Category: Civil Society

‘Rogue actors’ making digital technology incompatible with democracy

     

  The internet is the technology paradox writ more monstrous than ever. It’s a nonpareil tool for learning, roving and constructive community-building. But it’s unrivaled, too, in the spread of… Read more »

Voters prepared to trade democracy for security?

     

The crushing victory of right-wing candidate Jair Bolsonaro in Sunday’s runoff presidential election was in large part due to the electorate’s security concerns and anxiety over political instability, observers suggest…. Read more »

Iranian Repression: Architects of Human Rights Abuse in the Islamic Republic

     

“While representing political prisoners in the Soviet Union 45 years ago, I noted that ‘vacation time in the West is prison time in the Soviet Union,’ with the regime imprisoning… Read more »

Defending Digital Democracy via Election Cybersecurity Scorecard

     

More than 120 state and local election officials, communications directors, IT managers, and secretaries of state ran drills simulating security catastrophes that could happen on the worst Election Day imaginable,… Read more »

Egypt’s ‘New Realism’: Sisi turns to autocrats for allies

     

Anecdotally, Egyptians appear far more concerned about security and economic issues than they are about their diminished civil liberties, argues Barak Barfi, a research fellow at the New America Foundation…. Read more »

Blunting the hard edge of China’s ‘Sharp Power’

     

Faculty members at Cornell University said on Monday that they were cutting ties with a leading Chinese university after reports that it was harassing and intimidating students leading a campaign… Read more »

Latin America braced for ‘Bolsonaro effect.’ How did the unthinkable happen?

     

Following the crushing victory of right-wing candidate Jair Bolsonaro in Sunday’s runoff presidential election, Brazil’s Latin American neighbors are bracing for a regional “Bolsonaro effect,” AFP reports: The knock-on effect… Read more »

Kleptocratic solidarity: Russia aids Venezuela’s ‘mafia state’

     

Russia has sent a senior delegation to Venezuela to consult high-ranking government officials on a plan to stem the brutal economic collapse in a key Kremlin ally, Bloomberg reports: Venezuela… Read more »

The big factor at the heart of Middle East protests

     

In the spring, major protests swept through Jordan over economic grievances and subsidy reforms. In July, protesters took to the streets in the south of Iraq, demanding that the government address persistent unemployment, underdevelopment and corruption, say… Read more »