The roots of Russian aggression
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday met the head of Russia’s oldest rights group as well as the widow of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel literature laureate and prominent dissident of… Read more »
Author Archives: DemDigest
China deploying ‘Orwellian technologies’ in disinformation ops
China is employing programs of direct propaganda and disinformation, similar to Russian disinformation efforts, according to a new analysis from the RAND Corporation. Beijing’s Communist authorities are likely to “step… Read more »
The ‘Putin Paradox’: looking for an exit strategy?
The death of democracy is trumpeted today as loudly as the end of history once was, notes FT analyst Philip Stephens. But while democracies have their problems, it is a… Read more »
Iraq and Lebanon elections energize civil society
The elections in Iraq and Lebanon earlier this month present a fragile but important counterpoint to a region in turmoil, notes Tamara Cofman Wittes, a Senior Fellow at Brookings’ Center… Read more »
Centrists are the most hostile to democracy?
Across Europe and North America, support for democracy is in decline. To explain this trend, conventional wisdom points to the political extremes. Both the far left and the far right… Read more »
Egypt intensifies crackdown on dissidents, rights activists
A prominent Egyptian blogger and human rights defender was arrested today, making him the latest in a campaign that has taken several secular activists into custody this month, ABC News reports: Egyptian… Read more »
Democracies in strategic competition with revisionist authoritarian powers
Russia isn’t the only authoritarian state to exploit new technologies for the purpose of undermining democracy and advancing illiberal values, analysts suggest. China’s planned development of a “new digital Silk… Read more »
Resilience the key to winning normative war with Russia
Is Russia succeeding in destroying American democracy, as one Washington Post columnist suggests? Much of the global conversation around “fake news” has centered on the United States. Yet it increasingly… Read more »
How Democracy Ends – ‘in its sleep’?
Central Europe is going backwards, with populism, nationalism and “illiberal democracy” on the rise. That is the consensus among many opinion leaders in Western Europe and North America, notes CEPA’s… Read more »
China ‘donor bombshell’ reveals Beijing’s sharp power influence ops
A Chinese-Australian real estate developer “co-conspired to bribe” a senior United Nations official, according to claims made in Federal Parliament: Andrew Hastie, who chairs the powerful intelligence and security committee,… Read more »