Category: Authoritarianism

‘Too soon, too loud’: China’s Wolf Warrior diplomacy is backfiring

     

Leading Chinese scholars and foreign policy advisers have taken aim at the country’s “Wolf Warrior” diplomats and state media, saying their efforts to defend Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic are backfiring…. Read more »

How democracy will survive Covid pandemic

     

  Andrew James Klassen and Roberto Stefan Foa discuss the role that government effectiveness in handling Covid-19 will play in restoring or undermining faith in democracy. https://t.co/dNKH9TGsJW — PACE Funders… Read more »

Covid crisis exposes Kremlin’s limited capacity of power?

     

  The #coronavirus pandemic makes it a lot easier for strongman leaders to justify their blatant attacks on democracy. @joshuakeating for @Slate https://t.co/YXxUmtiIkh — Freedom House (@freedomhouse) May 12, 2020… Read more »

Russia-linked ‘active measures’ destabilizing global democracy

     

Russia is pursuing one of its favored methods of destabilizing global democracy. By covertly financing campaigns, the Kremlin has helped elevate extremist politicians and nurture corrosive social movements, not least… Read more »

Post-Covid democratic legitimacy demands ‘re-imagining social contracts’?

     

Václav Havel was spot on when he wrote: ‘The natural disadvantage of democracy is that it is extremely tiring to those who mean it honestly, while it allows almost everything… Read more »

‘When the World Wasn’t Looking’: An inflection point for democracy?

     

From anti-science conspiracy theories to state-sponsored disinformation, the United Nations warns that an “infodemic” of half-truths and falsehoods is undermining the effort to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic. How is social… Read more »

Covid crisis exposes ‘chimera of authoritarian competence’

     

The novel coronavirus pandemic will only exacerbate recent anti-democratic trends, according to a new policy brief from the Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI). While “it is neither foreseeable how fast and… Read more »

Yet another regime using Covid pandemic to tighten its grip

     

Egypt’s military-backed government is using the coronavirus pandemic to tighten its grip on the country, human rights activists say. In recent weeks, authorities have ordered up punishments, including prison terms,… Read more »

What China Wants: Ideology at root of ‘new type of cold war’

     

The world’s “free and open societies” should collaborate to stop their capital and technology from aiding China’s human rights violations and military build-up, and instead redirect such assets to initiatives… Read more »