Meduza journalist Ivan Golunov’s release from house arrest does not imply a softening of the Kremlin’s stance toward civil society or a strengthening of its fight against corruption, Russia analysts… Read more »
Democracy’s global travails continue to mount, notes a leading observer. What looked as recently as a decade ago to be real democratic progress in countries as diverse as Brazil, Hungary, South Africa, and Turkey has… Read more »
Chinese tech giants Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent are rapidly improving their artificial intelligence, challenging current U.S. tech leaders like Google and Amazon, Fortune’s Jonathan Vanian writes: China’s so-called BAT companies, as New York University… Read more »
Recent events in India have provided good reasons to worry for those who admire the country’s secular political traditions and cherish its democratic freedoms, the FT’s Victor Mallet writes in… Read more »
Cultural divisions and resentments are driving the rise of authoritarian populism across the Western world, according to a new book. Cultural backlash: Trump, Brexit, and authoritarian populism, by Pippa Norris… Read more »
Authoritarian populist leaders may seek to undermine democratic institutions, but recent developments in Brazil, Hungary, Slovakia and Turkey provide encouragement that liberal political forces are showing some signs of life… Read more »
Just as optimism over communism’s collapse and liberal democracy’s triumph masked underlying realities, so does Robert Kagan’s pessimism that strongmen are striking back warp understanding, argues Sheri Berman, a professor of political… Read more »
Nearly one in three people living in West and Central Africa fear losing their homes and land in the next five years, according to a survey of 33 countries, making… Read more »
Conventional wisdom on democracy’s troubles is still taking shape, but it generally holds that a dozen or so countries have backslid in a global trend dating roughly to the global… Read more »
Ethiopian premier Abiy Ahmed’s first 10 months in office have been remarkable by the yardstick of any leader around the world. In that time, he has overseen the swiftest political… Read more »