ABSTRACT Europe’s energy landscape has undergone profound disruptions following the escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war, exposing deep structural vulnerabilities in the continent’s persistent reliance on fossil fuels. The crisis intensified political and economic tensions across the longstanding European Eastern divide, as the abrupt suspension of Russian gas disrupted energy security, triggered unprecedented price volatility, and accentuated disparities in the capacity of European Union Member States to pursue their green transitions. This paper investigates the asymmetric dynamics of fossil-fuel dependency and renewable energy expansion across ten Central/East European countries (CEEs, namely Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia) by applying a GARCH(1,1) and GARCH-MIDAS framework to examine short-run volatility characterizing the countries’ leading stock markets; such volatility stems from long-run macroeconomic and geopolitical pressures resulting from fossil fuels energy pressures. The research findings provide evidence of pronounced volatility clustering and slow mean reversion across countries, with the volatility half-life confirming substantial heterogeneity in shock persistence. Policymakers need to carefully consider the heterogeneous nature of volatility transmission mechanisms across the CEEs, the importance of country-specific structural and geopolitical factors, and their implications for volatility dynamics in small open economies during their energy transitions.

ABSTRACT This article investigates the construction of victimhood of victims of communist repression of the 1950s in Germany and Czechoslovakia. It traces this process from imprisonment, through pre-1989 articulations of victim status, to its reconfiguration in the two decades after 1989. Drawing on the concepts of victimhood, self-categorization and social polarization, the article argues that suffering is not an immutable outcome of historical events, but rather a socially constructed and constantly negotiated category, shaped by political opportunities, memory regimes and organizational actors. The analysis focuses on two key victim organizations: the Association of Victims of Stalinism in Germany and the Confederation of Political Prisoners in the Czech Republic. The findings indicate that, while German victims gradually transitioned from heroic anti-communist narratives to a more moderate discourse centred on legal recognition and compensation, Czech victims remained highly polarized, continuing to present themselves as heroic and morally superior. These differences are explained by different historical experiences, political contexts, competition with other victim groups and the degree to which memory politics were institutionalized. The article argues that collective victimhood functioned as a form of political capital, the mobilization of which led to different patterns of memory and political engagement in post-communist societies.

ABSTRACT This article examines how Robert Fico’s politics of memory have shaped Slovak policy towards Russia and Ukraine after the 2022 invasion, and what this implies for liberal nationalism in Slovakia. It argues that Fico’s success rests on a selective interpretation of national history, through which he portrays Russia as a historical ally, downplays Slovak complicity in Nazi and communist rule, and frames the war in Ukraine primarily in socio-economic rather than normative terms. In contrast, Slovak liberals have often treated nationhood and national history with suspicion, contrasting narratives about a “cowardly” nation with an uncritical alignment of Slovak interests with those of the European Union, leaving the politics of memory to the populists. Drawing on debates about the meaning of the Slovak National Uprising and dissident reflections on cowardice and responsibility, the article shows how the politics of memory structures domestic contestation over relations with Brussels, Kyiv, and Moscow. The article engages with liberal theories of nationalism to suggest that the pro-European camp in Slovakia requires a more positive national narrative that connects liberal-democratic commitments with Slovak historical experience. It concludes by proposing a liberal-nationalist reframing that could help Slovak opposition leaders reclaim debates on history and national interest.

ABSTRACT This contribution to the Forum builds on the academic approaches analysing how societies learn from current international insecurities, and through this lens discusses how the Russian-Ukrainian war resonates and produces new social practices in other affected countries. Our analysis is mostly built on different genres of visuals that are illustrative of how Ukraine’s experiences of resisting Russia’s aggression are adopted and culturally integrated into what might be called “everyday foreign policy” in Estonia. Our research demonstrates how affective and emotive visualization interiorizes Ukraine’s experience of resistance and resilience, and exteriorizes the whole set of Russia-related meanings.

ABSTRACT Conspiracy theories have become a persistent feature of contemporary politics. In the wake of the 2022 Russia – Ukraine war, the ruling Georgian Dream party advanced what it calls the “Global War Party” While the conspiracy theory draws on familiar anti-Western narratives, it also introduces distinctive features by portraying hidden elites as simultaneously prolonging the conflict abroad and undermining Georgia’s sovereignty at home. This article proposes an analytical framework for studying the internal structure of such conspiracies, focusing on three elements: the actors involved, the objectives attributed to them, and the strategies through which they are said to operate. Drawing on a dataset of political quotations reported in leading Georgian media between 2022 and 2024, the analysis shows how the Global War Party discourse fuses global and domestic dimensions in ways that reinforce the government’s populist positioning. The findings underline the hybrid character of the Global War Party conspiracy – derivative yet unique – and demonstrate the value of the proposed framework for advancing comparative research on conspiratorial populism.

ABSTRACT Migration from Central Asia to European Union (EU) countries has increased rapidly over the past years. Intermediaries play an important role in this migration. This paper focuses on migrant truck drivers from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in the EU and their experiences with intermediaries, which may be acquaintances willing to help in the search for occupation abroad, organized informal brokers, or licensed agencies. Thematic analysis of 20 interviews with truck drivers shows that their experiences with intermediaries are influenced by infrastructural constraints, but that there is also a degree of self-organization through digital means on the part of the drivers. By sharing information and advice through social media channels, workers help newcomers bypass business-oriented intermediation. This is made possible by the high labour demand for this profession, by the availability of alternative intermediaries, and by the workers’ ability to find independent sources to finance migration. We conclude that migrants’ experiences with intermediaries on the new corridor between Central Asia and the EU are shaped by contextual factors. Those factors are connected to the characteristics of the social networks in which both migrants and intermediaries are embedded, and to the distribution of resources within the social networks.

ABSTRACT This article examines the phenomenon of reburials as a manifestation of historical revisionism in Hungary, with a particular focus on their role in shaping national identity and iconography. The article explores the transformative nature of reburials, highlighting their role in reclaiming individuals as martyrs and as a tool for historical revisionism. The study draws on ethnographic research to provide insights into vernacular reburials and alternative commemorations, demonstrating how reburials can challenge established orders. Furthermore, the author introduces a new approach that emphasizes the active role of local agents and more broadly shows reburials and revisionism as contested processes involving multiple participants, including non-humans such as soil.

ABSTRACT This article examines the Romanian Constitutional Court’s (CCR) recent interventions in the 2024 presidential elections through the lens of militant democracy. The CCR invalidated the candidacy of an extremist politician and, later, when confronted with the stunning rise of another extremist candidate who managed to fly under the radar, annulled the first round of elections due to electoral irregularities, including illegal financing and foreign interference. These decisions highlight the judiciary’s role in protecting democracy but also raise concerns about judicial overreach and the boundaries of the newly developed doctrine of “constitutional loyalty.” The article argues that, while controversial, the CCR’s actions were legally justified and necessary to uphold democratic principles. The broader implications suggest an ongoing tension between safeguarding the rule of law and respecting popular sovereignty. Ultimately, the CCR’s interventions may mark a “constitutional moment” for Romania, compelling society to reassess its democratic framework and the judiciary’s role in electoral integrity.

ABSTRACT This article aims to understand how corruption in Ukraine has been framed in the academic literature during the last two decades and to identify the main gaps in researching this phenomenon. It conducts a scoping review of available scientific literature produced by academics and by international organizations. Each article is examined in terms of types of corruption covered, definitions and metrics of corruption used, data collection and data analysis method, and some other characteristics. Based on the gaps identified, it is recommended that future studies better integrate Ukraine-based analyses, use standard definitions of corruption, combine research techniques and theories in an interdisciplinary approach, draw on more recent and regionally disaggregated data, and compare Ukraine with other post-socialist countries that share similarities in terms of corruption risks. This will allow for a more robust understanding of corruption in Ukraine and pave the way for stronger and more effective public policies.