Search Results for: social contracts

Kleptocratic solidarity: Russia aids Venezuela’s ‘mafia state’

     

Russia has sent a senior delegation to Venezuela to consult high-ranking government officials on a plan to stem the brutal economic collapse in a key Kremlin ally, Bloomberg reports: Venezuela… Read more »

The big factor at the heart of Middle East protests

     

In the spring, major protests swept through Jordan over economic grievances and subsidy reforms. In July, protesters took to the streets in the south of Iraq, demanding that the government address persistent unemployment, underdevelopment and corruption, say… Read more »

Soviet collapse ‘echoes’ in China’s Belt and Road Initiative

     

China’s increasingly image-conscious government has appointed a trusted member of the ruling Communist Party to head up its international propaganda operation, AP reports: Former top internet regulator Xu Lin will… Read more »

Beijing’s sharp power proves China won’t become ‘more like us’

     

The downfall of a prominent Australian lawmaker is fueling a growing sense of unease about Chinese influence in the country’s domestic affairs, and raising tensions with its most important trading… Read more »

China’s secret ‘magic weapon’ for global soft power

     

Xi Jinping is quietly ramping up the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist party in a push for global “soft power”, The FT’s James Kynge writes in a… Read more »

Russian trolls paid activists to sow discord: how to reduce vulnerability

     

A Russian “troll factory” paid tens of thousands of dollars to unwitting American activists to sow discord in the US, The Times reports: This is the first suggestion of direct… Read more »

Venezuela’s boliburguesía ‘kleptolobby’ highlights perils of populism

     

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is in Moscow, where he is due to hold talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin said earlier that Maduro will meet with Putin… Read more »

Community of Democracies needed now more than ever

     

  When the Community of Democracies first gathered in Warsaw seventeen years ago, no one could be certain that the Community would continue for very long, let alone develop and… Read more »

South Africa’s kleptocracy: the end is nigh for ANC?

     

As South Africa’s labor unions prepare mass protests against state capture and corruption, the country’s troubled democracy faces the prospect of “more kleptocracy, more division, fewer reforms and a path… Read more »