Syrian voices seek inclusive constitution
A new Syrian constitution can only be achieved through an inclusive process in pursuit of a national consensus which encompasses the voices of all factions of society, according to a… Read more »
Geo-technology battles: Contesting authoritarian values in global cyberspace
China and Russia are attempting to ingrain authoritarian values into the global cyberspace, a new analysis suggests. Russia is also leveraging and restricting mass media and social networks to protect… Read more »
How to revitalize the Enlightenment tradition of liberal democracy
The United States and Europe are understandably wary of engaging in direct conflict with Russia, but they can still do more than provide short-term assistance to Ukraine, argues Bruce Ackerman,… Read more »
Venezuela’s democracy is ‘not a commodity’
The Venezuelan opposition faction backed by the United States announced plans Monday to hold a primary contest next year to choose a presidential candidate for the planned 2024 election, AP reports. The… Read more »
A global turning point or is democracy finished?
Francis Fukuyama‘s widely misinterpreted 1992 book, “The End of History and the Last Man,” was assumed to be a statement of fact rather than the description of a process, Joe… Read more »
What liberals misunderstand about authoritarianism
Although Hannah Arendt’s 1951 classic “The Origins of Totalitarianism” is primarily about Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, but her descriptions often capture aspects of our present moment more clearly than… Read more »
‘Empire of Silence’ highlights inertia to DRC atrocities
The Democratic Republic of Congo has been ravaged by war for a quarter century, with victims in the millions. Perpetrators of the war’s innumerable crimes take Congo’s riches with impunity… Read more »
Ukraine ‘will be decisive’ for Western alliance
Kaja Kallas remembers the stories of when her mother, Kristi, then a baby, was deported to Siberia in a cattle car with her own mother & grandmother so it is… Read more »
How to become a 21st-Century ‘spin dictator’
Are the authoritarians who grace, or disgrace, our world, from Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Vladimir Putin, more like or unlike their twentieth-century predecessors? Two new books, each with virtues of… Read more »
‘Crisis of democracy?’ China shows more consequential crisis of autocracy
“Crisis of democracy” is a cliché of our time. But what about the even more consequential crisis of autocracy? Just watch the meltdowns in China, Russia, Turkey and arguably Africa’s… Read more »