Category: sharp power

New strategy aims to protect democracy from foreign influence ops

     

To counter foreign influence campaigns’ efforts to undermine democratic institutions, a new report calls for strengthening government partnerships with social media and technology companies, and doing better at identifying and… Read more »

CCP ‘the central threat of our times’? Democracies must stand up to China

     

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared the Chinese Communist Party “the central threat of our times” on Thursday, even as he sought to talk up the prospects of a United… Read more »

Taiwan’s Destiny: Election at ‘center of a clash between two forces’

     

Taiwan’s top diplomat said that his government stands with Hong Kong citizens pushing for “freedom and democracy,” and would help those displaced from the semi-autonomous Chinese city if Beijing intervenes… Read more »

Bending the knee to Beijing’s ‘proxy power’. Can democratic values survive in a Chinese world?

     

If you want to understand what’s happening in the National Basketball Association, turn off SportsCenter and pick up “The Art of War,” argues Ben Sasse, a Republican, who represents Nebraska… Read more »

‘Gems, Warlords and Mercenaries’: Russia’s sharp power playbook in Africa

     

Russia lacks China’s muscle when it comes to trade and infrastructure. But it has other assets. One is a shrewd appreciation of the political needs of African dictators, another is… Read more »

How China’s ‘malign influence’ is corroding democracies

     

The primaries for Taiwan’s forthcoming presidential election are highlighting fears over China’s political influence. Pro-Beijing media are being credited with populist Han Kuo-Yu’s victory to lead the opposition, The Financial… Read more »

Authoritarian challenge is the ‘defining question of our time’?

     

Democracy’s global travails continue to mount, notes a leading observer. What looked as recently as a decade ago to be real democratic progress in countries as diverse as Brazil, Hungary, South Africa, and Turkey has… Read more »

China’s foreign interference exposed – yet again

     

Beijing agents pressured two Chinese-Australian authors to provide information about a secret Canberra inquiry into Chinese meddling in domestic politics, local media reported Monday: Yang Jun, a novelist and democracy… Read more »

‘Textbook destabilization’: dissidents feel Beijing’s sharp power wrath abroad

     

China’s Communist authorities are employing repressive tactics honed at home to harass exiles and minority activists in the latest manifestation of Beijing’s sharp power. As China extends its influence around… Read more »

‘Soft Power Superpowers’: the powers of attraction

     

Real democracy perhaps requires no written constitution, argues Simon Critchley, a professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research and the author of “What We Think About When… Read more »