What chance for democracy in the Middle East?
There are many lessons to take from the Iraq debacle, notes Gerard Russell, who served as an assistant to Iraq’s first elected prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, in 2005. The postwar… Read more »
Cold War 2.0? Confront authoritarianism by defending democratic values
Gen Sir Richard Shirreff remembers the moment he realized Nato was facing a new and more dangerous Russia. It was 19 March 2014, the day after Russia annexed Crimea from… Read more »
Venezuela’s odd transition to dictatorship
Venezuela’s Congress on Sunday declared that the government had staged a coup by blocking a drive to recall President Nicolas Maduro in a raucous legislative session that was interrupted when… Read more »
China’s ‘totalitarian’ plan to organize society on big data
Imagine a world where an authoritarian government monitors everything you do, amasses huge amounts of data on almost every interaction you make, and awards you a single score that measures… Read more »
Opposition cries dictatorship as Venezuela blocks recall
The Venezuelan opposition’s campaign to oust President Nicolas Maduro has been thrown into disarray with elections officials’ decision to suspend a recall drive against the socialist leader a week before… Read more »
New voice of change helps Ukraine reinvent itself
Ukraine is at the center of Russia’s conflict with the West, playing a vital role in Vladimir Putin’s ambition to restore Russia’s great-power status, The Economist notes: The Kremlin has… Read more »
The future of Arab reform: beyond autocrats and Islamists
The argument for democratic reform in the Middle East seems harder to make today, despite the evidence for it being clearer, than it was when the Arab Spring sprung, argues… Read more »
Russia’s disinformation can’t pretend to offer attractive ideology
Russian interference in America’s presidential election merits measured retaliation. But the West can withstand such “active measures”, The Economist notes: Russia does not pretend to offer the world an attractive… Read more »
Strategic questions on democracy’s place in future world order
The place of democracy in a future international order is one of the most important strategic questions facing the United States, according to a major new report from the RAND… Read more »
Elections could consolidate or undermine Ghana’s democracy
Ghana’s forthcoming elections would further consolidate the country’s democratic institutions and practices if they prove to be “credible and peaceful,” says an international delegation from the National Democratic Institute. However,… Read more »