How to prevail against China
The United States is reshaping how it uses foreign aid in order to compete with China. The executive branch and Congress are exploring efforts — some controversial and still few on details —… Read more »
Tunisia’s democracy hangs in the balance
Tunisia’s moderate Islamist Ennahda party will seek to govern alone or in partnership with “the forces of the revolution”, its leader said on Friday, hinting at an end to five… Read more »
Reinvent democracy as populists ‘weaponize the will of the people’
The political arguments made by some contemporary politicians use the language of democracy, but the underlying logic has more in common with populist authoritarianism – a strategy that could be… Read more »
‘Gems, Warlords and Mercenaries’: Russia’s sharp power playbook in Africa
Russia lacks China’s muscle when it comes to trade and infrastructure. But it has other assets. One is a shrewd appreciation of the political needs of African dictators, another is… Read more »
Renewing the promise of reconciling political Islam and democracy?
Jamal Khashoggi and I disagreed on almost all political issues, but we agreed on one thing: that the Arab world had profoundly changed in ways that rendered the old… Read more »
Resisting populism, renovating democracy in the age of globalization
The rise of populism in the West and the rise of China in the East have stirred a debate about the role of democracy in the international system, The Brookings… Read more »
From ‘Chinese influence’ to ‘Beijing interference’: Time to aid Mongolia
Globally, China’s reputation has deteriorated significantly since 2012 stemming from a perception of financial, diplomatic, and military bullying as well as blowback from the increasingly naked geostrategic ambitions of the… Read more »
Revitalize political parties to improve democratic resilience
Revitalizing political parties would serve to both improve democratic accountability and democratic resilience, argues Wilson Center scholar Patrick Liddiard. Parties themselves have the biggest opportunity to halt their own decline… Read more »
‘Populist internationals’ set on undermining liberal democracy
A new generation of right-wing populists in Europe and the U.S. aims to overthrow liberal democratic institutions, according to Anne Applebaum, the Washington Post columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian. “These… Read more »
‘Dictators in Moneyland’: Challenging kleptocracy
Ever since the earliest years of this century, Ukraine has been the contested frontier in a grand ideological struggle between democracy and kleptocracy, analyst Franklin Foer writes for The Atlantic. … Read more »