Threat to Western democracy ‘starts at home’
We have moved from a world of ideological struggles in the 20th century to a world of geopolitical struggles in the 21st—or so goes the conventional wisdom. But technology is… Read more »
Category: Analysis
Disinformation’s goal: loss of faith in democratic institutions
Today’s Russian disinformation campaigns, part of the Kremlin’s hybrid war against Western democracies, seem to have much in common with the infamous Zinoviev letter, says Shlomo Ben-Ami, a former Israeli… Read more »
UK and Russia waging ‘fast and furious’ information warfare
Blogging platform Tumblr has deleted 84 accounts it says Russian propagandists used to spread disinformation during the 2016 US election, the BBC reports: The accounts are believed to have been… Read more »
Rethinking democracy for democratic renewal
If contemporary democracies are going to compete with autocratic systems on the world stage while avoiding their own suicide through polarization and paralysis fueled by untrustworthy information, they need a… Read more »
Hungary slipping from ‘semi-authoritarian order to fully authoritarian’?
In Budapest 1, a parliamentary district at the heart of the Hungarian capital, most voters will not support the party of Viktor Orban, the country’s far-right prime minister, in a… Read more »
Can Peru’s democracy survive corruption?
The struggle against corruption requires strong institutions and leadership — both lacking in Peru, notes Sonia Goldenberg, a former executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. Many of the… Read more »
Ukraine’s citizens optimistic, but concerned over corruption
Ukraine’s citizens are showing more economic optimism, but remain concerned over corruption, according to a nationwide poll by the International Republican Institute’s (IRI) Center for Insights in Survey Research: Twenty-three… Read more »
Social media, political polarization and disinformation: a review
Social media is neither inherently democratic or undemocratic, “but simply an arena in which political actors — some which may be democratic and some which may be anti-democratic —… Read more »
Authoritarian International: Will human rights survive illiberal democracy?
The European Union’s response to Russia’s sham election suggests that it has decided it’s time to cuddle up to dictators, the Carnegie Endowment’s Judy Dempsey observes in the Washington Post…. Read more »
Existential risk to civil society in ‘skillfully veiled authoritarian’ Hungary
Hungary’s illiberal leader has built what Paul Lendvai in his new book, “Orbán,” calls a “skillfully veiled authoritarian system,” notes James Kirchick, a visiting fellow at the Center on the… Read more »