Commentary
January 6, 2022 | January 6 and the Paradoxes of America’s Democracy Agenda
Why Protecting Liberalism Will Require a Dose of Populism
January 5, 2022 | The Most Important Elections of 2022
Winning three governorships could enable the Republican Party to rig the 2024 presidential election.
November 18, 2020 | Can American Democracy Recover after Trump?
An assessment of the polarized American electorate following the 2020 election and a plan to solidify its vital center.
November 5, 2020 | A New Administration Won’t Heal American Democracy
The United States is experiencing a democratic crisis.
November 1, 2020 | I’m a Democracy Expert. I Never Thought We’d Be So Close to a Breakdown.
Our election systems were not built for the modern era. Looking abroad might help.
October 28, 2020 | Controlling the Pandemic of Global Authoritarianism
Reversing the global democratic recession will require a bipartisan, multilateral, and multi-pronged commitment to supporting democrats, pressuring autocrats, fighting kleptocracy, countering malign authoritarian sharp power projection, promoting democratic values and ideas, and reforming and strengthening our own democracy.
September 8, 2020 | The Terrifying Inadequacy of American Election Law
The best time to act to avert an election disaster scenario is now—well before the November election.
July 25, 2020 | Our democracy could be in peril from within — will leaders step up?
We can and must take every step possible to reduce the likelihood that there will be any legitimate reasons to dispute the results of the 2020 election.
July 17, 2020 | The End of China's "Peaceful Rise"
Two generations of American scholars held out hope that China would become “a responsible stakeholder.” In 2020, those hopes have been dashed.
June 13, 2020 | The Coronavirus Versus the Pandemic
The coronavirus is emboldening autocrats the world over.
June 9, 2020 | The Long Struggle for Voting Rights
Recent events should remind us why the right to vote is sacred and non-negotiable.
May 26, 2020 | The End of Hong Kong As We Knew It
“One country, two systems” was always unstable. Now it is beginning to disintegrate.
May 20, 2020 | Don't mess with the Supreme Court
The importance of maintaining the Supreme Court's structure.
May 4, 2020 | Counting on coronavirus luck is not a fall election strategy. Best bet is vote by mail.
Vote by mail is not a partisan plot, it's critical infrastructure to assure a safe election in a pandemic. Now is the time to invest and prepare.
April 24, 2020 | Will America Remain a Democracy in 2020?
The liberal elements of democracy in America have been fraying and eroding for some time.
April 16, 2020 | America's COVID-19 Disaster Is a Setback for Democracy
If the country’s institutions cannot function effectively during a crisis, and especially if a view takes hold that authoritarian regimes are managing the crisis more decisively, a grim future lies ahead.
March 27, 2020 | How We Can Manage the Pandemic and Preserve our Democracy
The COVID-19 pandemic presents the United States not only with its worst public health crisis in a century but also the most formidable challenge to its democracy since World War II.February 20,
February 20, 2020 | How to Beat a Populist
Some lessons for older, more established democracies taken from the struggles of liberals fighting the good fight in younger and less stable democracies.
December 11, 2019 | A Season of Caesars
Unlike their predecessors, today’s authoritarians lack a common ideology. But once in power, they behave in remarkably similar ways.
December 5, 2019 | Presidential candidates advance by being divisive. We can do better than that.
Five candidates spoke to our America In One Room group and skipped the red meat. They all had stronger appeal afterwards across the political spectrum.
November 5, 2019 | The Impeachment Conundrum
The Democrats are facing a dilemma: If they defend democratic norms by acting to remove President Trump from office, they risk getting dragged into a polarizing style of politics that works to his political advantage.
November 4, 2019 | Combating China's Influence Operations
China has lately been infiltrating a wide range of US institutions – from universities and think tanks to the mass media and state and local governments – as well as the Chinese-American community. The only way to stop it is with a strategy of "constructive vigilance."
October 2, 2019 | This Experiment Has Some Great News for Our Democracy
The idea that our divisions are entrenched and unbridgeable is overstated.
September 27, 2019 | What I Learned from Listening to Americans Deliberate
Turns out most Americans want the same thing: to be heard and understood.
September 6, 2019 | America's Silence Helps Autocrats Triumph
Without the support of the U.S. government, pro-democracy forces around the world will wither as authoritarianism gains ground.
August 30, 2019 | Is a Replay of Tiananmen Coming in Hong Kong?
There may not be much time to avert a tragedy.
August, 29, 2019 | What if There’s a Better Way to Handle Our Democratic Debate?
Americans can have serious and respectful conversations across our deep divides.
August 19, 2019 | Why President Trump must keep speaking out on Hong Kong
There are many compelling reasons why President Trump should continue to speak out forcefully in support of Hong Kong’s freedom’s demonstrators.
July 26, 2019 | Playing with Fire on Election Security
If one foreign power continues to shred, on an ever-more daring basis, the integrity and inviolability of our electoral process, other foreign powers will draw lessons and follow.
June 21, 2019 | A New Birth of Freedom
For all its recent setbacks, democracy still has the resources not only to resist but also to beat back the authoritarian tide.
June 2019 | Democracy Demotion
Rebooting Democracy promotion in today's world.
May 17, 2019 | Sudan on the Cusp of Democratic Change
What happens in the coming days and weeks could shape the political future of its 40 million people for years to come.
May 17, 2019 | The Global Crisis of Democracy
The problem is not just that democracies are declining; it is that autocracies are becoming steadily more repressive and aggressive.
April 19, 2019 | The Long Game of Democratic Reform
Why bother turning out in November if the outcome is more or less pre-determined, or if neither of the alternatives excites? The case for Rank Choice Voting.
March 15, 2019 | The Coming Demographic Disruptions
Demographic transformations will sorely challenge governance.
February 15, 2019 | The Long Freedom Slump
The good news is that democracy is not declining, at least in the aggregate. The bad news is that developing countries have taken a turn for the worse.
January 18, 2019 | A Hinge in History?
The next two years threaten to be one of the most perilous periods for the United States since the end of World War II.
December 21, 2018 | China Gets Its Message to Americans but Doesn't Want to Reciprocate
Beijing enjoys a big megaphone in America even as it blocks U.S. media outlets, hinders independent scholars and limits U.S. public diplomacy.
December 14, 2018 | Will China Rule the World?
China’s worldwide influence campaign requires a coordinated response from all segments of American society—not just politicians and policy-makers.
December 5, 2018 | Iran must free Farhad Meysami, a nonviolent fighter for human rights
A modern-day Gandhi is on the verge of death in Iran unless there is an urgent and powerful expression of moral condemnation — by concerned citizens, human rights activists and organizations, and most of all, governments around the world that claim to care about human rights.
November 16, 2018 | A New Age of Reform
Big changes are coming to how we do democracy in America.
October 18, 2018 | License to Kill
We must make it clear, not only to the Saudi monarchy but to all the world’s dictators, that they cannot murder their opponents with impunity.
August 17, 2018 | Standing up to China
Those who value democracy in Asia—and even many who don’t—are desperate for a counterweight to the rise of a new authoritarian superpower.
July 12, 2018 | Silence from the Party
When will Republicans stand up to Trump’s foreign policy blundering?
June 15, 2018 | A Victory for Democratic Reform
The voters of Maine rejected political cynicism and endorsed one of the most promising reforms to our politics.
May 18, 2018 | Malaysia's Democratic Breakthrough
Malaysia’s parliamentary elections gave much more than a glimmer of hope.
April 20, 2018 | Countering a Kleptocratic Kremlin
We must remember that predatory authoritarianism is not stamped into the Russian DNA.
March 16, 2018 | Are People Losing Faith in Democracy?
A new survey offers some reassurance that Americans retain their trust in democracy—but disturbing trends lurk beneath the surface.
March 15, 2018 | Is Trump Giving Authoritarianism a Bad Name?
Support for authoritarian leadership is concentrating, and elites are doing little to push back. In our highly polarized two-party system, this poses the risk that future partisan conflict could become a battle over democracy itself.
February 16, 2018 | The Liberal Democratic Order in Crisis
Around the world, many democracies are hanging by a thread and autocrats are preparing more savage assaults on what remains of freedom.
February 2, 2018 | China's Surveillance State Should Scare Everyone
The country is perfecting a vast network of digital espionage as a means of social control—with implications for democracies worldwide.
January 29, 2018 | The Quickest Path Toward Democratizing Presidential Elections
Open future presidential debates to more candidates for consideration.
January 12, 2018 | Our Year of Living Dangerously
Domestic and international pressures are intersecting in dangerous ways for the Trump presidency in 2018.
December 15, 2017 | This Sputnik Moment
As authoritarian states like China double down on strategic investments and project their “sharp power” abroad, the United States may finally be reaching a new Sputnik moment.
November 10, 2017 | How to Reverse the Degradation of Our Politics
To fix democracy globally, we must first address toxic partisanship and polarization here at home.
October 13, 2017 | Is There a Crisis of Liberal Democracy
We have entered a new era in which two great-power adversaries are threatening our democratic way of life with great subtlety and sophistication.
April 26, 2017 | There Is a Peaceful Way Out of the North Korea Crisis
Kim Jong Un’s nuclear and missile programs represent one of the most dangerous challenges since the end of the Cold War. But there are opportunities to stop them.
February 3, 2017 | A 'City on a Hill' as a Fortress in a Moat
Only an America that is open, free, and true to its values can summon the understanding, forge the alliances, and win the broad cooperation necessary to defeat radical Islamist extremism. Only an America that welcomes immigrants and refugees will continue to innovate and prosper.
January 20, 2017 | The Middle East’s Next Moment of Reckoning
When the Arab Spring erupted in December 2010, advocates for change in the Arab world had reason to be hopeful. But, as we saw in 2016, authoritarianism has returned, and whether that trend can be reversed will depend on how well regional and international leaders have absorbed lessons from the recent past.
December 21, 2016 | The Most Urgent Questions About the Russia Hacks
A resurgent authoritarian Russia is assaulting the very foundations of Western democracies.
December 9, 2016 | Russia and the Threat to Liberal Democracy
The most urgent foreign-policy question is how America will respond to the mounting threat that Putin’s Russia poses to freedom and its most important anchor, the Western alliance.