Circling the square: Will China’s youth rebel again?
China’s freedom-seeking youths last rose up in 1989. Might they again? the Economist asks. The country’s youth merit attention for the simple reason that they will one day be the… Read more »
Category: Civil Society
Blame the media or the media illiterate?
Following the attack on the U.S. Capitol last week, people on the left and right have blamed Fox News, CNN, and NPR for their apparent role in the act of… Read more »
Democratic ‘force multipliers’ can outcompete China, says Blinken
Secretary of State nominee Antony Blinken today outlined his vision for a revitalized foreign service and diplomatic corps in his opening statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, promising to… Read more »
Chaos in U.S. democracy is ‘no gift to autocrats’
Does the deepening of cracks in America’s political system actually boost the legitimacy of China and other authoritarian regimes? a prominent analyst asks. The fact is that damage to America’s… Read more »
‘Future Nostalgia’: Latin America’s democracies in 2021
Citizens of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela have suffered for too long under the despotic rule of Castrismo, Orteguismo and Chavismo-Madurismo, says Miriam Kornblith (right), the Senior Director for Latin America and the Caribbean… Read more »
China ‘in darkest period’ since Tiananmen: ‘Crimes against humanity – and possibly genocide’
China has possibly committed “genocide” in its treatment of Uighurs and other minority Muslims in its western region of Xinjiang, a bipartisan commission of the U.S. Congress said in a… Read more »
10 years on, taking stock of Tunisian democracy,
Reversing the dangerous erosion of U.S. democracy is urgent, but the argument that this requires abandoning efforts to uphold democratic values elsewhere has it backwards, say two leading observers. Commitments… Read more »
Shifting gears in Latin America
The failure of attacks on American democracy shows the value of strong institutions, says an adviser to President-elect Joe Biden. If the United States can overcome such assaults, it may… Read more »
Is Cuba’s illiberal model exerting influence in Latin America?
The Cuban authorities’ continued harassment of the San Isidro/27N Movement prompts Pablo Helguera to publish, for the first time, his 2015 essay on artist Tania Bruguera’s attempt to defend free… Read more »
A values-based strategy can counter authoritarians
In order to address the authoritarian resurgence, democracies have a values-based competitive advantage, observers suggest. The incoming U.S. administration needs to link foreign aid and democracy assistance to a broader… Read more »