We are a platform for experts and intellectuals from Central and Eastern Europe, embodying the liberal environment, to share their opinions and ideas.

Trump demands that universities, including Columbia, where he has already succeeded, formally adopt and enforce the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which completely blurs the line between real dislike or hatred of Jews and criticism of Israeli state policy (for which there are currently many very valid reasons).

There are mornings when you wake up to a war zone before you have even had your coffee. Not a front line in the physical sense, but on the screen in the palm of your hand: war, climate catastrophe, another scandal, another \"ultimate truth\" about who the enemy is, who to hate today. The news feed tells us that the world is burning, and at the same time, we should not even think about what to do about it.

When talking about total defense, for whom and against what is it? What should the European total defense look like? Why cannot everyone be like Finland? And is total defense even possible in polarized societies? Leszek Jazdzewski talks with Helena Quis, who works in the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Europe Programme as an expert on European security and resilience, focusing on total defense and civil preparedness. 

“War,” Hillman writes, “contains within it, in the broader sense, the word peace: peace as victory. This fusion of peace with military triumph reveals itself fully in prayers for peace, where—quietly and between the lines—one is really praying for victory in war.” Every war eventually comes to an end; more or less fortunately, more or less satisfactorily for the warring sides and their allies.

Europe stands at a crucial moment. While global competitors move faster and innovate freely, European businesses , especially SMEs, find themselves tangled in growing layers of rules and procedures. The newly released 4liberty.eu Manifesto, Deregulation, not Simplification – Europe’s Way Out of Bureaucracy, sets out a clear and actionable alternative: less red tape, more room to grow, and a stronger Europe in the global economy.