Category: Authoritarianism

Liu Xiaobo and the Future of China

     

Liu Xiaobo died on July 13, 2017, a victim of intolerance by a fearful Chinese government that imprisoned him for his leadership role in writing and organizing Charter 08. That… Read more »

The Power and the Story: media’s claims on democratic legitimacy

     

  Journalism is in a delicate state in the world. The time at the turn of the century when it seemed to be secure in freedom, is gone. As June… Read more »

Strategic patience needed in Af-Pak stand-off

     

Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary met China’s special envoy on Afghan affairs on Monday, a foreign office spokesman said, a day after Islamabad canceled a scheduled visit by a top U.S. official,… Read more »

Schools of democracy: labor unions mobilize against authoritarian regimes, for basic rights

     

Reports that the Philippines’ labor movement is beginning to mobilize against President Rodrigo Duterte’s authoritarian regime are a timely reminder that unions are often in the forefront of actions to… Read more »

Security, Prosperity, and Governance in the Middle East and North Africa

     

While wars, terrorism, and rapidly changing economic conditions in the Middle East are in the headlines, the close links between these issues and governance challenges are increasingly relegated to the… Read more »

China: When the Law Meets the Party

     

Like an army defeated but undestroyed, China’s decades-long human rights movement keeps reassembling its lines after each disastrous loss, miraculously fielding new forces in the battle against an illiberal state…. Read more »

How to stop ceding propaganda war to Russia

     

The United States has recently been ridiculed for losing the ongoing information war, and has fallen victim to successive propaganda and disinformation campaigns orchestrated by Russia without a significant response. Given Russia’s… Read more »

Democracy’s defense mechanisms eroding. Populism here to stay?

     

In the age of migration the important characteristic of many of Europe’s populist parties is not that they are national-conservative but that they are reactionary, notes Ivan Krastev, chairman of… Read more »

Russia’s active measures toolbox used to ‘break apart’ Western democracies

     

The Obama administration received multiple warnings from national security officials between 2014 and 2016 that the Kremlin was ramping up its intelligence operations and building disinformation networks it could use… Read more »