Category: COVID-19

‘Strong Yet Brittle’: Digital authoritarianism less resilient than democracy

     

Authoritarian governments increasingly adopt technology-centric national strategies and methods of internal governance. They control their societies through digital censorship, propaganda, and surveillance, and use these same tools to manipulate foreign… Read more »

Why democracies have the edge in coping with crisis

     

Throughout the centuries, competitors of the prevailing system have known that disaster presents them with an opportunity. Writing about the Black Death, which culled more than 40 per cent of… Read more »

Pandemic represents ‘high-water mark’ for brittle authoritarian model’s appeal?

     

It is quite possible that the coronavirus pandemic will represent the high-water mark for the appeal of the authoritarian model and of its two standard-bearers, China and Russia, according to… Read more »

Has Covid consolidated Xi’s rule? China’s three strategic options

     

There is a growing body of evidence, assembled and interpreted by talented China experts, that the Chinese government is indeed aiming for global power and perhaps global primacy over the… Read more »

Non-State Actors and COVID-19: Challenge or Opportunity?

     

Gendered disinformation—the spread of deceptive or inaccurate information against women in politics—weakens democratic institutions by limiting the participation of a significant part of the population, argues Lucina Di Meco, the… Read more »

‘Beijing’s Mask Diplomacy’ rewriting the narrative

     

The implications of the Covid-19 pandemic are “potentially monumental” for China, but the ruling Communist Party’s leader, Xi Jinping has seized on the crisis as an opportunity in disguise. And… Read more »