The US has accused China of carrying out a 'yield-producing' nuclear test in 2020 – but the global test-ban monitor found no supporting evidence. Syeda Saba Batool argues that the dispute matters anyway: such allegations can be used to pressure China into talks – and to normalise a possible US return to testing
In recent years, many nations have reprioritised efforts to address extremism and violence emerging from social, political, and religious views and beliefs. Yet, says Valarie Findlay, despite decades of research, governments and institutions still struggle with the definitions, methods, and criteria for preventing extremism
Gender equality is a fundamental EU value and a condition for the accession of new members. Yet political parties in Western Balkan candidate countries rarely prioritise it. Klaudia Koxha explains why: parties respond when Brussels and voters agree, but go quiet when their positions clash, especially on LGBTQ+ rights
The Science of Democracy 2.0 challenges current uses of the term 'democracy'. Yida Zhai argues that these uses are not universal but culturally specific. This, he says, makes them inadequate for describing the political realities of the human species as a whole
Since 2014, Russian society has become increasingly reliant on militaristic forms of self-expression. Eban Raymond argues that Russian national identity is beset by a lack of security and depends on defining itself in opposition to Ukraine, perpetuating armed aggression and making a durable peace a distant dream
Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime performance was a celebration of Latin American culture and a rebuke of US imperial power. Yet, argue Agnese Pacciardi and Priscyll Anctil Avoine, the excitement it sparked risks obscuring the corporate, extractive structures that made the show possible, and profitable
The EU’s expanding engagement with India, notably the proposed 'mother of all deals' free trade agreement, signals a strategic partnership. Yet without clear human-rights benchmarks, this cooperation risks legitimising India’s democratic backsliding and weakening the EU’s own normative credibility, argues Amit Singh
New technologies demand a shift toward a broader framework of digital resilience. Misinformation threatens to deepen inequality and fragment access to common knowledge. James Rice argues that digital resilience depends upon strategic interventions spanning digital infrastructure, international institutions, and citizen psychology
Independent local lists are often seen as a sign of democratic community organisation. More than that, write Fred Paxton and Eliška Drápalová, their rise may actually limit the success of populist parties among voters disenchanted with mainstream politics
Vera Tika argues that contemporary illiberalism rarely arrives through dramatic democratic rupture. Instead, it advances quietly through routine governance and administrative practices that normalise exclusion. Examining Greece’s regulation of civil society, she shows how democratic erosion can occur incrementally — through law, procedure, and bureaucratic control
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