Yes, they have economic problems and some rocky politics but the old Eastern bloc nations are poised to set the European agenda in 2017. From defence to pinching City of London jobs, the Visegrad Group is shaping up to…
Georg von Habsburg, son of the last crown prince of Austria-Hungary, still identifies as a Central European. And he believes that his family’s legacy is vital to the region.
Quarter of a century has passed since the Berlin Wall fell. Free of Soviet rule, Central and Eastern Europe have been transformed but democracy in the former Communist countries remains a work in progress.
Monocle's third annual Soft Power Survey is an attempt to push the debate on where soft power comes from and how to use it. With current shifts in the global power balance, never has it been more relevant.
For most of the last century, Italy’s population flowed outwards. But as the country grew richer, the outside began to trickle in, from Eastern Europe, North Africa and Asia. Today, the country’s roughly three million…
The Uzbek social princess-cum-diplomat who is also a style Leader, clean living in Sweden, Why the Swiss love their guns and Moscow eyes the Vegas lifestyle.
Its disastrous wars of the 1990s left Serbia locked out while other former Eastern bloc nations enjoyed the European party. Now, as its creative and business talent discards nationalist fantasies, the world is catching on…
The world’s third biggest oil producer is also blessed with vast reserves of gas, fresh water and fish. Norway is Europe’s Saudi Arabia: a country so wealthy that despite having a population of just 4.5 million, it is a…
The financial spotlight has been shining bright on China’s big eastern cities, but as investors notice the wealth of opportunity and resources in the remote western region, the city of Urumqi is about to take centre stage…
The Magyars, as Hungarians are sometimes known, landed in the Carpathian Basin a millennium ago – and you can see why they stayed. The Central European nation has surprises aplenty. There’s never been a better time to take…
This remote north-eastern corner of Russia is an inhospitable land of fire, ice and earthquakes but the stunning scenery, hot springs and huge reserves of salmon suggest a seismic shift in fortunes could be about to happen…
Christopher Lord reporting from Brno: The Czech Republic’s second city was central to European design before falling into a troubled 20th-century sleep. Revival came thanks to research investment but its future may lie in…
With its central-European soul and Italian accent, this Adriatic port could easily have an identity crisis. Trieste, however, is used to occupying the space between one culture and another, as its unique film festival…
Europe is home to three nations that should be successes but instead are failing badly. Over the following pages, we look at their problems – from corruption to constitutional meltdown.
