Author Archives: DemDigest

How to understand the populist threat

     

This year, the European elections set for late May have continent-wide themes and a continent-wide significance, notes Anne Applebaum, a board member of the National Endowment for Democracy. Ironically, or perhaps absurdly,… Read more »

Autocracy’s forward march: stampede or slog?

     

Across the globe, entrenched authoritarians tightened their grip last year – watch China, for instance. Relatively new authoritarians extended their crackdowns – Hungary, Turkey, the Philippines are a few examples…. Read more »

Cuban doctor program condemned as ‘human trafficking’

     

The Cuban program that exports doctors around the world qualifies as human trafficking according to a resolution introduced in the U.S. Senate on Thursday, Reuters reports: The resolution specifically mentions… Read more »

China’s sharp power gains ‘overtaken by broader trends’

     

China’s ruling Communist Party launched a full-fledged campaign to “tell China’s story well,” spending billions of dollars on propaganda efforts.* Yet while an authoritarian state like China can control political discussion at… Read more »

AI systems accelerating authoritarian resurgence

     

Artificial intelligence systems are showing their potential for abetting repressive regimes and upending the relationship between citizen and state, accelerating a global resurgence of authoritarianism, notes Steven Feldstein, a nonresident fellow… Read more »

New era of international competition: revisionists vs. value-sharing democracies

     

A new era of great power competition pitting authoritarian revisionists against “value-sharing democracies” is one of the scenarios outlined in a new RAND report, Understanding the Emerging Era of International… Read more »

Who crushed Palestinian hopes for democracy?

     

Yesterday marked the fourteenth anniversary of Mahmoud Abbas’s election to the presidency of the Palestinian Authority (PA) for a four-year term. Not only have no subsequent elections for the presidency… Read more »

Getting the China challenge right: future of free societies at stake

     

What is at stake in the emerging contest between Washington and Beijing is nothing less than the future prosperity and security of free societies—in Asia and around the world, according… Read more »