Rob Riemen
The Quest for Vision in the Era of Confusion, Corruption and Foolishness
Introducing the topic of the Nexus Conference 2024
Treasury
Welcome to our digital Treasury. Here we publish some of the best essays from our Dutch journal Nexus in English, reviews of recent books and videos of our events.
History, Politics, Society
Kishore Mahbubani
The Asian Century: peaceful or not?
The 21st century will be the Asian century. On this, there’s no doubt. The only question is whether it will be peaceful or not.
History, Philosophy, Science, Society
Ray Monk
Wittgenstein, Russell and Oppenheimer on War and the Bomb
What are the lessons we have to learn from thinkers like Wittgenstein, Russell and Oppenheimer for our time? As it happens, all three of these thinkers have grappled, in fascinatingly contrasting ways, with questions of war and peace, and much could be learned from investigating how they did so.
Philosophy, Politics, Society
Donatella Di Cesare
Peace is not over
We must defect from the world of death that is being designed around us. And demand a return to democratic politics, in the proper sense of the word.
Culture, History, Society
Zena Hitz
The Division of Labor and the Sources of Consolation
The capacities to think, to study, to know and to understand are human capacities. This may seem like the most dull and obvious claim in the world, and yet we have forgotten it.
Francesco Boldizzoni
Do we still need social democracy?
I am far from believing that social democracy is viable anywhere in the world. But if there is a natural home for it, it is Europe.
Politics, Science, Society
Nexus Lecture 2022
What’s the matter with capitalism?
There is much to be said for capitalism. But it also has it dangers, not in the last place: its current threat to democracy.
Music
Q&A plus jam session with Wynton Marsalis
Music, Society
Calling Dr. Jazz: the Case for Integrity
Music
A Renaissance Man: Rob Riemen introduces Wynton Marsalis
Politics, Society
Allan Janik
On being European
Citizens of European national states who want to become Europeans today do well to remind themselves of the ideas that guided Robert Schuman’s efforts to heal the wounds of a society that had all but self-destructed in the course of the two world wars. To re-examine the roots of his thinking is to re-discover perhaps the most important of well-springs of European unity.
History, Politics, Society
Adin Steinsaltz
I am European
To sum up: the spirit of contemporary Europe is like that of a person past middle age, a semi-retired gentleman. Things have quieted down; most of the ferocious struggles of olden times are now abating.
A sense of possibility
A sense of reality
Art, Culture, Philosophy
Lesley Chamberlain
Van Gogh and the light around a pair of boots
In Cuesmes, Van Gogh learnt about physical work, and philosophy after him embroidered the significance of work.
How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way
Life is Hard
The book is filled to the brim with interesting ideas and arguments, well-chosen illustrations from literature and cinema, and courageous confessions taken from Setiya’s own life.
Literature, Politics
Q&A with President Emmanuel Macron
Politics, Society
The Future of Europe
Rob Riemen
Tomb or Treasure? Nietzsche and Van Gogh discuss The Future of Western Civilization
On the occasion of the Nexus Conference 2023
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.
Nelofer Pazira
Flight and identity: the story of Cordoba, Kabul and my father’s suit
History, Politics, Society
Peter Frankopan
Götterdämmerung: Who – or What – will Rule the World ?
Politics, Society
Q&A with Angus Deaton
Politics, Society