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The threat of totalitarian domination; the rise of bureaucratic expertise; the resurgence of nationalisms and xenophobia; the claims of religion in secular societies; and the importance of robust legal and political institutions: these are among the main issues that mark – or specters that haunt – the 20th century political thought of Hannah Arendt. This introduction provides an overview of how the contributors to this dossier show the pertinence of Arendt’s work to confront these issues as they have become acute in the 21st century, from the EU’s sovereign debt and refugee crises to the Trump presidency and Brexit. The authors both use Arendt’s work to address pressing thematic concerns and fill up lacunae in the scholarly interpretation of Arendt’s oeuvre. The dossier will be interest of to political scientists, philosophers and historians, as well as readers interested in Arendt’s role as both an academic and a public intellectual.