Putin’s Russia is at ‘a dead end’
When the Ukrainian Orthodox Church broke from Russia’s, it dealt a blow to President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to portray his country as one people with a single identity, argues Michael… Read more »
New intelligence strategy highlights threats to liberal democratic order
The United States will be challenged in coming years by nations that exploit “the weakening of the post-WWII international order and dominance of Western democratic ideals” and “increasingly isolationist tendencies… Read more »
‘Democratic dream’ in South Caucasus?
Democratic bright spots are emerging in Armenia and Georgia despite their being wedged between less-than-democratic regional powers—Iran, Russia and Turkey, note analysts Denis Corboy, William Courtney and Kenneth Yalowitz. Both countries seek… Read more »
Understanding Central Europe’s illiberal metamorphosis
To understand Central Europe ’s illiberal metamorphosis, bear in mind that the region’s political imperative for almost three decades was “Imitate the West!” That process went by different names –… Read more »
Nathan Glazer, R.I.P.
2009 Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture: Nathan Glazer from National Endowment for Democracy on Vimeo. Nathan Glazer, a prominent sociologist and public intellectual who assisted on a classic study of conformity,… Read more »
Are social media platforms ‘rotting democracy from within’?
Facebook has entered a new era of cautious glasnost, inviting researchers to look ‘under the hood’ of various aspects of its operations, and understand how it formulates and implements… Read more »
‘Springtime for Strongmen’? Explaining the rise of populist authoritarians
How are we to understand the resurgence of authoritarianism? What form does it now take? What responsibility do elites bear for its success? These are among the most important questions… Read more »
Petrofraude: the scam that emptied Venezuela’s tables
Venezuela has more oil than Saudi Arabia and more poverty than Colombia. Once one of Latin America’s richest countries, it’s now plagued with shortages of everything from toilet paper to antibiotics and food, The… Read more »
A ‘hinge in history’? Democracy vs dictatorship in contest of narratives
The competition of democracy versus dictatorship is to a degree a contest of narratives, argues Richard Fontaine, President of the Center for a New American Security. “Beijing and others peddle a… Read more »
The digital destruction of democracy? Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization
What role do the interplay of new and old media play in getting authoritarian demagogues elected? How do new media platforms supercharge the spread of conspiracy theories and false ideas?… Read more »