In memory of the Russian human rights lawyer Yuri Schmidt, an annual conference has been held in Berlin since 2017. This year, LibMod founding director Ralf Fücks delivered the keynote speech, in which he warned that authoritarian regimes are on the rise and that anti-liberal sentiments are growing even in democracies. He called on human rights defenders to unite across borders.
At the Munich Security Conference, John Lough spoke with Ralf Fücks about the evolving triangle between China, Russia, and Europe. The conversation explores the strategic logic behind the Beijing–Moscow partnership, Europe’s struggle to assert its agency, and Germany’s search for a new economic and security strategy. Can Europe turn a moment of geopolitical pressure into one of strategic renewal?
Is it legitimate to restrict political freedoms – such as freedom of speech or the right to build political parties and to run for elections – in order to protect national security and to defend liberal democracy against its enemies? This is of course one of the classic controversies of political theory and practice, as Ralf Fücks analyzes.
In the face of multiple crises and a depressing world situation, it is not surprising that many non-fiction books from this fall are deeply pessimistic. Unlike “On Freedom” by US historian Timothy Snyder. Our author Till Schmidt spoke with him about his latest book.
Since January 2021 there has been growing military escalation in conflict-affected areas of Donbas. Russia has built up military equipment deployment along the Russian-Ukrainian border, repositioned its army and strengthened...
While violence thrives in silence, it has no chance to persist if brought to public attention. International attention and support to the people in Belarus are now more crucial than...
On this date 74 years ago, the Red Army liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. The 27th of January became the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism. Much has...
For decades, Sinologists who were largely blind to China’s expansive power politics have dominated Germany’s political advice circles, cultivating an image of China that our author calls “Late Orientalism”. Shaped...
Over the last 200 years, Liberalism has been a stunning success story. It brought forward liberty and prosperity for the many instead of privileges for the few. Yet, today liberal thinking and...
Sandra Detzer und Sebastian Schaffer of the German Greens travel to Sweden where the right-wing-populist “Sweden Democrats” could win the election in September. But where danger is, rescue also grows:...
Society is caught up in a whirlwind of change. The power of liberal democracies is dwindling and the political balance in the world is shifting. An interview with Ralf Fücks on...
The anti-liberal revolt ist not limited to the US and Europe. Tendencies towards an ‘illiberal democracy’ and ethnic nationalism can be observed in Israel as well. The Israeli author Dahlia...
In the coalition agreement, the CDU and the SPD dodge important reforms and take a scattershot approach to the distribution of a great deal of money. The big challenges, like climate, demographic...
The five AfD Members of the Bundestag from Saxony are among the most radical in the party’s (Alternative for Germany) parliamentary group. At a party event near Pirna, the party base...
Karen Horn reminds us of forgotten, pioneering thinkers on liberty and highlights the necessary contradiction within which a modern liberalism exists: the tension between limiting state influence and recognizing that influence...
The EU as we knew it does not exist anymore. This is Ivan Krastev’s point of departure. The optimistic belief in the idea of progress that was widely held during...
There can be no liberal modernity without social justice, which is why nothing can surpass the social democratic idea, which has been marginalized in the current SPD. Anyone, who is...
The rapid pace of modernisation renders people susceptible to populism. In cosmopolitan milieus, this came as a surprise. Yet the warning signs had long been apparent.
