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June 16, 2022

United States
Fake News, Then and Now

The problem of fake news has been with us from the beginning of the Republic, and American democracy was even worse at dealing with it then than it is now.

A news stand outfitted with "Fake News" headlines as a stunt pulled off by the Columbia Journalism Review is pictured in the Manhattan borough of New York

February 24, 2022

Nigeria
Nigeria’s All Too Familiar Corruption Ranking Begs Broader Questions Around Normative Collapse

Released last month, the 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) confirmed what many Nigerians know intuitively—that a steady stream of official antigraft rhetoric has hardly made a dent on what many agree is the most formidable perennial challenge to the country’s long-term stability. President Buhari’s sentiment to the effect that “if Nigeria does not kill corruption, then corruption will kill Nigeria,” is widely shared. Not only is Nigeria down five places from its 2020 ranking, its total score of twenty-four out of a maximum one hundred points represents a drop for the third successive year, making it West Africa’s second most corrupt country. Guinea-Bissau, still reeling from a failed military takeover in early February, holds the dubious honor of being the most corrupt.  

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari wearing gray traditional clothing and glasses sitting with a binder on his lap.

February 1, 2022

India
India’s Geopolitical Challenges in 2022

American author and journalist Hal Borland once noted, “The year’s end is neither a beginning nor an end but a going on.” As India enters 2022, what are its most challenging geopolitical goings-on, a…

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Addressing the United Nations General Assembly in 2014

January 18, 2022

International Law
Legal Principles Matter in Defense of Democracies

Legal principles matter as two major democracies—Taiwan and Ukraine—are threatened by superpower neighbors. Whether one argues about Taiwan’s status as a country or a province of China, it is a vibra…

Ukrainian service members drive tanks during the Independence Day military parade in Kyiv, Ukraine in August 2021.

November 29, 2021

Middle East and North Africa
Why Dictators Always Pretend to Love the Law

There’s something farcical—but entirely rational—about the way authoritarians such as Egypt’s Sisi invoke legal justifications for repression.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi attends the Arab summit in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, May 31, 2019.