Staring through the mocking glass: Three misperceptions of the East-West divide since 1989

When the Cold War ended, the direction of central and eastern Europe’s transformation seemed to be clear: building capitalist democracies in the framework of the region’s ‘return to Europe’. The high point of return was achieved in the first decade of the 2000s, when eleven former socialist countries managed to adopt key institutions of market economy and democracy and joined the European Union. Yet, soon after the enlargement, old fault lines have re-opened and new ones emerged. In some countries that were, earlier, most eager to return to the West and embrace its values, economic nationalism and political illiberalism have...