A post-pandemic democratic renaissance?
As leading authoritarian states exploit that Covid-19 pandemic to pursue a strategy of “co-option, coercion, and concealment,” as H.R. McMaster has summarized it, the old liberal order may rapidly… Read more »
Search Results for: Disinformation
‘He Found One of Stalin’s Mass Graves. Now He’s in Jail.’
An amateur but very determined historian, Yuri Dmitriev, finally found the gruesome prize he had long been searching for — burial mounds containing the remains of political prisoners executed by… Read more »
COVID-19 pandemic reveals malfeasance, misrule & maladroit propaganda
In the absence of global democratic leadership, China is taking advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to proclaim the superiority of its authoritarian model, notes Keith B. Richburg, director of the… Read more »
COVID-19’s new pretexts for consolidating autocrats’ power
Authoritarian-minded leaders around the world have used the coronavirus emergency to consolidate power. In Europe, the governments of Poland and Hungary have done that and more. They have managed to… Read more »
Friends and Enemies: Understanding Chinese political interference
United States intelligence agencies have assessed that Chinese operatives helped push disinformation about #Covid-19 messages across platforms, according to six American officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to… Read more »
How China’s authoritarian model made Covid pandemic worse
China must be held accountable for the coronavirus outbreak, as thousands of lives could have been saved if it had acted earlier, says a leading human rights advocate. The Chinese… Read more »
‘Dynamism Despite Disruption’: Will pandemic undercut or rejuvenate civil society
In many countries, restrictive laws already had been squeezing civil society before the Covid-19 crisis hit. The pandemic provides a convenient cover for governments to further tilt the balance of power… Read more »
Why Russia’s Power Vertical is failing the COVID-19 Challenge
Russia is hardly the only country struggling to respond to the pandemic. But the political consequences of an inadequate response are much greater for a highly centralized and deeply personalized… Read more »
China’s propaganda aims to obscure ‘crime against humanity’?
China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, has used the coronavirus pandemic to shore up his political power at home, but the tools the Communist Party has exploited to do this are threatening… Read more »
Is China winning? Covid-19 a ‘unique stress test’ of political resilience
Like an asteroid, coronavirus is the textbook example of an exogenous shock. The threat came from beyond. Yet the pathogen offers a unique stress test of each country’s resilience, argues… Read more »