Author Archives: DemDigest

Nigeria’s election: ‘competition in a time of transition & terror’

     

Nigerians will go to the polls to cast votes in national elections on Saturday, February 16. The country has a long history of vote rigging and it has evolved over time. In earlier… Read more »

Putin’s doubling down on foreign adventures could send Russia into bankruptcy….

     

… according to William Courtney, an adjunct senior fellow at the nonprofit, nonpartisan Rand Corp. and former U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan and Georgia, and Howard J. Shatz, a senior economist at… Read more »

‘Course Correction’: liberal democratic values give an edge over China

     

A global ideological competition is brewing between liberal democracy and authoritarianism, with China as the wealthiest and most powerful potential leader on the authoritarian side, according to a new analysis…. Read more »

How democracy support dynamics are shifting

     

Western and non-Western external democracy support is more similar than many think. Coordination is becoming more vital as the global order evolves and as democracy faces headwinds worldwide, according to… Read more »

Beyond Algeria’s presidential election: can civil society effect reform?

     

Algeria is nearing a critical juncture that requires decisions, notes Haim Malka (below), a senior fellow and deputy director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and… Read more »

Will U.S. support Malaysia’s fragile democratic experiment?

     

The breakout of real democracy in a Muslim-majority Asian country has gone largely unnoticed here in Washington, but we ignore it at our own peril. Malaysia’s fragile democratic experiment is a crucial… Read more »

Is technology strengthening authoritarianism relative to democracy?

     

Foreign Affairs, which has published a number of pieces dealing with technology and authoritarianism, asked a broad pool of experts whether technological change today is strengthening authoritarianism relative to democracy. In the past, the assumption was that… Read more »

Governance key to strategy for Iraq

     

Iraq’s politics, governance, and economy all pose major challenges that could leave Iraq unstable or even divide it, notes CSIS analyst Anthony H. Cordesman. Iraq’s progress towards democracy has so… Read more »

Russia ‘playing with West’s minds’: Putinism an ideological threat?

     

In a new book, Matteo Renzi, the former Italian prime minister, says he called President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia about false news reports attacking him on the international Russian… Read more »

“An affront to democracy”: Cuba’s launches fresh crackdown on activists

     

Cuba’s Communist regime has launched a fresh crackdown on the island’s democracy activists, reports suggest. At least eight houses were occupied by more than 200 military personnel bearing assault weapons… Read more »