No. 02 ASPEN.REVIEW 2019 CENTRAL EUROPE COVER STORIES Ivaylo Ditchev, Wojciech Engelking, Marlene Laruelle, Tomáš Pospíšil, Gianni Riotta POLITICS Hans Kundnani ECONOMY Heiner Flassbeck CULTURE Andrzej Chwalba INTERVIEW Petr Pavel 9 771805 679005 No. 02/2019 — Citizenshop Citizenshop — The Marketplace of Citizenships— No Limit to NATO Expansion— The Data Dictatorship 9 90,- About Aspen Aspen Review Central Europe quarterly presents current issues to the general public in the Aspenian way by adopting unusual approaches and unique viewpoints, by publishing analyses, interviews and commentaries by world-renowned professionals as well as Central European journalists and scholars. The Aspen Review is published by the Aspen Institute Central Europe. Aspen Institute Central Europe is a partner of the global Aspen net- work and serves as an independent platform where political, business, and non-profit leaders, as well as personalities from art, media, sports and sci- ence, can interact. The Institute facilitates interdisciplinary, regional coop- eration, and supports young leaders in their development. The core of the Institute’s activities focuses on leadership seminars, expert meetings, and public conferences, all of which are held in a neutral manner to encourage open debate. The Institute’s Programs are divided into three areas: — Leadership Program offers educational and networking projects for outstanding young Central European professionals. Aspen Young Leaders Program brings together emerging and experienced leaders for four days of workshops, debates, and networking activities. — Policy Program enables expert discussions that support strategic thinking and an interdisciplinary approach in topics such as digital agenda, cities’ development and creative placemaking, art & business, education, as well as transatlantic and Visegrad cooperation. — Public Program aspires to present challenging ideas at public events, such as the Aspen Annual Conference that convenes high-profile guests from all over the world to discuss current affairs, and via Aspen Review Central Europe. Citizenshop No. 02 2019 ASPEN.REVIEW CONTENTS 04 FOREWORD Citizens, Not Customers Jiří Schneider 06 EDITORIAL Nationalism—“Financed with European Union Funds” Aleksander Kaczorowski 8 The Marketplace of Citizenships Ivaylo Ditchev 16 INTERVIEW with Marlene Laruelle: Human Capital Is a Weapon Jakub Dymek 22 The Data Dictatorship Gianni Riotta 30 The Shallow Modernization Wojciech Engelking 38 INTERVIEW with Tomáš Pospíšil: The Czech Republic Has a Hangover Łukasz Grzesiczak 46 INTERVIEW with Petr Pavel: There Should Be No Limit to NATO Expansion Robert Schuster 48 COMMENT The Fall of the ‘Third Rome’ Alexander Dobroyer 54 Europe after Merkel Hans Kundnani 61 The Digital Silk Road Dalibor Roháč 68 Will Russia Survive Putin? Alexander J. Motyl 74 The Specter of Soros Hovers over Central Europe Adam Balcer 80 Under the Hood of Recovery—Rethinking the State of Contemporary Capitalism Hanna Szymborska 87 INTERVIEW with Heiner Flassbeck: It’s the (Macro) Economy, Stupid! Jakub Dymek 93 Living with the Euro. The CEE Experience Bartłomiej E. Nowak 100 INTERVIEW with Andrzej Chwalba: Idealism and Interests Zbigniew Rokita 106 The Intellectual Insurrection Benjamin Cunningham 112 Time of the Quran Aleksander Kaczorowski 115 Can It Happen Here? Aviezer Tucker ASPEN.REVIEW FOREWORD Citizens, CustomersNot Dear Readers, The idea of citizenship has its roots in civis Romanum of the Roman Empire. A modern citizen endowed with civil rights and actively partici- pating in res publica emerged during the era of the Enlightenment. Having drawn on the ancient notion of citizenship, America’s Founding Fathers held no illusions about the idealist nature of a citizen. “Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.” In The Federalist Papers they expressed the idea that “each individual citizen every- where enjoying the same national rights, privileges, and protection” while their rights shall be guarded against “encroachments from the government.” This reflects the idea pronounced by the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen—that all citizens should “[be] equal in the eyes of the law” and “[have] the right of contributing to its formation.” The logic would be reversed, and the ethos of citizenship undermined if government would be merely perceived as a service provider. Citizens are seen more as customers entitled to the highest quality of services provided by the public sector. Contrary to popular political pledges to maintain government small and limit red tape and rubber stamps, the number of interactions between citizens and government agencies has been steadily growing in modern society. This is reflected in the increasing demand for 04 Aspen.Review/Citizens high-quality services provided by public-sector agencies and could lead to the simplified conclusion that the government relationship can be seen as a service-provider for a customer. Governments are often advised to optimize their procedures when dealing with citizens by using methods common in retail sales. Government agencies should have a customer-friendly interface by using private sector practices in providing public services to “customer satisfaction.” In recent decades, the concept of “entrepreneurial government” has been actively promoted. This could amount to a paradigm shift in a broader sense. This approach has been defended as a solution to reinventing the modus operandi of traditionally hierarchical government structures. Being entrepreneurial in government might be justified if it would mean more understanding of the principles of the market economy but not necessarily accommodating government decision-making procedures in a technocratic corporate culture. The entrepreneurial shift seems to me more controversial if applied by governments to dealing with citizens’ data. In this issue we have the pleasure of reprinting an article by Gianni Riotta on the power of data in the hands of authoritative regimes from our sister-journal Aspenia published by Aspen Institute Italy. New technologies allow for the use of government marketing and communications “specifically tailored to audience interests” while using segmentation methods common in advertising. After digitization of gov- ernment-citizen interaction, there is a growing temptation to stop treating citizens primarily as citizens, but to only see them as customers who expect a certain level of service. And government is simply obliged to deliver ser- vices. As citizens we should not grow accustomed to being treated merely as customers. Or should we? JIŘÍ SCHNEIDER Executive Director, Aspen Institute CE 05 ASPEN.REVIEW EDITORIAL Nationalism— “Financed with European Union Funds” The renaissance of nationalism in Central European societies is one of the greatest paradoxes of the united Europe. The more Poles or Hungar- ians benefit from EU membership, the more they support politicians who promise that their countries will never be anything like Europe. Poles and Hungarians want to imitate European modernization (i.e. enjoy a steadily increasing living standard), but only a few are ready for European modernity (i.e. a Western lifestyle and customs). The distinction between these two concepts, modernization and modernity, seems to be crucial. Central Europeans overwhelmingly accept and adopt Western technologies, but not necessarily Western ideologies (i.e. the visions of the proposed socio-political order contained in myths shared by the community). It is an enlightenment without Enlightenment, a civilization without culture. It can also be called a relationship without obligations, a love affair without illusions. Central Europeans want to benefit from the blessings of a multicul- tural and tolerant liberal democracy open to otherness. But not necessarily at home. Let our neighbors take this path. This is why the more Polish or Slovak towns and cities, subsidized under the European cohesion policy, resemble well-maintained towns in Holland or Belgium, the more con- fidently their inhabitants vote for nationalists and open Eurosceptics (even—or perhaps especially—when they themselves take seasonal jobs in the West). The last thing that Poles or Slovaks, forced to compete with 06 Aspen.Review/Nationalism Nationalism— “Financed with European Union Funds” Pakistanis for low-paid jobs in England, want is labor migration from out- side Europe to their home countries. To put it simply, the more they come in touch with multiculturalism abroad, the more they do not want it at home. Of course, there are also exceptions, these being the hundreds of thousands of young Poles, Hungarians and Romanians who have moved to the West permanently, not only because of the prospect of better earnings, but also to lead a different lifestyle, far from nosy neighbors and the parish church. They generally do not vote, however, in their home countries, although they often send money there (in Poland alone it amounted to about 4 billion euros in 2018). This huge stream of money, together with incomparably larger EU funds and direct investments of Western compa- nies – a real cornucopia, which from the Polish point of view is a fount of allegedly non-existent free lunches—makes Central Europe develop and get richer, and its inhabitants no longer feel like poor relatives of the West, as they did years ago. Today, they are masters in their own home and want to decide for themselves who to invite and who to show the door to.