Corrosive Capital in Central Asia: Perpetuating Poor Governance

By Eric Hontz Situated between Russia and China, the leaders of Central Asia have had to balance their young countries’ political interests with strong historic and economic ties to Russia and increasing commercial ties to a rapidly developing and internationally engaged China. The five nations of C ...

Not the Droids You're Looking For: Bots and the Weaponization of Star Wars

By Dean Jackson It is a period of authoritarian resurgence. Russian agents, striking from a hidden base (or perhaps an unremarkable office building outside of St. Petersburg), are waging a campaign to subvert and divide democratic societies. New evidence suggests that their efforts may have reached ...

Responding to Authoritarian Interference: Leveraging the Democratic Toolkit

By Laura Rosenberger There is little debate today that authoritarian powers are using asymmetric tools to weaken democratic institutions in other countries. Extensive work has documented and exposed Russia’s efforts to interfere in and undermine democracies across the trans-Atlantic space, and the C ...

Authoritarian Anticorruption Campaigns: A Tool to Consolidate Power

By Clay R. Fuller Shakedowns at the Saudi Ritz. The creation of powerful anticorruption bodies in China. High-profile assassinations and arrests of activists amidst sweeping “anticorruption” reforms in Russia. False promises to clean up state-owned enterprises in Venezuela. In isolation, these may s ...