Women’s rights activist seeks ‘civil supremacy’ in Pakistan
A Pakistani human rights activist who spoke out against the army has fled the country after months in hiding. Gulalai Ismail (above, far right) is now in the US, having eluded… Read more »
Category: Authoritarianism
Georgia’s civil society warns of ‘democratic backsliding and state capture’
Over the decades, Georgians have made great strides in moving toward a truly democratic, European nation, despite daunting challenges — not least from Russia, which invaded in a brief but… Read more »
‘Hong Kong’s Fight For the Rule of Law’: Holding the line against totalitarian advance
With Hong Kong’s society increasingly polarized by the ongoing unrest, external actors, including the U.S. Congress, the administration, and the legal and NGO community, can take steps to advance human… Read more »
Information warfare evolves, democracies defenses don’t
China has framed Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests as a foreign-backed movement that uses “thugs” to threaten the mainland’s sovereignty. The narrative might be working within the great firewall. Outside China? Not so much,… Read more »
Captive Society: What do Iran’s leaders really fear?
What do Iran’s leaders really fear? New York Times columnist Bret Stephens asks. Above all, a revival of the Green Movement that nearly toppled the regime following the stolen presidential… Read more »
How to win the data war against brittle autocrats
It can be tough to craft regulations and national security policies for data and technology that do not fall afoul of democratic and capitalist values, according to Eric Rosenbach, co-Director… Read more »
Reassessing 1989: How authoritarians upended democratic assumptions
Vladimir Putin’s kleptocratic regime has developed a network of patrons across Europe, spreading corruption that weakens democracies from the inside and helps Putin to maintain power, according to a… Read more »
Artificial intelligence: Advanced democracies struggling to balance security & liberty
Advanced democracies are struggling to balance security interests with civil liberties protections in the deployment of artificial intelligence surveillance technology, according to a new analysis. Both liberal democracies and autocratic… Read more »
Moscow Protests’ Rare Show of Defiance & Solidarity – A New Reality for Putin’s Russia?
A growing number of Russian entertainers on Tuesday joined in a rare show of defiance and solidarity, in support of an actor who they say was wrongfully convicted of resisting… Read more »
New tactics, models, actors, and strategies needed to enhance democracy support
Democracy assistance is failing to adapt to the shifting dynamics of global politics evident in recent reports from such varied sources as Freedom House, the Varieties of Democracies project and The… Read more »