of the European Union continue. On one hand, you have the far-right winning big in France’s first round of parliamentary elections and Eurosceptic Viktor Orbán taking over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union (not to be confused with the European Council, which of course no one would ever do). On the other hand, you’ve got a trio of solid centrist...

News doldrums, silly season, Sommerloch . There are many names for the summertime off-season, when there isn’t much to report except the sunburns of politicians as they run off to the beach with everyone else. This summer, however, is shaping up to be anything but slow. The long days are sure to be filled with horse-trading and hand-wringing of all kinds. Both the United Kingdom and France hold sn...

Yes, the “center” of European politics “held.” But oh dear are things fragile. Neither the German nor French political establishment enjoys much legitimacy these days, and only the far-right seem to have come up with an “alternative” to them. Hey, say what you want, but at least it’s an ethos . While there are still plenty of socialists and center-left folks loafing about the halls of European pow...

Let the somber postmortems and insider jockeying begin! The result of the 2024 European elections this week was, broadly speaking, what we all figured it would be. The populist right and illiberal voices did alright, but the lefty-ish folks held their own. The Macrons and Scholzs of the bloc more or less collapsed, while the Green wave of 2019 is all but washed up. And … they kinda deserve it? Wha...

The nice thing about voting, other than that whole democracy thing, is it puts an end to months of filling airtime with unverifiable speculation. (Not that your humble Euroscopic hosts would ever stoop so low …). So Martin and I are, like millions of others across the European Union, eager to see polls open and await the results of European Elections. But first! One last chance to fill airtime wit...

It’s not long now until citizens of the European Union vote for their next European Parliament and, in turn, the Commission. So it’s a good time for Martin and William to figure out just where they stand on the issues. Voting can be confusing, which is why you can get some help with this handy test . Although we’ll be honest: It leaves a lot to be desired. Don’t miss an interview with podcast retu...

Tech, climate, illiberalism. Any one of those is enough to fill a policymaker’s plate. So why not take on all three at once? It’s actually six, if you listen to Johnny Ryan . He’s on the frontlines of the biggest developments that will alter European way of life as we know it — and in many ways already have. In an extensive interview, Ryan sheds light on the malicious actors and processes that und...

If your kind of music is the sort of derivative spectacle that sounds like something you could have asked ChatGPT for (fwiw, I did that here ), then the Eurovision Song Contest is for you. If your kind of values culture seems confused about what artistic expression is for, then you may want to consider a job with the European Broadcasting Union, which puts on the annual event. At least EVSC gives...

Germany’s national rail company, Deutsche Bahn, is not known for the most reliable infrastructure — physical or digital. So we rolled the dice running an episode from a high-speed train to Munich. Come along for the ride! The European Union has bigger problems than delayed trains — and so does Germany. Just weeks ahead of European elections, politicians are coming under attack. We look at what’s b...

William and Martin continue their criss-crossing of the European political order. With Martin in Vienna, among other places, he got a chance to talk to Luis Moreno Ocampo , a former prosecutor at the International Criminal Court. It’s a well-timed conversation, as speculation has emerged that the ICC could be preparing warrants for top Israeli and Hamas officials. William was over at the other int...

What’s six months among friends? The United States Congress finally voted on more than $60 billion in fresh military aid for Ukraine, finding a way around campaign-year politicking that includes more than a few Russian-friendlier Republicans. That combined with the new billions from European Union should give Ukraine a boost on the battlefield. We shall see. Given how many Republicans — a majority...

Politics and ideology aside, the U.S.-led multinational shoot-down of hundreds of Iranian projectiles coming at Israel last weekend was an impressive feat of military-industrial engineering. So that’s what trillions of dollars and hegemonic-driven regional cooperation buys you. Neat. Unless you’re Ukraine. Then you’re probably wondering — as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is — why no fire-in-the-sk...

Not even sickness can keep Martin from the news. Thanks to his suffering, listeners get treated to his extra-savory radio voice. And there are many savory items to get through. William takes great pleasure in watching wonky soothsayers read the tea leaves of what it all means when electoral fortunes break one way or another. Last week it was Turkey; this week it was Poland. Then we turn to the sta...

Very little happens quickly in the European Union. How much Germany has to do with that may be more correlation than causation, though the parallel is strong. For a coalition government that came into power at the end of 2021 “daring more progress,” it has taken more than half its term to do what many similar countries have already done. Pot is, finally, more or less legal. Whatever the political,...

Remember when loosely affiliated terror groups carrying out isolated, but deadly attacks in the name of religious fundamentalist ideology posed the gravest threat to European security? Weren’t those the good ol’ days. Now, following a brazen terror attack in Moscow, they’re back. And so is ISIS — at least in terms of getting talked about. This week’s Euroscopic takes some time to consider the poli...

Countries don’t interfere in other countries’ domestic politics — officially, anyway — but it is hardly a secret that the European Union fears a Trump Comeback. The EU is firmly Team Biden. Well, except for maybe Hungary. That’s why it was interesting to watch the reaction to comments by Barack Obama — another Democratic president the EU has a huge crush on — when he came to Antwerp to participate...

It has been a busy week in European politics, and much of it has to do with the woman at the top and the executive office she runs. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen came back from Bucharest, the capital of Romania and site of her EPP’s congress, last week officially anointed the conservative’s pick for another go in the top job. But questions linger over how much support she real...

What does an MEP and a U.S. Army general (ret.) have in common? (Besides this podcast.) Both are looking to 2024 and asking, in his own way, what do we as a society want? Damian Boeselager , the pan-EU Volt party’s only representative in Brussels, explains the baked-in disconnect between how the European Union works and why it gets so little credit for doing anything. Even as pro-EU national gover...

French authorities seem pretty convinced that Russia was looking to exploit the country’s political sensitivity towards all-things antisemitism. Meanwhile, Germany seems confused about what antisemitism even is. At national and European levels, domestic politics appear to be coming under pressure from a number of angles, and the farmers are — literally — at the gates. Thankfully, the view from abo...

The Munich Security Conference celebrated its diamond jubilee last weekend. A who’s who of global security and foreign affairs elite gathered for three days of panels, receptions, and sideline talks that shape larger events as much as they reveal something about them. Ian Bremmer , founder of the Eurasia Group, was one of the many insiders to take part in the MSC. He joins us to offer a few of his...

“Strategic autonomy” is the buzzword that seems will neither go away nor come to fruition. The European Union has ample reason to get its security ducks in a row, and didn’t need former and maybe future President Donald Trump for a reminder. But there’s no stopping Trump. His latest loudmouth remarks on NATO members not pulling their weight has the transatlantic alliance once again in damage-contr...