THE AGE OF COMMUNITY SCHISM

On the uneasiness of togetherness: realms, religions, resources, and rivalries

Economic Goods and Political Gods: On Civilization’s Cultural Tectonics

In the hot peace after the “cold war”, a plethora of memories start haunting the minds of peoples awakened from blurry “isms” to old identities. Crosses, crescents, stars, tunes, tales, and togs, anything that can be symbol of the cultural self, start filling the new societal vacuum with the deep creed that nothing could be a better bond than the blood you are born with, flowing through your veins, and nothing could be a more poisoned tie than all the cunning ideologies, which are frivolous summer romances inclined to violent divorces. More

The Dissolution of the Communities

Alexandru Georgescu

The “dissolution of the monasteries” took place in England during Henry the VIII^th and the dynastic woes that induced his religious estrangement from Rome, but was subsequently repeated many times throughout Europe, when monarchs and budding republics sought to marginalize the clergy’s political influence by neutralizing its wealth. Something similar comes to mind when analyzing the chaos in Western civil societies, manifesting as political polarization, individual social pathologies and collective disaggregation. More

The Science-Religion Dialogue within Economics

Fr. Petre Comșa, Costea Munteanu

Since more than a century and a half ago a separation of economics from theology has been accepted by most economists and not quite as many theologians. As a consequence, the importance of religion for economics is seldom recognized by contemporary economics. This state of things is simply an indication of a broad consensus within the field of economics that methods, norms, and even concerns construed to be related to religious belief have no place in the scientific study of economics. More

Bonding vs. Bondage

Matei-Alexandru Apăvăloaei

Since the end of the Second World War, the historical event that marked the zenith of “omnipotent government” (Mises, 2010), the world stage witnessed a boom in the number of independent countries. United Nations membership expanded from 51 original members in 1945, to 193 members in the present. This may lead one to the conclusion that the post-war world is characterized by political disintegration. More

Mainstreaming Nationalism?

Andrada Nimu, Clara Volintiru

Most of the political parties in Europe face significant existential crises in terms of their weakening organisations, the narrowing public policy space, and their electoral support. In contrast, resurging nationalist and extremist parties gather momentum across Europe, benefiting from the growing wave of Euroscepticism. A prominent example of this is the main right-wing political party in Poland — the Law and Justice Party (PiS). More

Segregation and the Egalitarian Utopia

Viorel Mionel

We live in troubled and contradictory times. A seemingly commonplace affirmation, but not everyone can easily understand this first sentence. For most intellectuals, this idea seems triumphant, dramatic and perfectly appropriate for thought. For the rest of us, however, it is a simple fact. Why? Because the common man has other priorities. More

The Euro-Intifada

Marius-Cristian Neacșu

“God created man. Man created religion. Man destroyed God. Religion killed man”. For some reason, these words from Steven Spielberg’s first Jurassic Park film come to mind. The film was pure fiction, and it was about dinosaurs, but who would have guessed that such a simple paraphrase could sketch out the very real, non-fictitious scenario of a present time that churns out one blockbuster after another: Paris I, Paris II, Brussels I etc. More

When History Tags Along: Key Events That Shape Today’s Islamic Militancy

Cătălin Gomboș

Two decades ago I literally stumbled upon the only archeological discovery I have ever made. I was in southern Iraq, visiting the ruins of Ur, one of the earliest Sumerian cities and mythical birthplace of the Patriarch Abraham. Not far from the ancient ziggurat, I found, by chance, a mud-brick, identical to the ones that were used to build the ziggurat. More

Syria. In Situ

Mihaela Simina

Islamic State and terrorism, nearby coffee with cardamom, urban noise, social contrasts and “empowered” women – are just a few very known aspects concerning Syria and Middle East that the journalist Mircea Barbu revealed, both from theory and practical experience. The interview took place April 1^st 2016 and published in Romanian on the website www.ir-report.ro. More

The Middle East in the Wake of the Arab Spring: The Battle for Yemen

Răzvan Munteanu

The severing of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, at the beginning of this year, has not come as much of a surprise. The two states have plunged into a cold war after the outbreak of the Arab Spring, with the competition between the two transforming the entire Middle East into a chessboard for geopolitical struggles. More

Is World War Three Upon Us?

Adrian-Ioan Damoc

It will not take more than a brief Google search to notice that this topic is the subject of a debate among analysts and journalists alike. Entering “is World War 3 coming” in the search bar will yield a plethora of authors and their diverse opinions. There is no shortage of modern-day Cassandras prophesizing Armageddon itself, as well as naysayers to dismiss such claims as unrealistic fear-mongering. More

FIRST EDITION