Sharp power central to China’s ‘superpower plans’
As the U.S. retreats, Beijing is talking more boldly about how it wants to change the global order and assert its own values and interests, according to Elizabeth Economy, the… Read more »
Category: Civil Society
Russia fuels rise of illiberal civil society in the former Soviet Union
Disinformation is one of several tools in the Kremlin toolbox as Russia plays a leading role in promoting illiberal, anti-Western and socially conservative civil society groups, popular movements and political… Read more »
Fighting fake news in Colombia
Over the past year, efforts to weed out fake news have boomed. In 2016, during the peace agreement talks between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC),… Read more »
Angola’s new regime ‘determined to enhance democracy’?
Angola is determined to enhance democracy, President João Lourenço told the European Parliament last week. His comments came shortly after the International Monetary Fund commended his administration for initiating reforms geared away… Read more »
Arab populism succeeds where civil society fails
In this year’s key parliamentary elections in Iraq and Lebanon, formerly controversial populist figures performed far better than expected and are playing central roles in the scramble to form governments,… Read more »
AI prompts new competition: digital authoritarianism vs. liberal democracy
Artificial intelligence will reshape the global order, says analyst Nicholas Wright, who predicts a new era of competition between digital authoritarianism and liberal democracy for Foreign Affairs: Some countries are… Read more »
Crisis in Nicaragua: resolution in sight?
Nicaragua’s embattled president Daniel Ortega has attacked pro-democracy protesters engaged in an 11-week student-led uprising as “hate-sowing coup-mongers” and appeared to rule out early elections in a defiant public address,… Read more »
Not just for the West: liberal democracy ‘a victim of its own success’
FROM ALL OUTWARD signs, liberal democracy is in retreat around the world. Populist and nationalist movements, often explicitly xenophobic, are on the rise in Europe, notes analyst Cathy Young. Opinion columns… Read more »
Why Putin abandoned Russia’s Western orientation
Less than a decade ago, it seemed self-evident that Russia, despite all of its cultural and political differences, was reclaiming its rightful place as part of the Western world. In… Read more »
Playing the ‘long game’: a strategic approach to advancing democracy
During a recent congressional hearing, the heads of three non-profit democracy assistance groups revealed the benefits of a strategic approach – playing “the long game” – in advancing democracy in other countries,… Read more »