Europe needs to once again seduce the millions of Europeans who no longer believe that the project of building a more united continent will directly benefit them and their families.
The agreement on Syria between Russia and the United States turned out to be insufficient. A broader compromise is required to resolve the crisis, particularly between the warring sides in Syria.
Criticism of Egypt’s military-backed transition is spreading, even among secular Egyptians who were happy to see the Muslim Brotherhood–backed Mohamed Morsi removed from power.
Iraq’s new Theater Festival signals an end to Baghdad’s cultural isolation, despite security and censorship hurdles that remain from the past few decades.
In May 2012, the arrest of ordinary demonstrators on Bolotnaya Square and the riot charges pressed against them signalled the authorities’ shift from soft authoritarianism that tolerates limited discontent to a more repressive style of government.
There is no need to invent a special day like the National Unity Day for strengthening national identity, because one day in a year cannot change people's vision of their nation. This is an everyday job for the citizens at all levels of Russian society.
“National identity” and “nationalism”—there is nothing permanent about them. They vary, depending upon who speaks about them, and they change as time goes by. Those who resort to ultra-nationalism now in Russia had better hurry, because the nation states are losing efficacy, and values transform as economy and society change.
On November 4, President Putin spoke in the Kremlin about cohesion, consolidation, and indissoluble unity of the people of Russia. Government policies, in contrast, do more to deepen the xenophobic sentiments than to temper them. If the Day of National Unity was established as a step toward consolidating the Russian nation, today it sounds at best as a celebration of wishful thinking.
Russia does not have and will probably never have a specific event that can become a symbol of national consolidation. Still, something specific that consolidates everyone at once is necessary and the Kremlin wants people to nationally unite against the external enemies.
The problem with the nation-building effort in Russia is that a nation cannot be built from above. Unless people begin treating their state as their own, Russia will continue to be a country and a state, but no nation.
























Stay connected to the Global Think Tank with Carnegie's smartphone app for Android and iOS devices