The contested spaces of the politics of universalism

A recent Dutch asylum case offers an opportunity to explore how universalism is being renegotiated within the frames of location, culture and citizenship. (Video, 15 mins)

Europe’s guns, debt and corruption

This second of two essays on military spending and the EU crisis, explores the role of the European arms trade, corruption and the role of arms exporting countries in fuelling a debt crisis, and why these 'odious' debts need to be written off. See Part One here.

Mainstreaming the brown spectre haunting Europe

From Geert Wilders in the Netherlands to Marine Le Pen in France, far right politicians using new strategies are being welcomed into mainstream discourse.

A countervailing power: an interview with Jan Pronk

We have to establish a world public power representative of all countries and all people within all countries. One cannot ‘think away’ individual countries as powers, or international companies and banks. But we need a countervailing power in the system. 

The moral sadism of the Dutch State

Desperate to eject some refugees it does not want, the Netherlands is refining the art of radical deprivation. No single step, no single decision, no single action in this process is horrible. Yet the cumulative effect is grotesque.

How populism grew its roots in the Netherlands

As politics and elite behaviour move away from consensus and inclusion, Geert Wilders has been able to capitalise on the social compartmentalisation that characterises the modern Netherlands.

The Dutch elections and the Eurosceptic paradox

Despite alarming predictions, last week's Dutch election results turned out to be anticlimactic, as voters placed their confidence in the two mainstream, moderate parties. But Brussels shouldn't celebrate too soon, as the "European weather vane" shows signs of bigger challenges to come.

Dutch elections, European consequences

The combination of economic troubles and Eurosceptic pressures will increase the international impact of the Netherlands' latest election, says Cas Mudde.

The pornography of equality

The silence of our politicians on women’s security in public spaces is in striking contrast to their tremendous responsiveness to the sight of brown men insulting white women. The real problem is that in western society women’s equality and women’s pornographization have gone hand-in-hand.

Stop sanctions against Iranian students in the Netherlands

Iranian students in ‘sensitive’ studies should not be seen as posing a threat. They are usually not secretive nuclear scientists, but scientists, artists, architects, economists. These students, amongst the brightest minds from Iran, find themselves caught up in a broader xenophobic context.

The fall and future of Dutch neo-liberal nationalism

The collapse of budget negotiations and the upcoming elections in Holland provide opportunities for the emergence of better answers to the violence done by nationalist antagonisms, imposed through neo-liberal austerity programmes

The rise of Dutch neo-liberal nationalism

Who gets the blame for the ongoing social effects of the coalition’s love for neo-liberal principles? The culprits are rather conveniently eastern European migrants, the Greeks, the leftists and of course those that dare to associate themselves with Islam.

Dutch Ltd! Dutch nationality is becoming exclusive

The Dutch government has presented a proposal to amend the Nationality Act 2003 to Parliament. The proposed amendment seeks to block dual nationality to Dutch citizens and to individuals who wish to become Dutch in order to 'purify Dutch nationality'.

Europe's crisis and the radical right

The severe economic upheaval in Europe has not been matched by a political resurgence of the radical right. Cas Mudde asks why - and whether the dog could yet bark.

9/11: more security, less secure

The world has been changed by the securitisation of everyday life and the Islamisation of security. The accompanying threat-complex has shifted American sensibilities, says Cas Mudde. 

Multiculturalism and Dutch political culture

In the case of the seventeenth century Dutch Republic, there was no single, dominant religion. There was also no absolute majority religion. Instead, each province and each town had its own religious cultural groups.

Geert Wilders and Dutch democracy

A court in the Netherlands has found the influential politician Geert Wilders innocent of charges of fomenting hatred and discrimination against Muslims. The decision is a challenge both to the rule of law and to Dutch politicians, says Cas Mudde. 

The future of Islamophobia: the liberal, the Jew, the animal

The ritual slaughter of animals has become the last of many areas of contention that are changing the shape of our public domains. The way in which Islamophobia is becoming a part of our public ‘common sense’ has complex knock-on effects, not least for our Jewish minorities.

The coordinated attack on multiculturalism

Centre-right parties across Europe are announcing the failure of multiculturalism. We are witnessing a co-ordinated revival of Enoch Powell's idea of the aggressive outsider out to dominate the rest; only now race and immigration are being played out on the terrain of culture and religion

Old and new demagoguery: the rhetoric of exclusion

Right-wing populist parties tend to be anti-multinational and anti-intellectual: they endorse nationalistic, nativist, and chauvinistic beliefs, embedded - explicitly or coded - in common sense appeals to a presupposed shared knowledge of ‘the people’.

This week's guest editors

openGlobalRights editors

Our guest editors James Ron, Leslie Vinjamuri, Sophie Arie and Archana Pandya introduce this week's theme of:

Emerging powers and human rights.

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