China’s rapidly increasing political influencing efforts and the self-confident promotion of its authoritarian ideals present a fundamental challenge to western democracies, analysts Thorsten Benner and Kristin Shi-Kupfer write for The… Read more »
Hope that the populist wave had peaked appears misplaced, argues Joshua Kurlantzick, a senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. Over the next two years, populists… Read more »
Ethiopia’s ruling coalition has lost its authority and all parties must help map the country’s future, an opposition leader said on Friday, suggesting political tensions in Africa’s second most… Read more »
Prisoners of conscience (POCs) are persons imprisoned for the peaceful expression of their political, religious, or other conscientiously held beliefs, even though they have neither used nor advocated for violence…. Read more »
Corruption was the major story for Latin America’s democracies this year, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index: Although scores declined for the region as a whole, there is… Read more »
The European Union sought on Tuesday to reinvigorate the membership ambitions of six Balkan states and reclaim the region as its own amid growing Russian and Chinese influence, setting… Read more »
Two new studies suggest that Europe’s embrace of China, even as it warns against Russian meddling, might benefit from a certain degree of wariness. When it comes to Beijing, they argue,… Read more »
Some view Tunisia’s recent demonstrations and the government’s response as a dire warning that the end of the country’s experiment with democracy is near, notes Safwan Masri, the author of… Read more »
Liberal democracies have less legitimacy than at any time since World War II, and most of their structural problems don’t appear fixable. Today’s strongest leaders show little interest in… Read more »
The relative weakness of some Western leaders appearing at the World Economic Forum in Davos reflects the recent fragmentation of electoral support on which democratic leaders rely, unlike in more… Read more »