Democratic backsliding: slippery slope of hostility toward media

     

On an unprecedented scale, authoritarian regimes are employing “sharp power” tactics to manipulate the very institutions that serve as the foundation of democracy, such as free media, says Christopher Walker,… Read more »

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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 »

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Disinformation vital to autocrats’ sharp power repertoire

     

Russian intrusions into democratic institutions around the world have been in the spotlight for some time. But as a recent letter from a bipartisan group of US senators warns, China… Read more »

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Transatlantic rift: ‘lining up with authoritarians instead of democracies’?

     

President Donald Trump departs Tuesday on a four-nation tour amid simmering disputes over trade and military spending with fellow Western democracies and speculation about whether he will rebuke or embrace… Read more »

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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 »

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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 »

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Autocrats’ sharp power fails to curb activists’ U.N. role

     

An alliance of authoritarian states lost a bid on Friday to weaken a U.N. resolution upholding civil society activists’ role in highlighting human rights violations, according to campaigners. The United… Read more »

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Arab democracy depends on normalizing Islamist parties

     

Arab democracy would simply be inconceivable without Islamist participation, writes Brookings analyst Shadi Hamid. That, by itself, should give us pause, particularly at a time when Western democracies appear uninterested or even… Read more »

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