Democracy and Governance

The deadly conflict in Tripoli will make it more difficult to find areas of compromise between hardened Libyan factions. However, the alternatives are continued chaos, or weak authoritarian rule under Haftar.

In 2014, Congressman Ed Chau climbed onto a podium in front of hundreds of Chinese American protestors and democratic advocates. Facing signs that read “Ed Chau must represent his voters, not his party,” he declared he would not support SCA5, proposed legislation to overturn California’s race-blind admission policies at public universities. In doing so, Congressman […]

As violence in Mexico escalates, local police in Mexico lack the necessary means to fulfill their duties. It’s named after the holy patroness of Mexico, the Virgin of Guadalupe, but the town of Guadalupe in the state of Chihuahua is far from blessed. In 2008, the town made headlines when its police force consisted of […]

BY NICK BUFFIE As you may have heard, in the United States the rich pay more federal income taxes than the poor – both in dollar terms and as a share of income. This point is acknowledged by commentators on both the Right and Left, serving as a rare example of nonpartisan objectivity in an […]

BY HILARY GELFOND While in attendance at the Harvard Kennedy School’s bipartisan conference for newly elected members of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that “[our] ‘bipartisan’ Congressional orientation is cohosted by a corporate lobbyist group.” The conference, which was jointly hosted with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and […]

The Venezuelan crisis has become the worst humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere, with more than 3 million people fleeing the country in the last few years. As conditions in the country worsen, more Venezuelans are expected to leave, causing greater instability throughout the region. Venezuela is a mixture of drug trafficking, money laundering, terrorism, […]

BY AMANDA PATARINO The day after the midterm elections, President Trump announced that Attorney General Jeff Sessions was resigning and that Matthew G. Whitaker would become the acting attorney general. Initial outcry focused on the fact that Whitaker would oversee the Mueller investigation, but discussions quickly shifted to the constitutionality of his appointment. While Trump […]

BY JASON HUNG The “bookstore incidents” In January 2018, Hong Kong-based Swedish Chinese publisher, Gui Minhai, was snatched by mainland Chinese authorities in Ningbo, China. Supposedly, Gui was on his way to Sweden’s consulate in Shanghai to renew his Swedish passport. It was the second time Gui went missing in two and a half years. […]

BY KEVIN FRAZIER Distrust in the federal government pervades the United States. Its ubiquity threatens the stability of institutions and their capacity to govern. That’s why I recently sat down with Jeh Johnson. As General Counsel of the Department of Defense and, later, Secretary of Homeland Security under the Obama Administration, former Secretary Johnson established […]

Amidst the ongoing debate on how Singapore’s Government responds to inequality-related issues, Theophilus Kwek points to misalignments between the policy lens of the technocratic state, and the naked human eye through which its constituents must view the same issues. He argues that we must go beyond purely data-driven perspectives of inequality, and include street-view perspectives in policy considerations too.

In this episode of the Middle East Weekly podcast, we discuss the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of Saudi agents in Istanbul, the formation of and challenges facing Iraq’s new government, the re-instatement of sanctions on Iran, and an election boycott in Bahrain. Khashoggi was murdered when he visited the Saudi […]

BY MATT MCDOLE Last week’s Congressional hearing on sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was a painful moment for many Americans. 20 million watched on television and many more tuned in online – CNN reported this year’s biggest day of live-streaming yet – as Dr. Christine Blasey Ford tearfully recounted being sexually […]