Theme: Peace, Conflict & Security
Perceptions of Democracy
Data from the Perceptions of Democracy Survey (PODS) point to three broad findings. First, most people from a diverse array…
Pan-Asian Alliance Needed to Strengthen Democracy in Asia
As democratic values face escalating challenges globally, civil society organisations (CSOs), diaspora communities and political parties with shared values must…
Understanding And Interrupting Authoritarian Collaboration
Researchers have traditionally focused on the spread of democratic practices internationally, overlooking autocratic cooperation. However, evidence now shows authoritarian regimes…
The Mounting Damage of Flawed Elections and Armed Conflict
Flawed elections and armed conflict contributed to the 18th year of democratic decline. But by drawing strength from diversity, protecting dissent, and…
Answering the Call for Justice | Eduardo Gonzalez | Episode 34
The Pandora Papers provide the most comprehensive look yet into the sprawling transnational networks that allow corrupt public officials and economic elite to launder and hide their illicit assets everywhere from the British Virgin Islands to Washington, D.C. The investigation shows that wealthy countries need to do far more to clean up the fiscal paradises they provide for kleptocrats, including by regulating professional enablers such as trust companies in South Dakota in the United States and real estate agents in London. U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation this week to do just that on the national-level. The global scale of the problem that the 11.9 million leaked confidential files from 14 financial service providers implicating public figures from over 90 countries demonstrates there is also the urgent need for a new international institution to hold kleptocrats and their professional enablers accountable.
The Brewing Egypt-Ethiopia War is an International Security Threat
It would be a delusion to assume that the dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia, over the building and filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), has not, yet, escalated into a state of war. Egypt and Ethiopia have already been engaged in war-level conflicts, since Ethiopia announced its intention to build the dam on the upstream of the Blue Nile, in 2009. Although, it is not a traditional war, in the form of deploying tanks and fighter jets against each other; it may get to the point soon. Should a military conflict between Egypt and Ethiopia erupts, it will not only affect the security of Africa but also the security of the Middle East and the stability of Europe.
Egyptian Navy’s Journey from Surviving to Thriving
How the Egyptian Navy was transformed from struggling to barely survive on old and rusty equipment and devout, but modestly educated, personnel to an advanced and well-equipped naval force, that is ranked among the top ten worldwide, in a matter of five years?
Middle East Braces for U.S. Withdrawal Aftermath
The Middle East needs to get prepared for dealing with the dire aftermath of US withdrawal from the region. The tragic scenes, at Kabul Airport, of Afghan people clinging to the wheels of the American warplanes to escape Taliban’s hell are nothing compared to the miseries expected to emerge after the US withdrawal from Syria and Iraq, which may happen sooner than we expect. Unfortunately, the future of the Middle East region appears to be dark and messy. Yet, there still a chance for Middle East countries to take a unified action to minimize the scale of unforeseen damages.
US-Egypt Affairs Beyond the Strategic Dialogue
Exploring the dimensions of the relationship between Egypt and the United States and its impact on improving human rights conditions and liberal democratization in general, in addition to influencing the course of events on regional conflicts.