Category: Analysis

How WhatsApp helped Bolsonaro win Brazilian election

     

Brazil’s digital environment is a fertile ground for innovative strategies to spread polarizing content with the intent of manipulating public debate, notes Caio C. V. Machado, a Brazilian lawyer and… Read more »

Saudis and Iran using sectarian non-state actors to shape Middle East

     

The Saudi-Iran rivalry playing out in the Middle East’s divided societies, such as the ‘proxy arenas’ of Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, and particularly Syria and Yemen, has cultivated sectarian difference that… Read more »

Russia ‘actively sponsoring’ assault on Hungary’s democracy

     

The European Union should determine if Hungary is at risk of breaching shared European values of democracy, rule of law and fundamental rights, members of the European Parliament said today, raising concerns over… Read more »

Democratic renewal in an age of crisis: why democracies are resilient

     

The populist parties now making headway in many Western democracies are fundamentally different from the “anti-system” parties of the interwar years, which openly denounced democracy, argues Jørgen Møller, who teaches… Read more »

Backsliding or renewal? Democracies must unite to survive

     

The United States should adopt a new foreign policy focused on defending and expanding the ranks of democracies around the world, argues Michael H Fuchs, a senior fellow at the… Read more »

China’s sharp power targets satirist of totalitarianism

     

China’s sharp power is targeting a satirist of totalitarianism, The New York Times reports. A Hong Kong venue operated by a nonprofit with ties to the local government withdrew an invitation… Read more »

Internationalist, not isolationist: Americans want U.S. engagement

     

Some 43% of respondents (54% of Democrats, 36% of Republicans and 36% of Independents) believe the decline of democracy around the world may threaten U.S. vital interests over the next 10 years, according… Read more »

Civil courage deprives authoritarians of vital weapon

     

Liberal democracies are facing an authoritarian resurgence and various forms of sharp power projections on the part of Russia and China. These countries are becoming more authoritarian and prohibiting independent… Read more »

An Arab anomaly? A danger to Tunisia’s democracy 

     

Nidaa Tounes yesterday described a ministerial reshuffle in Tunisia as “a coup against the constitution and democracy in the country,” Middle East Monitor reports: Secretary-General of Nidaa Tounes Slim Riahi… Read more »