The US presidential election, which has been dominating the global news, will come to its natural culmination on November 5, even if the outcome remains uncertain for many more days. Even in Russia, where war and inflation are major concerns, official sources report that more than 60 percent of adults are following the US elections…. Read more »
Category: Governance
Civil Society Participation in International Criminal Justice
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is in trouble. To commentators and observers of the Court, one crisis seems to lead on to the next, so that the field of international criminal justice has been described as being in ‘perpetual crisis’.
Anti-Globalist Alliances?
The far right and far left have partly overlapping views on issues of global economic cooperation. Why don’t they unite? “We have moved from ‘we the workers’ to ‘we the French,’” said the French sociologist Didier Eribon to Libération recently, to explain the working class’s support for the populist party Rassemblement National in France in the… Read more »
Victory for the Civilian Uprising in Bangladesh: What is Next for the ‘Second Independence’?
It was an unprecedented and historic moment that unfolded in Bangladesh on 5 August 2024 when Prime Minister Sheik Hasina hastily fled the country in a military helicopter. The protesters had demonstrated in the streets for several weeks, and that moment marked a ‘second independence’. This was not an independence from a foreign country or… Read more »
Week of Ceremonies Marks Wobbly Start for Putin’s New Presidential Term
The Christian Orthodox Easter service in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral on May 5 began a week of pompous performances for Russian President Vladimir Putin (Vedomosti, May 5). It continued with his inauguration ceremony on May 7, followed by a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Council (EEC) the next day and the Victory Day parade… Read more »
Presidential ‘Elections’ Cannot Restore Putin’s Authority
This week, from March 15 to 17, Russia will hold presidential election. Canceling the elections would be entirely natural for the repressive autocratic regime that has matured in Moscow. The government already has all the enforcement structures it needs to suppress protests. Putin could easily justify the move by arguing that Russia is a unique… Read more »
Thai Elections Mark Declining Public Interest in Nationalism, Patronage Politics
This week’s election results handed a surprising victory to the opposition Move Forward Party. While it remains to be seen if the conservative establishment will allow them to actually take power, the vote signals a turning point in the mindset of the Thai public. The Thai political map is now painted with orange, the colour… Read more »
Erdogan Struggles with Securing the Votes of Young People and Women in Turkey’s Fateful Election
In one of Turkey’s most popular soap operas Kizilcik Şerbeti [Cranberry Sorbet] Nursema, a young conservative woman in love with another man, is married off by her family to another against her own wishes. On her wedding night, in an argument with her new husband she is pushed off the balcony. Miraculously surviving, she confronts both… Read more »
Putin’s Political Bubble Tightens Up
Decision-making in the Kremlin had been so erratic — even before the re-invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 — that the proposition of President Vladimir Putin inhabiting a bubble of servile courtiers and carefully doctored information appeared perfectly plausible. Early April 2023 has brought even more evidence supporting this assumption of detachment from reality… Read more »
Taiwan Is Feeling the Pressure from Russian and Chinese Autocracy
Taiwan is where Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s economic underperformance overlap and produce a dangerous resonance. The war may be far away from Taipei, but it brings material problems, like delays in deliveries of U.S. armaments, and disturbing changes in the regional security environment. The end of China’s fast-paced economic growth has resulted in political shifts… Read more »