Publications / IWMpost

Perhaps it is due to the tremendous political changes of our time that a majority of the essays in this edition address political issues. Several contributions focus on the current crisis of democracy. In the lead article, IWM Rector Glenny discusses the growing power of the tech industry in the US, which is attempting to consolidate its position through extraordinary access to classified information.

The central text of the present issue responds to an urgent problem of our time. At a historical moment when the world order established after the Second World War is increasingly crumbling and being challenged, international relations expert Stephen Walt outlines the key elements of and the path toward a possible better world order.

The main essay in this IWMpost issue responds to a pervasive mood of our time. Against the backdrop of several ongoing global crises, from which it is becoming increasingly difficult to imagine a way out, apocalyptic visions of the future are booming. However, according to John Palattella, the false prophets of our time confuse the destruction of humanity with salvation. Inspired by Elizabeth Bishop, the author warns against abandoning the necessary work of understanding for the fascination of these visions.

In line with the profile of the IWM and the IWMpost, this issue covers a wide range of topics. For the first time, however, the largest section of an IWMpost issue consists of essays that center on art and literature, and that use them as entry points to reflect on social issues. The essays that form this section address the political implications of pioneering work by artists (Prakash, Orzoff, Antonova), discuss the interplay between art and politics (Antonova, Koprivica), focus on literary ways of mirroring and documenting reality (Hagedorn, Rybkowska), and problematize the encounter between art and science (Grasso).

The photo on the cover of this issue is taken from the portrait series ST. JAVELIN by Julia Krahn. The artist invited Ukrainian women who have fled their country to tell their stories through images and interviews. The photo points to the essays by Bialasiewicz and Biziukova, Koziienko, and Lazareva—which discuss the reception of Ukrainian refugees in Europe—as well as to the issue’s larger focus on migration, displacement, and governance. Hansen elaborates on the shifts brought about by the 1973 oil crisis, which resulted in massive migratory flows. Donà and Çağlar identify aspects of the coloniality of power in the governance of migration. Kallergis calls for a reframing of environmental migration in the Global North, while Levitt addresses dramatic shifts in the social protection of migrants.

The second issue of IWMpost in the fortieth year of the IWM is intended to provide insight into the broad disciplinary and thematic range of research conducted at the institute. 

Philosophical essays are at the center of the issue. Fraenkel discusses the relevance of ancient Greek philosophy for the present, focusing on Aristotle’s conception of the good life. Zawisza draws attention to the importance of the kabbalistic vision of Creation for a political theology of the West. And Barzilay problematizes changes in the political and historical understanding of humanity in view of the climate and nuclear crises. The critical implications of gender and (de-)coloniality in contemporary knowledge production are the subject of Kaiser-Trujillo’s and Dube’s epistemological essays.

We intended to celebrate – IWMpost 129 was to contain a supplement for the fortieth anniversary of the IWM. However, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we no longer felt like celebrating. Thus, we decided to dedicate the supplement to Ukraine instead. The guiding maxim of the supplement’s editor, Permanent Fellow Kate Younger: If we want to understand what is at stake in Ukraine today, not only for Ukrainians but for all of us, the only place to start is to listen to Ukrainians. With the exceptions of Timothy Snyder and the editor herself, all contributions to the supplement are penned by former or current fellows of the program Ukraine in European Dialogue. The creators of the photographs and artwork illustrating the articles are also from Ukraine.

From the originally envisaged anniversary supplement, we decided to include in the regular issue only the focus on “European boundaries and divides.” Permanent Fellow Ivan Krastev and Volodymyr Yermolenko address the question of Europe’s borders against the backdrop of the war, each from a different perspective. Jacques Rupnik and Maria Todorova, for their part, discuss the relevance of two categories that enjoyed great prominence in the first post-socialist decade: “Central Europe” and “the Balkans.” Finally, Basil Kerski’s essay points to the often neglected transnational and European dimension of the Solidarność movement.

Statelessness—a status of fundamental rightlessness and unprotectedness encompassing ever larger populations in the South and the North—is the central focus of the present IWMpost issue. A workshop on "Sites of Statelessness" held in September 2021 at the IWM marked the beginning of an intensive engagement with the problem of statelessness by the Europe Asia Research Platform on Forced Migration (a joint project of the IWM and the Calcutta Research Group), which promises to yield innovative insights.

The cover of this issue shows a statue of King Leopold II of Belgium in Ghent that was smeared with red paint and removed just as the country was about to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Congo’s independence. Attacks on statues have become a typical expression of protest against a hegemonic narrative of history and the ubiquity of its symbolic representations. They demonstrate that history has become the central terrain of contemporary political struggles.

Living in a democracy is not something to be taken for granted. The challenges and attacks it faces worldwide are not only the subject of this issue, but also the primary question with which the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna has been dealing since its foundation in 1982. The current issue, which was compiled before the US elections, brings together articles by internationally renowned scholars, journalists, and artists who have either spent a fellowship in residence at the IWM or participated in events or projects of the Institute (some of them physical, others virtual). Some of the books produced at the IWM are presented in excerpts in this issue or showcased continuously on our website under the section “Made in IWM.” Another new feature is the podcast series “Democracy in Question,” moderated by IWM Rector Shalini Randeria. For details see www.iwm.at.

Is it tomorrow yet? This is the question Ivan Krastev asks at the beginning of his new book, which deals with the question of how the current pandemic will change Europe.

What if we were wrong? What if the hope that the end of the Cold War was the beginning of an age of liberalism and democracy was just an illusion?

Thirty years have passed since the fall of the Iron Curtain. The euphoria of that time has given way to the disillusionment of the present. Democratic achievements are increasingly called into question with the rise of populist forces. Hence the provocative title of the anthology “Wenn Demokratien demokratisch untergehen” (When democracies founder democratically), published in 2019 by IWM and Passagen Verlag, presented here with excerpts from Chantal Mouffe, Nadia Urbinati and Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Luiza Bialasiewicz and Sabrina Stallone also deal with the rhetoric of anti-democratic movements through the example of fascist movements in Italy. Migration—a subject that populists are all too eager to stress—is the subject of Ayşe Cağlar’s contribution, which highlights the importance of the concepts of protection and responsibility for the functioning of a global migration policy.

Power and powerlessness—this was not only the theme of this year’s Vienna Humanities Festival, conflict-laden power relations also run like a red thread through the current issue of the IWMpost. As Timothy Snyder shows in his latest book The Road to Unfreedom, democracy can very quickly turn into tyranny. Michael Sandel describes this very vividly using Donald Trump’s example in the USA.  is is also where the #MeToo debate, with which Elisabeth Holzleithner and Ulrike Lunacek critically deal, began. Ruth Wodak, on the other hand, asks about the position of women in the “postfactual age”. John Palattella has analyzed how media deal with declining sales figures and loss of credibility.

The crisis of democracy has long been the subject of much discussion. But what can we do to counteract it? In conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Austria, the 121st issue of the IWMpost tackles the question of how democracy, human rights and the rule of law can be not just preserved, but strengthened.

When the Institute for Human Sciences was founded in 1982, Europe was divided and there was no end in sight to the Cold War. Borders did not only run along the Iron Curtain but were also present in people’s minds.

Much has been written lately about the rise of populism and crises of liberal democracy. But what role do intellectuals play in an age of right-wing insurgency in Europe and beyond? While Andrew Brandel focuses on the “battle over language” and the neoliberal erosion of knowledge in the US academic system, Lilia Shevtsova explains why liberalism has failed to take deep root in Russian society. On the world political stage, as tensions between Russia and the West continue to mount, multi-lateral dialogue and international diplomacy are more important than ever to avoid a new Cold War, says Walter Kemp in his article based on an OSCE workshop at the IWM. The rule of law and the laws of war are also discussed in contributions by Ezgi Yildiz and León Castellanos-Jankiewicz, who reflect on the functions and transformations of international law in the 21st century. In this context, Sebastian M. Spitra shows how the concept of cultural property has been used as an instrument of (neo)colonial rule in the past and present.

According to the the US American intellectual historian Mark Lilla, we live in a reactionary age. The optimism of the last decades has given way to the politics of anger, despair, and resentment. The promise to make one’s country ‘great again’ is drawing disenchanted voters to populists like Trump. Political scientist Jan-Werner Müller examines the likely impact of Trump’s victory on democracy and social cohesion in the US. Women’s rights, too, are under threat by the rise of radical and anti-pluralist forces, as the contributions by María do Mar Castro Varela, Elisabeth Holzleithner, Shalini Randeria, Katha Politt and Mieke Verloo on the occasion of the International Women’s Day 2016 make clear. In this context of a return to more authoritarian social norms, IWM Permanent Fellow and legal historian Miloš Vec examines the debate on the refusal to shake hands by analysing the complex relations between different cultural conventions, gender roles, and legal frameworks.

Economic crisis, financial crisis, media crisis, Greek crisis, Ukrainian crisis, refugee crisis—it seems that the state of crisis has become the new normality. The current issue of the IWMpost takes a critical look at these developments and explores their interconnectedness.

This year’s Patočka Memorial Lecture, held by the Polish Soziologist Zygmunt Bauman in April 2015, was devoted to the subject of “Diasporic Terrorism”. Bauman addressed the challenges faced by multicultural societies, the ‘fear of the stranger’ and the ‘glocalization’ of conflicts. At that time nobody could anticipate the series of horrific attacks that would hit Paris only a few months later. From today’s perspective, Bauman’s appeal to engage in serious dialogue and to go beyond tolerance towards solidarity, seem more important than ever. That applies particularly to the current refugee crises in Europe which Jacques Rupnik analyzes from an Eastern European perspective. He tries to provide an answer to the question why the central and eastern European countries refuse to host larger numbers of refugees.

The year 2015 marked a new beginning at the Institute of Human Sciences. This issue of the IWMpost reflects the thematic continuity at the IWM despite several personnel changes. I have been privileged to receive a warm and enthusiastic welcome in Vienna since taking office as Rector in January this year. It has been a pleasure to get to know, and work with, the excellent and dedicated administrative and academic staff at IWM which has been expanded through the incorporation of Carl Henrik Fredriksson from Eurozine as the new Head of Publications and of Ludger Hagedorn, who is now in charge of the IWM’s Patočka Archives. I would like to extend a warm welcome to Knut Neumayer, who has taken over as Executive Director from Susanne Fröschl. For her many years of service to the IWM I thank her and wish her the best for a new start at the Öko-Institut Freiburg, where she is a member of the Executive Board. I look forward to working with the entire IWM team including the Permanent Fellows to realise our mission to support critical scholarly reflection, foster political engagement and contribute to public debate.