How Europeans compare Putin and Stalin in the context of Russia's war in Ukraine

This study examines public perceptions of similarities between Vladimir Putin and Joseph Stalin across five European countries: Austria, Denmark, Finland, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The analysis uses survey data collected between December 2024 and January 2025 to investigate how historical memory, geopolitical proximity, political orientation, and media exposure are linked to these perceptions. The findings reveal significant cross-national and within-country variations. Northern European countries, particularly Finland and Denmark, show stronger perceptions of similarity, likely due to historical encounters with Soviet aggression and geographical proximity to Russia. In contrast, Austria, Spain, and the United Kingdom exhibit more moderate views, influenced by different historical experiences and greater geographical distance. Within each country, individuals closely following news about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and perceiving the conflict as a significant global threat are more likely to draw parallels between Putin and Stalin. Political ideology also plays a role, with far-right party supporters in Austria less inclined to perceive similarities. These findings underscore the links between historical legacies and contemporary geopolitical concerns, offering insights into how past experiences shape public perceptions of modern authoritarian leaders and influence European political discourse on Russia’s actions.

Croatia's ‘new’ national conservatives: the ‘Homeland movement’

This article introduces the national conservative party of the Homeland Movement ( Domovinski Pokret , DP). This is Croatia's third largest party and, since 8 May 2024, a government partner to the (centre-right) Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). This article explores how the Homeland Movement draws inspiration from the longer trajectory of Croatian ethno-nationalism to legitimize its prerogatives and mobilize its support bases. It also seeks to determine whether there is something innovative or idiosyncratic about the party's engagement in domestic and European politics. First, this piece introduces Croatia's ‘Homeland War’ (1991–1995) as a master symbol of ethno-nationalist imageries. Then the empirical component concentrates on the Homeland Movement, its outlooks on identity politics in Croatia and Europe, its stance vis-à-vis the EU, and the bases of support. The Homeland Movement draws much of its inspiration from the ‘Homeland War’. However, the party embeds this symbolic capital into ‘pro-welfare’ proposals and an elaborate Eurosceptic platform. This resonates with the political values and aspirations of the party's target groups. In all this, the Homeland Movement comes across as a predominantly national conservative party, comprising elements of ethno-nationalism, nativism, social conservatism, soft Euroscepticism, and malleable anti-establishment tones.

Accessibility and usage patterns of urban green spaces in Mogadishu, Somalia

This study assessed urban green space (UGS) accessibility and usage in Mogadishu, Somalia, a city facing significant post-conflict challenges. Employing a quantitative survey with 138 residents and GIS analysis, the research examined UGS availability, distribution, proximity, and resident perceptions. Findings reveal a severe UGS crisis marked by widespread depletion, critical inaccessibility, and infrequent public use. Over 60,524.7 square metres of former public UGS are now inaccessible due to privatisation or occupation by Internally Displaced Persons. The city’s three paid private parks, totalling 159,788 m 2 , are deemed inadequate. A majority of residents expressed dissatisfaction with UGS availability and proximity, with only 14% able to reach a green space within a 15-minute walk. Visitation is low, primarily for relaxation and stress relief. A crucial finding highlights the normalisation of limited access among the 25–35 age group (born post-civil war), potentially hindering future advocacy for these resources. This crisis stems from land grabbing, privatisation, Internally Displaced Persons’ settlements, and security concerns. Urgent, multi-faceted interventions are needed, including strategic urban planning, addressing underlying challenges, and public education campaigns, to enhance well-being and support Mogadishu’s sustainable recovery.

The Contested Legacy of Cold War Liberalism Liberalism against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times, Samuel Moyn, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2023, 240 pp., $27.50, ISBN 9780300266214

Idea(s) of Dutch Neutrality in the American Debate on Neutral Rights (1793–1807)

Since the latter part of the seventeenth century trade and war had become increasingly entangled due to the bellicose commercial rivalry of European colonial powers, who emulated one another in a system dominated by ‘jealousies of trade'. European economic thinkers therefore felt increasingly compelled to search for means to uncouple trade and war. Propositions for potential solutions to cure these commercial conflicts are to be found throughout the eighteenth century. The strengthening of neutral rights, especially, was regarded as offering a possible remedy. Leading up to the War of American Independence, a debate began in the Dutch Republic on how neutrality could be advantageously defined to promote commerce without becoming involved in wars of ‘entangling alliances'. The actors in this debate would produce arguments that were later adopted by members of George Washington’s cabinet. Alexander Hamilton was the advocate of ‘strict' neutrality, while Thomas Jefferson was in favour of ‘active’ neutrality. These two concepts of Dutch foreign policy are examined in this research article with special attention given to their influence on the direction of American foreign policy from 1793 to 1807.

Kashmir Without History: Sheikh Abdullah, Jinnah and the Partition of India

Before 1947, Sheikh Abdullah, Kashmir’s leading thinker-politician and the arch-theorist of Indian federalism, produced a scalar conception of nationality which rested on a shared past. But the Partition of India required Abdullah to recalibrate his ideas for a new context. In a perverse acknowledgement of Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s anti-historical triumph, Abdullah realised that South Asians, compulsorily freed from the protracted narrative of India’s common inheritance, had to arrange their multi-ethnic unions on civic lines. And since India and Pakistan were suddenly at war over his Kashmiri homeland, Abdullah provided an especially intense meditation on Jinnah’s new-found intellectual hegemony, which had profound implications for multiple strains of Indian political thought. Forced to move beyond nature and history, Abdullah’s politics adopted a presentist accent, like Jinnah’s had from the very beginning of his career. As Abdullah contemplated Kashmiri futures from within (and outside) the Indian Union, he relied on conceptions of secular citizenship, self-determination, wealth redistribution, and socialist development. Therefore, Abdullah’s engagement with Jinnah was not restricted to a conceptual death of history alone, or even to disagreements on the twinned questions of federation and religious representation. It included a more foundational dispute: between their conflicting progressive and conservative political orientations.

Persistent Surveillance: Military Blimps in Contested Territories

The military has long favored occupying high grounds to establish strategic dominance. Maintaining elevated surveillance posts over extended periods has always been a challenge, however. This article examines the rise of the blimp, a secretive technology that has solved that problem by offering persistent surveillance from the air. Originally deployed by the U.S. military in foreign war zones, these blimps have since been introduced on domestic soil. Drawing on a corpus of official records, corporate documents, and leaked war logs, the article explores the inner workings of these blimps, revealing their role in shaping the U.S. military’s information superiority. It begins with a brief history of the military balloon, tracing the surveillance-oriented origins of aeromobility. The article then turns to the social and political implications of this technology, with a focus on the Afghan mediascape, where locals resisted the persistent surveillance blimps by critiquing their power and purpose. It concludes by arguing that persistent surveillance blimps, equipped with sophisticated Wide Area Motion Imagery (WAMI) systems, represent a paradigm shift. They transform episodic data collection, often carried out by drones, into continuous, omnipresent surveillance, with serious implications for privacy, freedom, and sovereignty in war zones and beyond.

From the sick man of Europe to the tragic man of Anatolia

This article explores Turkey’s collective identity through Heinz Kohut’s concept of the “group self.” The decline and collapse of the Ottoman Empire, followed by wars, occupations, and mass migrations, inflicted profound narcissistic injuries on the national self. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk emerged as an idealized selfobject, fostering a cohesive “we-self” during the War of Independence and the foundation of the Republic. Yet, the rapid reforms of the early Republic, combined with unresolved historical traumas and their intergenerational transmission, left enduring fractures in the collective self. Today, tensions between secular and religious segments, together with challenges posed by refugee migration and unprocessed collective traumas, continue to fragment national cohesion. Within Kohut’s framework, idealization, mirroring, and twinship functions are vital for stability and integration. The article argues that psychoanalytic perspectives and the strengthening of mental health practices are essential to address collective trauma and support the development of a cohesive national self in contemporary Turkey.

Professional male English footballers of the 20th century had lower death rates than the general population

Elite athlete cohorts in most sports outlive the general population. We aimed to assess the standardised mortality ratios (SMR) of male professional footballers in England from the 20th Century compared to the general population in England. We included players born between 1900–1972 who had played for the best performing 25 clubs in the English Football League in the 20th Century. We chose these years of birth meaning debut after the First World War (when football records became more reliable) and debut before the start of the Premier League (when teams became composed of a high number of non-British players). We used Wikidata as our primary source of publicly available data for players in our chosen cohort, supplemented by additional databases. Expected deaths (between 1963–2022) were calculated using English deaths by year and age from the Human Mortality Database and The Office of National Statistics. We identified 7620 eligible players from the 25 clubs as our cohort. By the end of 2022, 4049 players were still alive and 3571 had died. Expected number of deaths was 4242. The SMR for English professional footballers was 0.84 (95% confidence interval 0.81–0.88). We conclude that male professional footballers of the 20th Century had lower mortality rates than the age-matched general male population in England.

Narratives of the Second World War in anniversary resolutions by the Sejm and Senate of the Republic of Poland (1989–2023). research conclusions

This article is devoted to the post-1989 commemorative resolutions of the Sejm and Senate of the Republic of Poland commemorating events and persons associated with the Second World War. This event and narratives about the war are an integral part of Polish political and media discourse. The problematic of this article is related to the answer to the question of the contemporary ways in which the Polish Parliament narrates the Second World War in the resolutions commemorating this event. The topic is justified insofar as the commemorative resolutions of the Polish Parliament are often treated as an instrument of historical politics. They are used by the authorities to conduct internal and external state policy. The theoretical framework and conceptual grid of this article is determined by the concept of commemorative politics, which is linked to the authorities and their efforts to shape collective memory. The method of analysis is qualitative source analysis. From the collected corpus of 774 commemorative resolutions of the Sejm and the Senate of the Republic of Poland, those were selected that were directly related to the commemoration of various aspects of the Second World War.