Martin Müller’s “Global East”: The Next Episode in Central Europe’s Failed Quest to Be Something Other than it Is

Abstract

Central Europeans have very rich language for describing their own countries in unflattering manner and very, very long tradition of doing so. In this article author proposes a hypothesis for unusually low collective self-esteem. It is deeply rooted in the region’s peripheral relation with the West. It is a by-product of a yawning gap between rich, powerful, industrialized West and stagnant Central Europe. Müller’s “Global East” is, from this perspective, one of the (many) attempts to overcome region’s peripheral status.