Chinese telecommunications company ZTE has been helping Venezuela’s autocratic government construct an advanced citizen surveillance program, Slate’s Mia Armstrong reports. A Reuters investigation published Wednesday provides a detailed look into the development… Read more »
The surest way to lose an election in south Asia is to be too enthusiastic about China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Wherever Chinese influence has grown, governments have turned more… Read more »
When democracy erodes, what remains? When a democracy backslides, where does it wind up? When democracy dies, what is born? asks Dan Slater, a Professor of Political Science and Director… Read more »
China’s Belt and Road Initiative has been described by President Xi Jinping as the “project of the century.” But with resistance growing, the vulnerabilities of China’s ascent are beginning to reveal opportunities for… Read more »
On May 9th, 2018, Najib Razak’s United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) Government was defeated in general elections that stunned the world. Today, nearly five months on, the International Federation of… Read more »
Recent months have seen questions about the long-term prospects for democracy in Asia come into focus once again, the Atlantic Council’s Asia Security Initiative observes. While Southeast Asia has seen… Read more »
Which political model are countries in the ASEAN region more likely to follow – Cambodia or Malaysia? analyst Simon Roughneen asks in the Nikkei Asian Review. With an increasingly powerful… Read more »
In a kleptocracy, criminal behavior is not individual, opportunistic, or sporadic, but rather collective, systematic, strategic, and permanent. It is a system in which all the high-level government officials are complicit, where… Read more »
Democracy is under siege. But the evidence that democracy is good for growth doesn’t directly speak to whether democracy is easy to make work. Nor does it imply or maintain… Read more »
The good news is that Najib Razak’s massively corrupt and incrementally despotic nine-year rule is over. The cautionary news is that Malaysia’s democracy is not yet fully secured, given the… Read more »