Democracy in Question? is brought to you by:• Central European University: CEU• The Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: AHCD• The Podcast Company: Novel Follow us on social media!• Central European University: @CEU• Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: @AHDCentreSubscribe to the show. If you enjoyed what you listened to, you can support us by leaving a review and sharing our podcast in your networks!  DiQ S6 EP10Daniela Schwarzer on Europe’s Strategic Conundrums (Part 2) GlossaryWhat is an LNG terminal?(04:32 or p.1 in the transcript)LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) terminal is a reception facility for unloading of cargo from LNG tankers. These purpose-built ports are specially used for export and import of LNG. A variety of facilities for unloading, regasification, tanking, metering etc. of LNG are provided at these terminals. Natural gas is transported in liquified state using LNG gas tankers. At LNG terminals, the liquified natural gas is turned back into gaseous state (regasified) after unloading from ships and then distributed across the network.source What is the Fridays for Future movement?(05:48 or p.2 in the transcript)For almost three weeks prior to the Swedish election in September 2018, Swedish climate activist 15-year-old Greta Thunberg missed school to sit outside the country’s parliament with a sign that stated “Skolstrejk för Klimatet” (School Strike for Climate). Although alone for the first day of the strike, she was joined each subsequent day by more and more people, and her story garnered international attention. After the election Thunberg returned to school but continued to skip classes on Fridays to strike, and these days were called Fridays for Future. Her action inspired hundreds of thousands of students around the world to participate in their own Fridays for Future. Strikes were held in such countries as Belgium, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Finland, Denmark, France, and the Netherlands. source

Democracy in Question? is brought to you by:• Central European University: CEU• The Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: AHCD• The Podcast Company: Novel Follow us on social media!• Central European University: @CEU• Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: @AHDCentreSubscribe to the show. If you enjoyed what you listened to, you can support us by leaving a review and sharing our podcast in your networks!  DiQ S6 EP9Daniela Schwarzer on Europe’s Strategic Conundrums (Part 1)GlossaryWhat is the Visegrád Group?(20:22 or p.5 in the transcript)The Visegrád Group, Visegrád Four, or V4, is a cultural and political alliance of four Central European countries – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, that are members of the European Union (EU) and NATO – for the purposes of advancing military, cultural, economic and energy cooperation with one another along with furthering their integration in the EU. The Group traces its origins to the summit meetings of leaders from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland held in the Hungarian castle-town of Visegrád on 15 February 1991. Visegrád was chosen as the location for the 1991 meeting as an intentional allusion to the medieval Congress of Visegrád in 1335 between John I of Bohemia, Charles I of Hungary and Casimir III of Poland. After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, the Czech Republic and Slovakia became independent members of the group, thus increasing the number of members from three to four. All four members of the Visegrád Group joined the European Union on 1 May 2004. sourceWhat is the NextGenerationEU?(25:44 or p.6 in the transcript)NextGenerationEU is the EU's €800 billion temporary recovery instrument to support the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and build a greener, more digital and more resilient future. The centrepiece of NextGenerationEU is the Recovery and Resilience Facility- an instrument that offers grants and loans to support reforms and investments in the EU Member States for a total of €723.8 billion in current prices. Part of the funds – up to €338 billion – are being provided to Member States in the form of grants. Another part – up to €385.8 billion– funds loans to individual Member States. These loans will be repaid by those Member States. Should Member States not request the full envelope of loans available under the facility, the remaining amount of loans will be used to finance REPowerEU, a programme to accelerate the EU’s green transition and reduce its reliance on Russian gas. Funds under the Recovery and Resilience funds are being provided to Member States in line with their national Recovery and Resilience plans – the roadmaps to reforms and investments aimed to make EU economies greener, digital and more resilient. Part of the NextGenerationEU funds are being used to reinforce several existing EU programmes. source

Democracy in Question? is brought to you by:• Central European University: CEU• The Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: AHCD• The Podcast Company: Novel Follow us on social media!• Central European University: @CEU• Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: @AHDCentreSubscribe to the show. If you enjoyed what you listened to, you can support us by leaving a review and sharing our podcast in your networks! 

Democracy in Question? is brought to you by:• Central European University: CEU• The Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: AHCD• The Podcast Company: Novel Follow us on social media!• Central European University: @CEU• Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: @AHDCentreSubscribe to the show. If you enjoyed what you listened to, you can support us by leaving a review and sharing our podcast in your networks!  DiQ S6 EP7Yehouda Shenhav-Shahrabani on Israel: Democracy on the DefensiveGlossaryWhat is the Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow Coalition?(02:11 or p.1 in the transcript)The Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow Coalition is a social movement on the party and outside the parliamentary system, whose goal is to influence the public agenda, with the intention of bringing about a comprehensive change of Israeli society and its various institutions. The initiative to establish the movement came from second and third generation men and women of the Jews of Arab and Eastern countries. They come from all parts of the country and represent different levels of Israeli society. The active nucleus of the movement includes academics, workers, businessmen, clerks, teachers, artists and intellectuals, community activists, students, social and cultural organizations, residents of towns, townships, and neighborhoods. The Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow was founded in March 1996 by 40 women and men. In December 1996, following a series of discussions, the movement was formally established by 100 members, who constituted the Constituent Assembly. Since then, this body has expanded and it functions as the council of the movement, in which the fundamental decisions binding the movement are made. At the founding conference, the secretariat of the movement, which operates under the decisions of the movement's council, was appointed. In addition, the Committee of the Spokespersons and the Audit Committee was elected. All officials were elected in secret elections and committed to equal representation of women and men in all elected institutions of the movement. It was decided that the elections for all institutions of the movement would be held once a year. source What was the February 26, 2023 Hawara pogrom?(05:24 or p.2 in the transcript)Following the murder of two Israeli brothers in the West Bank on Feb. 26, 2023, a mob of around 400 Israelis attacked the Palestinian town of Hawara. They torched dozens of homes and cars, leaving one dead and hundreds wounded before being stopped by Israeli security forces. Though some government leaders – including the head of the parliament’s National Security Committee – praised the mob or called for the state itself to erase the town’s existence, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned them for “taking the law into their own hands.” Others – including the top Israeli military commander Major General Yehuda Fuchs in the West Bank – used even stronger language, calling the attack a “pogrom,” as did a statement against the attack by the Israeli Historical Society, signed by some of Israel’s most renowned historians. According to historian John Klier, a pogrom is “an outbreak of mass violence directed against a minority religious, ethnic or social group [that] usually implies central instigation and control, or at minimum the passivity of local authorities.” source Who was Meir Kahane?(06:08 or p.2 in the transcript)Meir Kahane was an American-born Israeli political extremist and rabbi who campaigned for self-protection of Jews. Kahane joined a paramilitary, right-wing youth movement in 1946. He was ordained an Orthodox rabbi in 1957 after studies at Mirrer Yeshiva in New York. In 1968 he formed the militant Jewish Defense League (JDL), attracted followers with the post-Holocaust slogan “Never Again,” and sent armed patrols of young Jews into Black neighborhoods. After being imprisoned for conspiring to make bombs, Kahane moved to Israel in 1971. There Kahane formed the Kach Party and stirred nationalist fervor against Arabs, whom he campaigned to remove (violently, if necessary) from Israel and all Israeli-occupied areas. He won a seat in the Israeli Knesset (parliament) in 1984, but his term ended when Israel banned the Kach Party for its antidemocratic and racist beliefs. Back in New York, Kahane was shot to death by a naturalized American of Egyptian descent. source What was the 2014 Gaza War?(08:17 or p.3 in the transcript)On July 8, 2014, Israel launched a large-scale military operation using aerial and naval firepower against a variety of targets associated with Hamas and other militant groups. After more than a week of bombardment failed to halt the rocket attacks, Israeli land forces entered the Gaza Strip on a mission to destroy tunnels and other elements of the militants’ infrastructure. Israel withdrew its land forces from the Gaza Strip in early August, declaring that their mission had been fulfilled. Israeli air strikes continued, as did rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip. In late August, after nearly two months of fighting, Israeli and Palestinian leaders reached an open-ended cease-fire. In exchange for Palestinian adherence to the cease-fire, Israel agreed to allow more goods into the Gaza Strip, to expand the fishing zone off the coast of the Gaza Strip from 3 to 6 miles (5 to 10 km), and to enforce a narrower security buffer in the areas adjacent to the Israeli border. Overall, the conflict was one of the deadliest between Israelis and Palestinians: 70 Israelis and more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed in the fighting. sourceWhat was the 1967 Six-Day War?(30:15 or p.7 in the transcript)Six-Day War, also called June WarorThird Arab-Israeli WarorNaksah was brief war that took place June 5–10, 1967, and was the third of the Arab-Israeli wars. Israel’s decisive victory included the capture of the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, West Bank, Old City of Jerusalem, and Golan Heights; the status of these territories subsequently became a major point of contention in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Six-Day War also marked the start of a new phase in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians since the conflict created hundreds of thousands of refugees and brought more than one million Palestinians in the occupied territories under Israeli rule. Months after the war, in November, the United Nations passed UN Resolution 242, which called for Israel’s withdrawal from the territories it had captured in the war in exchange for lasting peace. That resolution became the basis for diplomatic efforts between Israel and its neighbors, including the Camp David Accords with Egypt and the push for a two-state solution with the Palestinians. source

Guests featured in this episode:Sergei Guriev, Provost of Sciences Po in Paris. He's professor of economics there following an outstanding academic career at the New Economic School in Moscow. He was its Rector until 2013 when he was forced by political circumstances to leave Russia. Between 2016 and 2019, Sergei served as the chief economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. And he has held visiting professorships at MIT, Princeton. And in 2006, he was selected a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.His very broad research interests span various areas of political economics, developmental economics, labor mobility, corporate governance and contract theory. And besides numerous academic publications, he also writes for "The New York Times," "Financial Times," "Washington Post," and "Project Syndicate." His latest book, "Spin Dictators," written together with Daniel Treisman, is a fascinating account of the changing character of authoritarian politics. GlossaryWhat is China’s “zero-COVID” policy?(23:25 or p.6 in the transcript)COVID-19, a highly contagious respiratory illness, was first detected in Wuhan, China, in 2019 and rapidly spread throughout the country and the world, giving rise to a multiyear pandemic that resulted in millions of deaths worldwide. In efforts to keep the disease from spreading, China implemented strict “zero-COVID” policies aimed at keeping the number of cases as close to zero as possible through measures including strict lockdowns, quarantines, and mass testing. As a result, infection cases and deaths were relatively lower in China compared with other wealthy countries. Despite residents’ initial support of government policies and China’s early success in containing the spread of the disease, many grew frustrated as the restrictions became harsher and longer due to an increased number of cases resulting from highly transmissible variants. Repeated lockdowns and testing disrupted residents’ daily life and travel across the country. Some parts of China, such as Yining and Guiyang, experienced shortages of food and other essential items. The zero-COVID policies were eased in December 2022 following a rare protest by thousands of Chinese residents demanding that the government end the harsh policies, some even calling for the resignation of Xi Jinping. sourceWhat was the 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea?(25:10 or p.7 in the transcript)Almost immediately after the 2014 Maidan Revolution in Ukraine ended, armed men began occupying key facilities and checkpoints on the Crimean Peninsula. They wore Russian combat fatigues but with no identifying insignia. President Vladimir Putin at first flatly denied these were Russian soldiers, only to later admit that they were and award commendations to their commanders. The sizeable Ukrainian military presence in Crimea stayed in garrison. If shooting began, Kyiv wanted the world to see the Russians fire first. Ukraine’s Western partners urged Kyiv not to take precipitate action. Since many enlisted personnel in the Ukrainian ranks came from Crimea, Ukrainian commanders probably had less than full confidence in the reliability of their troops. By early March, Russian troops had secured the entire peninsula. On March 6, the Crimean Supreme Council voted to ask to accede to Russia. The council scheduled a referendum for March 16, which offered two choices: join Russia or return to Crimea’s 1992 constitution, which gave the peninsula significant autonomy. Those who favoured Crimea remaining part of Ukraine under the current constitution had no box to check. The conduct of the referendum proved chaotic and took place absent any credible international observers. Local authorities reported a turnout of 83 percent, with 96.7 percent voting to join Russia. The numbers seemed implausible, given that ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars accounted for almost 40 percent of the peninsula’s population. (Two months later, a leaked report from the Russian president’s Human Rights Council put turnout at only 30 percent, with about half of those voting to join Russia.) On March 18, Crimean and Russian officials signed the Treaty of Accession of the Republic of Crimea to Russia. Putin ratified the treaty three days later. source Democracy in Question? is brought to you by:• Central European University: CEU• The Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: AHCD• The Podcast Company: Novel Follow us on social media!• Central European University: @CEU• Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy in Geneva: @AHDCentreSubscribe to the show. If you enjoyed what you listened to, you can support us by leaving a review and sharing our podcast in your networks!