Governance
Venezuela’s Opposition Says It Won the Election. Its Candidate Has Now Fled the Country. That Is the Difference Between Electoral Victory and State Power.
Venezuela’s political crisis has entered a more dangerous phase. On 2 September, a Venezuelan judge issued an arrest warrant for opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, accusing him of conspiracy and other offences connected to…
Ukraine Has Invaded Russia. The Immediate Military Gain Matters Less Than What It Reveals About Risk, Surprise and Bargaining Power.
Ukraine’s surprise offensive into Russia’s Kursk region has now become the largest incursion into Russian territory since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, and one of the most politically significant battlefield developments of the…
Sheikh Hasina Has Fallen. Bangladesh’s Harder Test Is Whether Removing an Authoritarian Government Can Produce Better Institutions Rather Than Another Cycle of Political Revenge.
Bangladesh has experienced an extraordinary political rupture in the space of one week. On 5 August, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled to India after fifteen consecutive years in power, following weeks of student-led…
Venezuela Is Voting Today. The Real Test Is Not Whether Ballots Are Cast, but Whether the Government Would Accept Losing.
Venezuelans are voting today in the most consequential presidential election the country has held in years. President Nicolás Maduro, who has governed since Hugo Chávez’s death in 2013, is seeking another six-year term against Edmundo…
France Has Blocked the Far Right From Power. That Does Not Mean the Political Problem Producing the Far Right Has Been Solved.
France’s snap parliamentary election has produced one of the strangest outcomes in recent European politics. After the National Rally finished first in the opening round and appeared capable of winning a parliamentary majority, the second…
Labour Has Won a Landslide. That Does Not Mean Britain Suddenly Became a Labour Country.
Britain has just produced one of the largest parliamentary reversals in its modern political history. Keir Starmer’s Labour Party won 411 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons in the 4 July general…
Macron Lost One Election and Immediately Called Another. The Gamble Is Whether Giving Voters More Power Can Cost Him His Own.
France is heading towards an election almost nobody expected to be taking place this summer. After Marine Le Pen’s National Rally won roughly 32% of the French vote in the European Parliament election on 9…
Narendra Modi Won a Third Term. Indian Voters Also Took Away His Party’s Majority. Both Facts Matter.
Narendra Modi was sworn in today for a third consecutive term as prime minister of India, but he begins that term under a political structure very different from the one that governed India for the…
The ANC Liberated South Africa. Thirty Years Later, Voters Have Told It That History Is Not a Permanent Mandate.
South Africa has just crossed one of the most important political thresholds since the end of apartheid. In the 29 May general election, the African National Congress fell to roughly 40% of the national vote,…
Taiwan Has a New President. China Answered With War Games. The Real Contest Is Over Whether Pressure Changes Political Identity or Hardens It.
Taiwan inaugurated Lai Ching-te as president on 20 May after his victory in January’s election, extending the Democratic Progressive Party’s control of the presidency into a third consecutive term. Four days later, China concluded two…
Iran’s President Has Died. The More Important Question Is Why the Political System Can Continue Without Him.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and several other officials were aboard a helicopter that crashed today in mountainous northwestern Iran while returning from a visit to the border with Azerbaijan. As of…
Georgia Says Its New Law Is About Transparency. Protesters Think It Is About Controlling Who Gets to Challenge the Government.
Georgia is experiencing one of the largest political confrontations in its recent history over a proposed “foreign influence” law that would require media organisations and non-commercial groups receiving more than 20% of their funding from…
