Startups and Robots: Young Researchers at MCC Present Key Findings in Newly Launched Book

At a book launch on 12 September young researchers of the MCC Centre for Next Technological Futures discussed their findings regarding startups and robots with renowned international experts. The English-language book summarizes the fact-based research conducted by the Centre over the past two years, the results of which have already been presented by the student researchers at several international conferences.

Future of Schengen Is at Clear Risk Due to Illegal Migration

This week, Germany, the European Union’s largest economy and one of the founding members of the Schengen area, decided to reintroduce border controls along its entire land border in response to growing pressure caused by illegal migration. Increasingly, more member states are following suit for similar reasons, raising the risk that internal border controls will become standard practice, ultimately threatening the existence of one of the EU’s greatest achievements: the Schengen area.

Memorial for Cpl Jamie Smith, who fell in the Battle of Mogadishu, in Rock Spring Park, Schooley's Mountain, NJ

The Illusion of Liberal Democracy

‘In theory, America’s policy of reshaping the world in its own image was supposed to safeguard human rights, promote peace, and make the world safe for democracy, as President Woodrow Wilson said in 1917. Instead, the U.S. became a highly militarized police state fighting wars that undermined peace, harmed human rights, and threatened liberal values at home, which reveals the U.S. government had other (malignant) intentions.’

You Have to Work for Peace!

‘For peace, a ceasefire is needed first. Only then can a peace plan be developed to end the conflict. Anyone who does not accept this is not familiar with the science of peacemaking,’ Balázs Orbán wrote in his analysis for Mandiner.

Young mothers wait to weigh their children on 14 February 2018, at the maternity centre in Boali, which has no running water, and only one doctor. In Central Africa, one in 24 children dies during its first month of life, the second worst neonatal death rate in the world, according to a report released by UNICEF

Africa’s Demographic Challenges

‘The main reason why Africa has barely been affected by the demographic transition is to be found in its historical circumstances. The continent only joined the capitalist world system in the mid-to-late nineteenth century—the latest of all the important global regions. As a result, the typical consequences of adopting this model were significantly delayed in Africa.’

EU Pro-War Foreign Ministers Take Aim at Hungary in Tense Foreign Council Meeting

The informal meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council took place amid heightened tensions in Brussels on 29 August. The mood was set by Josep Borrell’s decision to relocate the meeting from Budapest to the Belgian capital as a signal of disapproval of Viktor Orbán’s peace mission. Ahead of the meeting, pro-war ministers issued statements criticizing the Hungarian government, and the tense atmosphere carried over into the discussions in the meeting room.

Vladimir Putin chairs an online meeting on the situation in Belgorod, Kursk and Bryansk regions following an incursion of Ukrainian troops in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict.

On the Highway to Hell

There are a number of conventional weapons whose appearance in US adversaries’ hands can cause serious damage to American interests all around the world. It is not difficult to imagine the threat of hypersonic anti-ship weapons, barely interceptable by contemporary air defence weaponry, on commercial ships, not only on the Red Sea. Arming let’s say Mexican drug cartels with modern anti-tank equipment could also seriously hamper US efforts to block the flow of drugs into the country.

People in pirogues navigate their way in the slum community of Makoko in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital, on 19 October 2022

The Geopolitics of the Demographic Shift

‘The demographic shift also suggests a move towards an increasingly multipolar world order. Not bipolar, but multipolar. While the West’s demographic weight is rapidly declining, so is that of its main opponent, China, and to such an extent that its aspirations to take over the role of global hegemon from the United States no longer seem feasible, and its economy may even slide into stagnation.’

Amidst Absurdities, Democrats Are Trying to Have a Good Time in Chicago

An awful lot of rare historical events for one election cycle happened this year in the US, most of which do not favour the incumbent party. Nothing is a better testament to that than the fact that this week in Chicago it will be Vice President Kamala Harris who accepts the nomination, and not President Joe Biden. That is despite President Biden, as billionaire Elon Musk pointed out in a post on his own social media platform X, having been very adamant about staying in the race until just a month ago.