China’s advanced surveillance regime is taking root along the length of the Belt and Road—especially the Belt, the overland Eurasian routes that were the origin of the government’s ambitious investment… Read more »
Istanbul’s new mayor says his election victory against Turkey‘s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party carries an important lesson for the world’s populist leaders: Act against the will of the people… Read more »
The cluster of organizations around the National Endowment for Democracy has evolved into “a huge apparatus” with its strong norms and operational principles, one expert observes, at a time when… Read more »
Russia’s human rights situation is getting worse with each passing year, says Tatanya Lokshina of Human Rights Watch. The regime routinely “messes up” because it has destroyed almost all feedback… Read more »
A critical differentiator between traditional media and social media is how ‘targetcasting‘ is available only to a specific audience. Such secret targeting tears at the fabric of democracy, says Tom Wheeler, a… Read more »
As a fresh wave of protests generates speculation about an Arab Spring 2.0, the challenge for MENA democrats is to move beyond calls for regime change and focus on building… Read more »
Asian democracy is facing a “dystopian future” as scaling back in U.S. engagement and leadership is empowering forces that undermine democratic norms and processes. The warning came as Asian democracy… Read more »
In addressing disinformation online, policy makers should focus on bad actors and deceptive behavior, and avoid basing decisions on content, because much of what is characterized as “fake news” or… Read more »
The spread of illiberal and autocratic tendencies challenges Europe’s democracies, the V-Dem Institute observes. While in some European countries democratic institutions are already eroding, illiberal political parties are on… Read more »
As Soviet communism following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the experience of Baltic “freedom fighters” like Vytautas Landsbergis of Lithuania and Lennart Meri of Estonia demonstrated the “almost unbridgeable… Read more »