Nuclear weapons come with a hidden cost: they erode democracy. In every nuclear state, secrecy, executive powers and stifled debate cut the public off from their government’s nuclear decision-making. Sterre van Buuren explains why this is – and why citizens must still push for more accountability
The view that DeepSeek is a tool of Chinese censorship is, Ruairidh Brown argues, mistaken. The AI is not censoring but self-censoring, a crucial distinction for understanding its role in shaping political norms
Frank Tu Ngo highlights Japan’s leadership in mitigating one of today’s most urgent global health challenges, antimicrobial resistance (AMR). By capitalising on its political influence, funding, expertise, and diplomatic positioning, Japan is driving global efforts against AMR
We tend to regard free movement as a legal and institutional achievement, but this view overlooks the lived realities in the Global South. Drawing on research in West Africa and South America, Zoé Perko shows how informal practices and historical networks redefine how ‘free movement’ really works
Politicians communicate with their constituents every day, but what are they saying? E-newsletters allow MPs to send direct, unfiltered messages to their desired audience. Daniel Casey and Adam Ozer examine new datasets which allow researchers to access every e-newsletter sent by MPs in Australia and the UK
Cold War-era nuclear thinking can help explain how today’s challenges emerged. But Linde Desmaele warns that uncritical reliance on such thinking leads to misguided policies. Outdated frameworks can distort our understanding of how nuclear weapons are classified, how Russian intent is interpreted, what counts as success, and which actors will shape Europe’s nuclear future
Western governments have armies of Mandarin speakers and AI translators, yet they keep misreading Beijing. What’s missing, as Stefan Messingschlager argues, is independent, context-rich expertise – people able to decode China’s history-laden signals and puncture bureaucratic groupthink. This kind of knowledge is strategic insurance every democracy needs before the next crisis hits
Internationally hailed as a breakthrough, Armenia’s US-brokered peace with Azerbaijan has come at steep domestic cost. Logan Liut explores how Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s foreign policy pivot triggered a rupture between the state and the influential Armenian Apostolic Church — threatening a vital source of Armenian soft power
In the current climate of populist narratives, citizens need a clear message about democracy. Agnieszka Pawłowska draws inspiration from the notion of plain language. Here, she proposes that citizens should be provided with plain democracy, which would empower them to recognise, understand, and use the fundamentals of democracy
Many regard cash transfer programmes as cost-efficient tools to alleviate poverty across the Global South. But, as Guido Maschhaupt and Ahmed El Assal argue, in autocratic contexts, these programmes can have unintended – and politically significant – consequences. By supporting them, international aid donors may advertently bolster authoritarian regimes
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