Time to stop South Africa’s descent into despotism
In recent months, Brazil and South Korea have shown how far countries can go in the fight against corruption. No one, not even the president, has been above the… Read more »
‘Like-minded’ dictatorships show solidarity at U.N.
Why can’t the UN get more done to promote freedom? Council on Foreign Relations analyst Elliott Abrams asks. The answer is clear: so many member states are themselves dictatorships… Read more »
Did the democratic world ‘fail Syria’?
The democratic world failed Syria, argues Fadi Azzam, a Syrian writer and the author of the novel Sarmada. “I don’t mean the West’s politicians, foreign ministers and generals. I mean… Read more »
Beijing is exporting Great Firewall in effort to ‘tame’ Internet
Chinese authorities have detained a software developer for selling computer services that allow internet users to evade China’s “Great Firewall,” which blocks access to thousands of websites, from Facebook to… Read more »
UN General Assembly a crucial opportunity to reassert democracy-based soft power
This week’s United Nations General Assembly is a crucial opportunity to reassure the world that U.S. foreign policy is based primarily on the soft power of diplomacy rather than military… Read more »
How (not) to wage information warfare: Russia ‘using democracy to undermine democracy’
Like many media experts in Europe, Tetiana Popova worries that Russia is turning free speech against the West and using democratic information tools such as Twitter as weapons in a… Read more »
Asian democracy: glass half-full or half-empty?
Many observers been assuming that China’s rise is loading the dice against democracy in Asia and is part of a global authoritarian resurgence, notes Maiko Ichihara, an associate professor at… Read more »
How democracies should respond to authoritarian influence
Democracies should tackle the mechanisms of authoritarian influence head-on, argues Thorsten Benner, Director of the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin. Twenty years ago, the German British sociologist Ralf Dahrendorf argued that… Read more »
A celebration of Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia
A memorial service commemorating the life and work of Liu Xiaobo, the recipient of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize and one of China’s foremost pro-democracy activists and writers, and celebrating… Read more »
Call to ‘strengthen and sustain’ Community of Democracies
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Friday that North Korea’s continuing missile tests threaten the entire world and stressed the United States was working closely with regional… Read more »