Essays

Nexus has been publishing essays in Dutch on art, culture, politics and philosophy for over twenty years. Now, we are making some of the best essays from our archive available in English online. The essays are available to our members and supporters. New essays will be added regularly.

Nederlandstalige essays uit het tijdschrift vindt u aan de Nederlandse kant van de website.

Theme

©Jelmer de Haas – All Rights Reserved

Politics

Lilia Shevtsova

How the West is accommodating the Kremlin

The postmodern, transactional leaderships of Europe today find themselves poorly equipped to respond to the challenges posed by the Russian System, which is why the Western responses inevitably slide into accommodationism.
pazira-film

Nelofer Pazira

Flight and identity: the story of Cordoba, Kabul and my father’s suit

Bruckner gotterdammerung

History, Politics, Society

Peter Frankopan

Götterdämmerung: Who – or What – will Rule the World ?

keynes

Society

John Maynard Keynes

Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren

how-much-is-enough

Society

Robert Skidelsky

How Much Is Enough?

Insatiability is inherent in the human condition, but in pre-modern times its exercise was controlled by hierarchy, custom, and morals. Capitalism has unchained insatiability and, indeed, made it the principal motor of our civilisation.
war and the future afbeeldin

Politics, Society

Rob Riemen

The War and the Future

On the occasion of the Nexus Conference 2022: The War and the Future
peter-mason-LmTgQa7pqw0-unsplash

Culture, History, Politics, Society

Robert Cooper

Hope and Dover Beach

The big questions today are whether politics has been or will be captured by the forces of darkness – so that we will be robbed of our hopes and our future; and whether, having lost faith in faith, we are now going to lose faith in politics too
academy

Culture, Politics

William Deresiewicz

Wokeness on Campus: The Reign of Stupidity

There are no competing ideologies or rival schools [...] There is only assent. And when there’s but a single ideology, it isn’t just an ideology. It’s a religion. Its ideas aren’t ideas; they are dogmas.
football mirror

History, Politics

Richard J. Evans

Brexit: Refighting the Second World War

Football has sometimes been described as a substitute for war

Politics

Kate Brown

Kiss the Ground: Life Support in Controlled Environments

MIT Professor Kate Brown on how consumerism is eating away a just and livable future
Ivan-Illich

Philosophy

Humberto Beck

The Return of Ivan Illich in Times of Corona

It will depend on us whether the coronavirus will result in a new catastrophe, or in a new beginning.
germania

History

Simon Winder

Goodbye to History

The author of Danubia and Germania shows what we can learn from 20th-century German history.
FallOfMan-600×370

Humanism, Philosophy

George Steiner

The Life of the Mind

Can the life of the mind, the love of truth and beauty, be sustained in a time of materialism and mass democracy?
41_00331340_lucas-cranach-der-aeltere_eve

History

Catherine Nixey

The Evil of Christianity

‘Good’ and ‘evil’ as fundamentally opposed came into the world with Christianity. This wasn’t good.
nexus-jubileum-7987

Philosophy

Bernard-Henri Lévy & Aleksandr Dugin

The Return of Settembrini and Naphta in the 21st Century

Lévy and Dugin fight for the soul of Europe in the spirit of Thomas Mann’s Settembrini and Naphta.
266px-Piet_Mondrian_1942_-_Broadway_Boogie_Woogie

Philosophy

Antonio Damasio

Arcadia, But Not for Long

What should we choose: ‘Broadway Boogie-Woogie’, colorful, edgy, expanding modern urbanity – or a rustic hill overlooking an Alpine lake?
Govaert-Flinck-sherperdess-e

Literature

G.K. Chesterton

A Defence of China Shepherdesses

There are ideal conceptions and real men in every calling.

Politics

Ana Palacio

The Mutating World

Ana Palacio charts the history of the baby boomers and analyses threats to liberal democracy today.

History

Adrienne Clarkson

A Refugee’s Life

The story of how a child of Chinese refugees who came to Canada as a two-year-old became Governor-General.
Gopalkrishna_Gandhi-e1552563833913-250×167

History

Gopalkrishna Gandhi

Time Ticks Away

Gopalkrishna Gandhi reflects on his childhood, his famous grandfather, and the struggle against nuclear armaments.
Attorneys_Bergold_and_Aschenauer_with_Prosecutor_Ferencz_at_the_Einsatzgruppen_Trial

History

Benjamin Ferencz

Ruminations of the Last Nuremberg Prosecutor

Benjamin Ferencz, last living prosecutor of the Nuremberg Trials, on his life and work.
symposium

Culture, Music

An Education in Counterculture

A conversation on counterculture with Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye and Sean Wilentz.
lycee

Literature

Bernard-Henri Lévy

A Letter to Jean Deprun

Bernard-Henri Lévy writes to an unlikely hero: his teacher at the École Normale Superieure, Jean Deprun.
erdemir

Literature, Politics

Aykan Erdemir

Teaching Transgression

Aykan Erdemir writes to his teacher, Nalan Göker, who taught him about rules and when to break them.