Politics and ideology aside, the U.S.-led multinational shoot-down of hundreds of Iranian projectiles coming at Israel last weekend was an impressive feat of military-industrial engineering. So that’s what trillions of dollars and hegemonic-driven regional cooperation buys you. Neat.
Unless you’re Ukraine. Then you’re probably wondering — as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is — why no fire-in-the-skies love for me? Defending Ukrainian airspace from Russian air attack and Israel’s from Iran is not one-to-one, but the double standards are there nonetheless. They are all the more glaring given how Ukraine’s security directly affects wider Europe’s than Israel’s.
With Martin fresh back from a work trip to Brussels, he brings us stories from the Belgian (and European-ish?) capital he is not ashamed to say he loves. And he may be in good company, as new polling suggests European citizens have a crush the supranational legislature they will soon be voting for again.
Plus, Simon Van Dorpe from Follow the Money joins us to discuss his investigatory work into transparency and corruption.
Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe here and get us where your ears go for podcasts:
Among other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland. We’d love to see you over there, too!
Euroscopic S211: Double-standards defense and Corruption in the EU