One year on, the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan continues to be marked by extremist brutality in the name of Islam and defiance of the UN-led international demand for an inclusive government and respect for human rights. The group has not been accorded global recognition and the Afghan people are in the midst of the worst humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan’s modern history. The country’s future prospects have never been so bleak.

World politics has reached an ominous phase of polarisation. The struggle between the US-led democracies and the Russo-Chinese-led autocracies primarily underpins this development. Yet there’s also another dangerous dimension to it: the emergence of close relations between the autocratic powers and such extremist theocratic forces as the Taliban in Afghanistan.

In an era of social tension and conflict, building bridges to foster cohesion has become critical. As the classic song “Bridge Over Troubled Water” reminds us, we should not ignore the troubled waters under the bridges that we are building.

Immediately after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, all the governments of the EU and the European NATO countries reacted. Not only with support for Ukraine, but also by announcing an increase of their own military spending. There are some indications that not everything can actually be financed.

It’s hard to shake the impression that the US has become a kind of “outsourcing hegemon” that relies on its friends and allies to handle big jobs in the international community because its own power is more limited than it once was.

At present, historical analogies are very often used to explain reasons for or against the causes of the war in Ukraine or to describe the horrors of this war with historical arguments. Some of these comparisons are downright perfidious, while others are far-fetched or out of place. Historical analogies can provide a framework for orientation. But if arguments are made with historical, moral statements, then they should be applied consistently.