Joanie Willett
Local elections have just taken place in the UK. Yet despite decades of devolution deals, and various iterations of 'Levelling Up', UK local government remains economically unequal and centralised. The US, by contrast is highly decentralised. Joanie Willett says we can learn from the US about the importance of capacity building, a vibrant civil society, and encouraging people to feel invested in their towns’ future Read more
Jack Wippell
Increased cooperation between a subset of far-right street-gangs – Active Clubs – has largely passed under the radar. Jack Wippell argues this constitutes a ‘new’ threat, and draws from research on extremist organisations to explore what might follow. He highlights several limitations in what we know, and calls for immediate collaboration between researchers and practitioners Read more
Cristina Chiva
Reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ rights are increasingly under attack across the world. So far, we have a good grasp of the causes and consequences of the backlash against gender equality. What we need to do now, argues Cristina Chiva, is to conceptualise and document democratic resilience against these trends Read more
Paul Whiteley
Following COP27, Paul Whiteley explores public attitudes across the world to whether governments should prioritise growing the economy or resisting climate change. The findings across countries with different levels of economic development help explain the difficulties of finding common cause in the climate change challenge Read more
Lasse Thomassen
How should we interpret what happened on 6 January 2021 at the Capitol? Lasse Thomassen argues that, while populists like Trump may threaten democracy, we cannot simply dismiss populism and the populist mob without taking something away from it that we value: its inherent openness Read more
Albrecht Rothacher
he Russian invasion of Ukraine has exposed Russia’s growing dependence on China, argues Albrecht Rothacher. China’s ambitions to displace the US as the main world power contrast vividly with Russia’s long-term stagnation and decline. It's a decline exacerbated by the latest Western economic sanctions Read more
Pablo C. Santos-Pineda
Using Human Rights Measurement Initiative methodology to evaluate how the United States performs on human rights, Pablo Cesar Santos-Pineda reveals the country has been failing to meet its obligations in relation to education, food, health, housing and work. This failure represents an opportunity for the governing US Democrats Read more
Hager Ali
Just days after the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban seized power. Hager Ali argues that the US army and its allies foundered because they couldn't resolve two simple questions: What was Resolute Support’s end state actually supposed to look like? And was it ever attainable through military involvement? Read more
