Aspen Institute España and Editorial Debate have organized a new session on “The Worst is Yet to Come? A Warning from Europe” a conversation between Anne Applebaum, columnist for The Washington Post, associate professor at London School of Economics and author of “Gulag” (Debate) 2004 Pulitzer Prize, and José Ignacio Torreblanca, Director at the office in Madrid and Principal Researcher at ECFR.
The session titled “The Worst is Yet to Come? A Warning from Europe”, was moderated by Juan Moscoso del Prado, Aspen España Fellow, former Member, Chief of International Relations at CES Spain and professor at Deusto University.
The conversation revolved around the impact of polarization on politics, conspiracy theories, the attacks against freedom press, and the obsession with loyalty into our democracies. The arguments exposed by Anne Applebaum is one of her latest articles for The Atlantic were the starting points for the dialogue. Can a European society revolve against democracy, under an enabling atmosphere? Additionally, the author spoke about her last book “Red Famine / Hambruna Roja” (Debate) about Stalin’s war on Ukraine.
The conversation was held in English.
Anne Applebaum
Anne Applebaum is a columnist for The Washington Post, associate professor at the London School of Economics and collaborator at The New York Review of Books. Among her books, it should be noted, “Gulag” (Debate, 2004) 2004 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction and “Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe / El Telón de Acero” (Debate, 2014), Cundill Prize and a finalist for the National Book Award. She lives in Poland with her husband, the Polish politician Radoslaw Sikorski, and their two children.
José Ignacio Torreblanca
José Ignacio Torreblanca Director at the office in Madrid and Principal Researcher at ECFR. He was the first Director at ECFR in Madrid since the beginnings of ECFR in Europe from 2007 to 2016 when he was named Opinion Director at El País. His areas of expertise include the internal affairs of the UE, the rise of populism and the Euroscepticism, the institutional reforms, the enlargement, and neighbourhood policy. He is a Professor of Political Science at UNED in Madrid and member of the Juan March Institute. His latest books in Spanish are “Asaltar los cielos” (2015), “¿Quién gobierna en Europa?: reconstruir la democracia, recuperar a la ciudadania (2014), and “La fragmentación del poder europeo (2011). In english he is co-author of “The Eurosceptic surge and how to respond to it” (with Mark Leonard, ECFR 2014) and “What is political union?” (with Sebastian Dullien, ECFR 2012).