Euroscopic Podcast

Germany’s national rail company, Deutsche Bahn, is not known for the most reliable infrastructure — physical or digital. So we rolled the dice running an episode from a high-speed train to Munich. Come along for the ride!The European Union has bigger problems than delayed trains — and so does Germany. Just weeks ahead of European elections, politicians are coming under attack

William and Martin continue their criss-crossing of the European political order. With Martin in Vienna, among other places, he got a chance to talk to Luis Moreno Ocampo, a former prosecutor at the International Criminal Court. It’s a well-timed conversation, as speculation has emerged that the ICC could be preparing warrants for top Israeli and Hamas officials.William was over

What’s six months among friends? The United States Congress finally voted on more than $60 billion in fresh military aid for Ukraine, finding a way around campaign-year politicking that includes more than a few Russian-friendlier Republicans. That combined with the new billions from European Union should give Ukraine a boost on the battlefield. We shall see.Given how many Republi

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

Not even sickness can keep Martin from the news. Thanks to his suffering, listeners get treated to his extra-savory radio voice. And there are many savory items to get through. William takes great pleasure in watching wonky soothsayers read the tea leaves of what it all means when electoral fortunes break one way or another. Last week it was Turkey; this week it was Poland.Then we

Very little happens quickly in the European Union. How much Germany has to do with that may be more correlation than causation, though the parallel is strong. For a coalition government that came into power at the end of 2021 “daring more progress,” it has taken more than half its term to do what many similar countries have already done. Pot is, finally, more or less legal. Wha

Remember when loosely affiliated terror groups carrying out isolated, but deadly attacks in the name of religious fundamentalist ideology posed the gravest threat to European security? Weren’t those the good ol’ days. Now, following a brazen terror attack in Moscow, they’re back. And so is ISIS — at least in terms of getting talked about.This week’s Euroscopic takes some

Countries don’t interfere in other countries’ domestic politics — officially, anyway — but it is hardly a secret that the European Union fears a Trump Comeback. The EU is firmly Team Biden. Well, except for maybe Hungary.That’s why it was interesting to watch the reaction to comments by Barack Obama — another Democratic president the EU has a huge crush on — when he c

It has been a busy week in European politics, and much of it has to do with the woman at the top and the executive office she runs. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen came back from Bucharest, the capital of Romania and site of her EPP’s congress, last week officially anointed the conservative’s pick for another go in the top job. But questions linger over how m

What does an MEP and a U.S. Army general (ret.) have in common? (Besides this podcast.) Both are looking to 2024 and asking, in his own way, what do we as a society want?Damian Boeselager, the pan-EU Volt party’s only representative in Brussels, explains the baked-in disconnect between how the European Union works and why it gets so little credit for doing anything. Even as pro-E