Category: Dictatorships

The China challenge: Strategic urgency the prelude to strategic patience?

     

Cold War analogies aside, the world is in a battle for ideas, values, and the protection of sovereign democracies from outside influence and interference, argues Kevin Sheives – associate director… Read more »

Ten years after the Arab Spring: Why democracy failed

     

A majority in nine countries across the Arab world feel they are living in significantly more unequal societies today than before the Arab spring, an era of uprisings, civil wars… Read more »

Arab Spring 2.0? Five lessons from 2011

     

The conditions that spurred the Arab uprisings, including government corruption, failed economies and deteriorating social services, have only intensified in many countries, exacerbated by 2020’s Covid-19 pandemic, notes analyst Megan O’Toole…. Read more »

China’s ‘new Comintern’ struggles for minds and influence

     

The job of the International Department of China’s ruling Communist Party is to win support among foreign political parties by cultivating what’s been called a “new Comintern,” the Economist observes…. Read more »

China launches ‘gray-zone’ warfare to subdue Taiwan: CCP ‘reaping the whirlwind’ from too-sharp power

     

Months after eliminating a popular challenge to its rule in Hong Kong, China is turning to an even higher-stakes target: self-governing Taiwan. The island has been bracing for conflict with… Read more »

Arab Spring revisited: Did the West ‘miss a date with history’?

     

Ten years ago, as protests flared across the Arab world, Western governments failed to meet a date with destiny and help nurture dreams of democracy, missing an unprecedented chance to… Read more »

How pro-active democracies can withstand disinformation

     

In the 20th century democracies were defined by freedom of expression, pluralism and the metaphor of a ‘marketplace of ideas’, and authoritarian regimes by censorship and state media control, the… Read more »