‘Powerful, Different, Equal’? How China mangles history
It’s the culture, stupid. The successes of Hong Kong, Taiwan and the rest of the Chinese diaspora have always been an embarrassment for Beijing, says Arthur Tam, a former editor… Read more »
Hong Kong: ‘It’s Leninist authoritarianism vs liberal constitutionalism’
Since Beijing’s economic reforms began in 1978, Hong Kong has played a unique role — a place where western businesses could dip their toes in the new Chinese economy and… Read more »
The End of World Order? Rebuild ‘core coalition’ of liberal democratic states
Alongside the Cold War conflict with Soviet Russia, COVID-19 is “one of the two greatest tests of the U.S.-led international order since its founding,” according to Robert D. Blackwill,… Read more »
Weaponizing Information in Democratic Societies
Digital communication speeds the spread of all information, true or otherwise. Increasingly, digital campaigns can have physical impacts by manipulating public opinion, eroding the distinction between truth and lie, and poisoning… Read more »
Europe’s New Authoritarianism? COVID-19’s challenge to democracy
While autocratic regimes have tended to take more stringent policy measures to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic spread, such measures appear to be less effective in reducing mobility when compared… Read more »
‘Strong Yet Brittle’: Digital authoritarianism less resilient than democracy
Authoritarian governments increasingly adopt technology-centric national strategies and methods of internal governance. They control their societies through digital censorship, propaganda, and surveillance, and use these same tools to manipulate foreign… Read more »
Turkey & Russia: Not autocratic birds of the same feather
Democracies can reset themselves by changing governments through elections. Modern Russia cannot, says Alexander Baunov, a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center and Editor in Chief of Carnegie.ru. By the confluence… Read more »
The glue that keeps democracies together? Political trust
A thorough understanding of the effects of political trust, and how it can be built, is essential to combat the rise of populism and anti-system parties, and would be valuable… Read more »
‘Nuclear option’ spells beginning of the end for Hong Kong’s one-country, two-systems
SPORTING A HELMET, goggles and a respirator, the uniform of Hong Kong’s anti-government protesters, Lady Liberty raises her left arm to the sky—or rather, to the ceiling (see below). She… Read more »
Why democracies have the edge in coping with crisis
Throughout the centuries, competitors of the prevailing system have known that disaster presents them with an opportunity. Writing about the Black Death, which culled more than 40 per cent of… Read more »