Category: Democratic institutions

A new era of competition: democrats vs. autocrats – and illiberals

     

With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that democracies long failed to realize that a new era of competition was underway between autocratic and democratic states, notes Christopher Walker,… Read more »

Problem in rooting foreign policy in Western values

     

Invoking the roots of Western civilization, President Trump’s Poland speech recalled the core values undergirding modern democracy, some observers contend. “Western” values are universal values, and Trump affirmed their universality… Read more »

Alliance for Securing Democracy will counter information warfare

     

A bipartisan roster of former senior national security officials have signed onto a new initiative – the Alliance for Securing Democracy – to track and ultimately counter Russian political meddling,… Read more »

What comes after ISIS? ‘There is nothing, no plan.’

     

The announcement of the so-called caliphate was a high point for the extremist fighters of the Islamic State. Their exhibitionist violence and apocalyptic ideology helped them seize vast stretches of… Read more »

Ukrainian civil society ‘gearing up’ to counter patronalistic regime?

     

The appointment of former U.S. ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker (right) to be special representative to Ukraine could breathe some much-needed life back into the drive for peace, whose momentum… Read more »

False Dawn? How (not) to advance Middle East democracy

     

Supporting indigenous democrats would be a more successful approach to promoting democracy in the Middle East than external intervention, especially militarized regime change, says a leading Arab democrat. “Foreign intervention… Read more »

Western values not exclusive to ‘the West’

     

In the heady days of the Cold War, “the West” referred to the so-called free world — a liberal democratic order, notes Ivan Krastev (left), the chairman of the Center… Read more »

South Africa’s Zuma ‘leading ANC onto a path of implosion’

     

Disputed resolutions, deferred decisions and policy uncertainty were the prime bequests of the policy conference of the African National Congress to the troubled organization, notes analyst Susan Booysen: To the question: is… Read more »

‘Faking concern about fake news’: engaging Russia will ’empower Putin’

     

Should the West collaborate with Russia on cybersecurity issues, despite the Kremlin’s information warfare conducted against the liberal democracies? “To forgive and forget when it comes to Putin, regarding cyberattacks,… Read more »

Defending Western civilization – without democracy?

     

In his speech in Poland on Thursday, US president Donald Trump didn’t even mention democracy, note Brian Klaas, a fellow at the London School of Economics, and Marcel Dirsus, a… Read more »