Category: Authoritarianism

Social media aids Putin’s ‘postmodern war against the West’

     

In a rare move, some members of the British Parliament are traveling to Washington this week to question Facebook, Google and Twitter about fake news and the spread of misinformation on… Read more »

‘Disinformation vaccination’ needed? Russia already meddling in 2018 elections

     

  Russia is already beginning to interfere in the 2018 midterm elections and the U.S. is ill-prepared to combat it, according to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. He raised the… Read more »

Kyrgyzstan: optimism tempered by corruption concerns

     

Kyrgyzstan’s citizens demonstrate sustained optimism over the country’s trajectory and economic performance, tempered by an overwhelmingly high number who think corruption is a problem, according to a nationwide poll by the International… Read more »

EU moves to counter autocrats’ influence in the Balkans

     

  The European Union sought on Tuesday to reinvigorate the membership ambitions of six Balkan states and reclaim the region as its own amid growing Russian and Chinese influence, setting… Read more »

Authoritarian Advance: Responding to China’s Growing Political Influence

     

Two new studies suggest that Europe’s embrace of China, even as it warns against Russian meddling, might benefit from a certain degree of wariness. When it comes to Beijing, they argue,… Read more »

Dancing with danger? Europe’s populists ‘waltzing into the mainstream’

     

Central Europe’s populist revolt against the EU isn’t about safeguarding the West, notes Dalibor Rohac, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. It’s about rolling back freedoms and cozying… Read more »

China’s sharp power makes democracies ‘look like strategic amateurs’

     

Has China’s sharp power offensive left the West’s democracies looking ‘like strategic amateurs’? An opinion piece by Chinese media outlet Caixin Global is touting the idea of “globalism with Chinese… Read more »

Digital deceit: waging war with disinformation

     

There is nothing new about either fake news or Russian disinformation campaigns. Back in 1983, at the height of the cold war, an extraordinary story appeared in a little-known pro-Soviet… Read more »