Democracies divided over Venezuela’s ‘Mafia State’
The power outage that left most of Venezuela without electricity for five days in early March seemed eerily symbolic of the mood among many people there. Living through one of… Read more »
Egypt’s Sisi seeks approval to ‘further institutionalize authoritarianism’
Egypt’s military leader, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is in some ways trying to turn the clock back, restoring the six-year presidential term and exempting himself from term limits—which, by the way,… Read more »
Ethiopia’s transition hits rough patch: Abiy needs support from abroad
One year ago this month, Dr. Abiy Ahmed was sworn in as prime minister of Ethiopia, Human Rights Watch reports. His first few months in office saw many positive human… Read more »
Testing resilience: ‘democracy not in question – the way we practice it is’
Democracy is not in question, but the way we practice it is, according to a new analysis, which gathers available evidence for a European reality-check. “One of the many drivers… Read more »
‘Connectivity is the new geopolitics’: democracy at stake
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 »
Arab Spring hopes ‘being revived across North Africa’?
In Sudan, tens of thousands of demonstrators are sitting in to demand the ouster of their longtime ruler. In Algeria, millions of protesters forced out their own octogenarian leader last week…. Read more »
Digital democracy: will ‘big data’ affect government policies?
At a time of huge distrust of government intervention and privacy violations around the world, MIT Professor and IDE Lead, Sandy Pentland is focused on what your smartphone can tell about… Read more »
Don’t ‘green light’ Egypt’s repression
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s visit to the White House on April 9, 2019 comes at a time when his government has been stifling dissent before a planned constitutional referendum that… Read more »
‘Revolt against virtue’ fuels populist resurgence?
The assumption of virtue among those who count themselves as progressive may help to explain the popularity of right-wing agitators, as well as the link between anti-immigrant sentiment and… Read more »
Downplaying Islamism, regime aims to demobilize Iran’s ‘underground but still vibrant’ civil society
The European Union decided on Monday to extend restrictive measures imposed against Iran to last for an additional year until April 13, 2020, due to “serious human rights violations”… Read more »