Democracy
Sudan’s Generals Have Taken Power. The Warning Signs Were Already There.
The timing is difficult to ignore. Last Sunday, I wrote that Sudan had removed Omar al-Bashir in 2019 without fully removing the political principle that men with guns ultimately decide who governs. On Monday morning,…
Sudan Removed a Dictator. It Never Really Removed the System That Kept Him in Power.
Omar al-Bashir, who had ruled Sudan for thirty years, was removed from power after months of mass demonstrations. Images from Khartoum seemed to capture one of those rare moments when political history visibly changes direction:…
Poland Doesn’t Want to Leave the EU. It Wants to Decide Which EU Rules Apply.
Britain spent years arguing about whether membership of the European Union had taken too much sovereignty away from Parliament. Eventually, British voters chose to leave. Poland is now creating a different and potentially more difficult…
Germany Has Voted. For the First Time in Sixteen Years, Merkel Wasn’t Really on the Ballot.
That feels significant beyond Germany. Merkel became chancellor in 2005, which means an entire generation of Europeans has grown up knowing only one German leader. She governed through the global financial crisis, the eurozone crisis,…
Tunisia’s Democracy Survived the Arab Spring. Can It Survive Its Own Failure to Govern?
President Kais Saied announced this evening that he is dismissing Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, suspending parliament for 30 days and assuming executive authority with the assistance of a new prime minister whom he will appoint.
Holding an Election Does Not Necessarily Make a Democracy
Abiy was not originally elected prime minister in a national election. He came to power in 2018 after years of anti-government protests forced a political transition within Ethiopia’s ruling coalition. He promised reform, released political…
The G7 Wants to Prove That Democracies Can Still Lead the World
There were the usual photographs: leaders standing beside the sea, elbow bumps instead of handshakes, carefully arranged bilateral meetings and an enormous communiqué containing promises on everything from vaccines to climate change. But underneath all…
Diplomacy at the Fault Lines
This week’s international developments reveal a recurring pattern in contemporary global politics: diplomacy unfolds not as conflict resolution, but as risk management. States are increasingly compelled to engage across fault lines shaped by domestic politics,…
The Fragility of Truth
Truth has always been fragile, but in our century, it feels almost endangered. The more we try to hold on to it, the more it seems to slip between our fingers. What once required courage…
