Category: Analysis

Coping with COVID-19: democracies ‘hold a clear advantage’

     

China and some of its acolytes are pointing to Beijing’s success in coming to grips with the coronavirus pandemic as a strong case for authoritarian rule. Yet democracies do appear… Read more »

‘A New Invisible Hand’: Corrosive capital is repurposing democracy

     

Illiberal regimes like those in China and Russia use capital as a foreign policy tool and often as a form of strategic corruption to bolster authoritarianism as a globally competitive… Read more »

Covid-19 crisis could ‘help restore democratic leadership’

     

  The coronavirus crisis could still help restore democratic leadership in the world, says William Burns (left), a distinguished veteran of the U.S. State Department and National Endowment for Democracy… Read more »

The global protest wave: Correcting misconceptions

     

The global protest wave is a roiling tide driven by a dauntingly diverse array of factors, including the travails of democracy and autocracy alike, the shortcomings of both market and… Read more »

Transition Framework: A new path to Venezuelan democracy?

     

  The US government unveiled a plan on Tuesday to break Venezuela’s political deadlock, inviting President Nicolás Maduro to cede power to a new transitional government in exchange for sanctions… Read more »

‘Democracy’s Defenders’ offered beacon of hope to dissidents

     

It is almost 30 years since the demise of Encounter, the London-based monthly review of culture and politics, but no other magazine has since come close to matching its influence, Gerald Frost writes for… Read more »

Dismantling democracy? Covid-19 used as excuse to quell dissent

     

Hungary’s parliament endorsed a bill on Monday giving nationalist premier Viktor Orban the sweeping new powers he says he needs to fight the new coronavirus pandemic. Critics at home and… Read more »

Hard truths about China’s ‘soft power’: How Beijing exploits pandemic

     

History accelerates in crises. This pandemic may not itself transform the world, but it can accelerate changes already under way, notes FT analyst Martin Wolf: One ongoing change has been… Read more »

Democratic adaptability vs autocratic ruthlessness: Coronavirus impacts great power competition

     

The major dividing line in effective crisis response will not place autocracies on one side and democracies on the other, argues Stanford’s Francis Fukuyama. Rather, there will be some high-performing… Read more »

The political lessons of the coronavirus pandemic

     

The real lessons of the coronavirus pandemic will be political, argues Thomas J. Bollyky,  Director of the Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of Plagues and… Read more »