Eclipse of the West’s soft power?
While the resurgent authoritarians of Russia and China are investing in the expansion of soft power, that of the Western democracies is dwindling, analysts suggest. The European Union’s approach to… Read more »
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Foreign Kleptocracy: Problems and Solutions
Middle Eastern countries have seen a “drastic” rise in their perceived level of corruption in the past year, according to analysis by Transparency International, The Financial Times reports: Qatar, Kuwait,… Read more »
Ideology underpins Iran’s rising axis of resistance?
The ideology underpinning the Iranian-led axis of resistance in the Middle East has evolved, according to Harvard analysts Payam Mohseni and Hussein Kalout. From a primarily state-centered enterprise, it has… Read more »
Blacklisting Muslim Brotherhood ‘may backfire’
Proposals to proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood are raising questions about appropriate strategies to counter violent extremism, The Wall Street Journal reports: Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in particular, is a strong supporter… Read more »
West facing ‘twilight of liberal world order?
External challenges to the liberal world order from Russia and China and continuing weakness and fracturing from within are likely to feed on each other, says a leading analyst. The… Read more »
Russia ‘trying to collapse’ liberal order, Biden tells Davos
Russia is undermining the liberal world order in its quest for influence, Vice President Biden said Wednesday in his last major speech before leaving office: Biden cited Iran and China… Read more »
West’s political and normative project ‘under fire’
Germany’s outgoing President Joachim Gauck on Wednesday used his final major address to emphasize the importance of a resilient democracy and robust security policy, DW reports. He called today’s Germany “the best… Read more »
Why defending democracy is no vice
Despite recent setbacks, there remain compelling moral and self-interested reasons to support democracy and human rights around the world, argues Michael McFaul, director of Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for… Read more »
Democracy under assault in a ‘Post-Fact World’
The emergence of the Internet and the World Wide Web in the 1990s was greeted as a moment of liberation and a boon for democracy worldwide, notes Francis Fukuyama, a… Read more »
Why democracy promotion has been superseded by ‘autocracy promotion’
The English language used to be an asset of the British and American democracies. Now it has become a weakness, argues the FT’s Simon Kuper: English-speaking countries are particularly easy… Read more »