‘Neo-autocracy’: turning democracy into a tool of oppression
Władysław Frasyniuk (above) championed democracy in the face of Communist rule in Poland in the 80s. Now, he warns the freedom he fought for is starting to slip away. (The… Read more »
Category: Analysis
How authoritarians are ‘dismantling democracy from the inside’
Authoritarian learning facilitates the ‘dismantling of democracy from the inside’, The Washington Post’s Amanda Erickson writes. It used to be that autocrats came to power through coups or by enacting states… Read more »
Georgia a ‘trailblazer for democracy in Caucasus’ or facing ‘uncertain future’?
Georgia “is a trailblazer for democracy in the Caucasus region” but it needs support from the West in order to maintain its liberal democratic trajectory, says president-elect Salomé Zourabichvili. “During… Read more »
Ukraine: trans-Atlantic alliance should counter Russian aggression
U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker says Russia needs to release the Ukrainian sailors taken captive in the Kerch Strait in late November by Christmas or “before the new… Read more »
NGOs call for EU ‘Global Magnitsky’ sanctions on human rights abusers, kleptocrats
European foreign ministers should endorse Dutch plans to create targeted EU sanctions for human rights abusers when they meet next week, say 90 human rights and civil society groups, including Fair Trials,… Read more »
EU launches ‘war against disinformation’: resisting Russia’s ‘populace-centric warfare’
Russia’s efforts to weaken America’s democratic institutions aren’t limited to elections — but also extend to the U.S. justice system, a group of cybersecurity, national security and legal experts told… Read more »
Austerity squeeze: middle class discontent stirs memories of Arab Spring
A wave of economic austerity is squeezing the Arab world’s middle class, pushing a segment of society that is key to growth and stability into making painful cutbacks and fueling… Read more »
Could democratic world feel the heat from Paris?
France is the latest European country to experience an upsurge of anti-elitist sentiment ripe for exploitation by populist or illiberal forces. The demonstrators known as gilets jaunes — “yellow vests,” named after… Read more »
China’s big-data authoritarianism a more dangerous adversary than Soviet Communism
Recent changes ushered into U.S. foreign policy could end up being highly consequential and may even resemble the Truman moment, when over a short period America dramatically changed its views of the… Read more »
Civic technology: defending democracy in the digital age
Unless we take action, chatbots could seriously endanger our democracy, and not just when they go haywire, notes Jamie Susskind, a past fellow of Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet… Read more »