The forces that imperil freedom
….. are identified and analyzed in the most-read essays from the Journal of Democracy, reminding us that 2021 was what JOD calls a year marked by high political drama, economic… Read more »
Author Archives: DemDigest
Central America: Innovative ways to address migration’s root causes
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has increasingly turned to corporate executives from Wall Street and Silicon Valley to serve as informal advisers, policy allies and political boosters as she grapples… Read more »
‘Back from the Barracks’: Putschist Africa returns?
The 82 coups Africa experienced between 1960 and 2000 were devastating for the continent—contributing to the instability, corruption, human rights abuses, impunity, and poverty that characterized many African countries during that era. Coups, moreover,… Read more »
Russia bans Memorial – ‘the last barrier to complete Stalinization’
Russia’s Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the nation’s most prominent human rights organization must close, signaling President Vladimir V. Putin’s longstanding determination to control the narrative of some of… Read more »
The leader who’s standing up to China
The leader who’s standing up to China https://t.co/hyEP8UhQ7A via @SpecialReports — Democracy Digest (@demdigest) December 28, 2021 Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen is wielding a mixture of soft and hard power… Read more »
Long road from Afghanistan to Albania
Since late August, more than 2,000 Afghans and their families—including prominent female leaders, journalists and civil-society activists—have been evacuated to Albania by third-party nongovernmental organizations, such as the Afghan Future… Read more »
Hacking marks Poland’s crisis of democracy
Donald Tusk, the leader of Poland’s main opposition party, called Tuesday for the creation of a parliamentary commission to investigate surveillance after reports that powerful spyware was used against three… Read more »
‘Strengthening the First Mile’: Standing up to kleptocracy
At the recent Summit for Democracy, non-governmental actors– among them leading activists and dissidents – implored participating governments to stand up to kleptocracy, according to the official account. In the… Read more »
China’s ideological ‘spamouflage’ exploits asymmetry with West
Beijing’s top diplomat in Hong Kong has said the city’s democratic development must be guided by the central government, adding it was time to wake up from the “American-style democracy… Read more »
Why the Soviet Union collapsed
Russian lawmakers want to declare the fall of the Soviet Union three decades ago “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.” The proposal submitted Monday by the right-wing nationalist Liberal Democratic… Read more »