Putin 4.0: West needs asymmetric response
Reports that Vladimir Putin has been invited to the White House coincide with calls for Russia to be placed on the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. The… Read more »
Combating Impunity: Targeting Kleptocrats
…. is the subject of a conference sponsored by The George Washington University (GWU) Law School, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and the American Society of International… Read more »
West vs. Russia: sharp-power struggle in Balkans – region least resilient to fake news
The West is fighting back against Russia in a battle for influence in the Balkans. The latest charge is being led by Britain. Seven years after shutting down in Belgrade,… Read more »
Ethiopia: repression continues despite new Oromo Prime Minister
The ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front coalition on Tuesday voted in the 42-year-old Abiy Ahmed, a retired lieutenant general from Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo, to take over… Read more »
Antidote to disinformation: critical thinking vs. ideological cynicism
Civic education can be a vital antidote to disinformation, observers suggest. For a new generation of young Americans, “civics class has come to them,” notes New York Times columnist Timothy… Read more »
Generative adversarial networks: how fake news fuels authoritarians
The erosion of democratic norms in the advanced liberal democracies has given autocratic leaders the green light to do the same, reports suggest. “Fake news is being used as a… Read more »
Russia: activist attacked in Dagestan
An unidentified assailant viciously attacked a representative of Memorial, Russia’s leading human rights group, on March 28, 2018, Human Rights Watch said today: Sirazhutdin Datsiev (left), the head of the… Read more »
China’s global kidnapping campaign ‘reaching inside U.S. borders’?
Beijing’s policy of forcibly repatriating people it considers Chinese nationals — some of whom are in fact citizens of other countries — is accelerating. Powerful businessmen, ex-Chinese Communist Party officials,… Read more »
Polls expose Lebanese fears yet Hezbollah ‘disinclined to foment domestic unrest’
With little over a month to go before Lebanon’s first national vote in nine years, experts are gauging the pulse of the electorate, tuning in to elements including turnout,… Read more »
‘Undemocratic dilemma’ in populist challenge to liberal democracy
Slovakia has become the latest country in Eastern Europe to face a major political crisis. But while regional neighbors such as Poland and Hungary have been clashing with the EU… Read more »