Putin 4.0: West needs asymmetric response
Reports that Vladimir Putin has been invited to the White House coincide with calls for Russia to be placed on the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. The… Read more »
Category: Authoritarianism
West vs. Russia: sharp-power struggle in Balkans – region least resilient to fake news
The West is fighting back against Russia in a battle for influence in the Balkans. The latest charge is being led by Britain. Seven years after shutting down in Belgrade,… Read more »
Antidote to disinformation: critical thinking vs. ideological cynicism
Civic education can be a vital antidote to disinformation, observers suggest. For a new generation of young Americans, “civics class has come to them,” notes New York Times columnist Timothy… Read more »
Generative adversarial networks: how fake news fuels authoritarians
The erosion of democratic norms in the advanced liberal democracies has given autocratic leaders the green light to do the same, reports suggest. “Fake news is being used as a… Read more »
Was the Arab Spring a Black Swan event?
The Arab Spring surely satisfies the three criteria for a black swan event: surprising, historically consequential, and rationalized by hindsight, notes the World Bank’s Elena Ianchovichina, author of Eruptions of… Read more »
How to really punish Putin’s kleptocracy
It is often said that Russia is a competitor to western democracy. But that is misleading. Its regime is a model only to other budding kleptocrats, the FT’s Edward Luce… Read more »
Is Russia part of a new ‘axis of evil’?
Newly-appointed National Security adviser John Bolton laid out his proposed strategy to respond to Russia’s “unacceptable” meddling in the 2016 presidential election and to Russian aggression around the world, speaking last month… Read more »
Why democracy assistance is not election meddling: distinguish support from sabotage
Some observers have argued that election “meddling” by Russia and other authoritarian regimes is acceptable because “everyone does it,” drawing a false comparison with democracy assistance. But advancing democracy has… Read more »
‘Information statecraft’: authoritarian attack on discursive space reshaping conflict
As artificial intelligence is increasingly integrated into digital advertising, disinformation operations and legitimate political communications will gradually become concerted, automatic and seamless, argues Dipayan Ghosh, a fellow at New America… Read more »
In new era of strategic competition, China’s autocracy at odds with democracy
China’s model, which has brought more people out of poverty faster than any other system in history, continues to flourish, argues Wall Street executive Steven Rattner, a counselor in the… Read more »