Category: Analysis

Democracies’ ‘secret weapon’ against China’s sharp power

     

Since Taiwan’s pro-independence Democratic Progressive party (DPP) won the presidency and a parliamentary majority in 2016, China has ramped up pressure against Taipei on all fronts. Now, the DPP government… Read more »

Two Decades of Combating Terrorism: a ‘democracy advantage’?

     

  Nearly four times as many Sunni Islamic militants are operating around the world today as on Sept. 11, 2001, despite nearly two decades of American-led campaigns to combat Al… Read more »

World’s worst violators undermine UN Human Rights Council

     

  A U.N. human rights expert says his efforts to highlight Iranian harassment of BBC Persian service journalists are unlikely to result in the world body acting against Iran. David… Read more »

How to make extremely violent democracies safe

     

The world’s most violent places are polarized, unequal democracies. There is a way to make them safer, argues Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow in the Carnegie Endowment’s Democracy, Conflict, and… Read more »

‘Striking fragility’ in willingness to defend core democratic values?

     

The illiberal attitudes underpinning the populist upsurge in Europe are not unique to that continent, analysts suggest. There is a striking fragility in Americans’ willingness to defend core democratic values,… Read more »

Persuasive populism enters the mainstream

     

Populist parties have more than tripled their support in Europe in the last 20 years, securing enough votes to put their leaders into government posts in 11 countries and challenging… Read more »

Biggest threat to democracy ‘coming from within’?

     

For years after the end of the Cold Year it was possible to believe democracy was on the march across the globe. Now there are as many reasons to believe… Read more »

Egypt: mass arrests aim ‘to quash what remains of civil society’

     

Egypt’s police and National Security Agency (NSA) forces have conducted a mass arrest campaign, rounding up at least 40 human rights workers, lawyers, and political activists since late October 2018,… Read more »

Iran’s militia allies ready to ‘call the shots’ in Iraq’s parliament?

     

The killing of a Muslim cleric who demonstrated over poor public services in Basra undermines the pillars of democracy in Iraq, a member of the parliament-elected Iraqi High Commission for… Read more »

The Power of Focus: Proposal for a ‘European Magnitsky Act’

     

Germany has halted arms sales to Riyadh and agreed with France to place a travel ban on several Saudi nationals following the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, raising international pressure on… Read more »