Visitors look at surveillance cameras made by China’s telecoms equipment giant Huawei on display at the China Public Security Expo in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, Oct. 29, 2019 (AP photo by Andy Wong).

In the past few years, public awareness has grown about the race currently underway among states and corporations to dominate the development and deployment of new technologies. This isn’t only a race, however, to lock in the trade advantages that come with tech dominance. It is also a race to shape our societies and the values by which we live. And it is being run on many different tracks, some of them well-known by now—5G telecom networks and artificial intelligence—but others more obscure and unexpected. For example, in late 2019, the Chinese government proposed a change to the deep structure […]

Moroccan U.N. peacekeepers patrol Bangassou, Central African Republic, Feb. 14, 2021 (AP photo by Adrienne Surprenant).

Two weeks ago, in the aftermath of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, I argued that a United Nations peacekeeping mission should be considered as part of, or complementary to, a strengthened mandate for the U.N.’s existing political mission in the country, UNAMA. Since then, a group of over 20 scholars has been working with the University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s Human Security Lab to game out scenarios, consolidate the supporting evidence and make some research-backed guesses about whether peacekeeping should be on the table in Afghanistan today. The emerging consensus in this group is that there are reasons to think it should, based on peacekeeping’s record of success […]

President Andry Rajoelina of Madagascar before a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Aug. 27, 2021 (AP photo by Lewis Joly).

Late last month, Malagasy authorities announced that they had foiled an assassination attempt on several high-profile political figures, including President Andry Rajoelina. According to a statement by the general prosecutor of the Antananarivo Court of Appeals, “several foreign and Madagascar nationals were arrested on July 20th as part of an investigation into an attack on state security.” Since then, over 20 well-connected individuals and high-ranking army and police officials have been arrested, including two French nationals, a retired general, a former prime minister, a former candidate for the Madagascan presidential election in 2006, and a senior official of the Gendarmerie, […]

An anti-government protester uses a sling in clashes with riot police during a protest in Bangkok, Thailand, Aug. 11, 2021 (AP photo by Sakchai Lalit).

In recent weeks, Thailand, like several other Southeast Asian countries, has erupted in increasingly ferocious street protests. Throughout August, thousands of Thais, including many young people, took to the streets to express their anger at the current government and demand changes at the top. Some younger, desperate and increasingly uncompromising demonstrators have started driving around in groups, battling police and destroying small police stations. The demonstrations initially seemed to take the government, led by former coup leader and now Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, by surprise. But the situation has now become far more dangerous. Thai police have resorted to force, beating demonstrators and firing rubber bullets […]

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro attends a ceremony to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Air Force at the Air Base headquarters in Brasilia, Brazil, Jan. 20, 2021 (AP photo by Eraldo Peres).

Brazil’s next presidential election is 13 months away, but already President Jair Bolsonaro has set out on a path that puts him on a collision course with democracy. With every passing day and every new dismal opinion poll, Bolsonaro sounds more like a man who, in the mold of his idol, former U.S. President Donald Trump, is prepared to put his personal political fortune ahead of the country’s democracy and stability. Last weekend, in a meeting with Brazilian evangelical leaders, Bolsonaro melodramatically remarked that he sees three possibilities for his future: “being arrested, killed or victory.” He then added that the first, […]

Somali soldiers trained by various European Union forces go through drills in Bihanga training camp, west of Uganda’s capital Kampala, Aug. 31, 2011 (AP photo by Stephen Wandera).

It is difficult to speak of European ambitions for international crisis management against the backdrop of the images from Kabul over the past few weeks, which seem to tell a story of the failure of Western interventionist policies. But that discussion is urgently needed. Yes, it will be necessary to assess the lessons of the defeat in Afghanistan. But that war, with its U.S.-dominated state-building, is in many ways a special case that must be analyzed distinctly. In the meantime, there are many other global crises and conflicts in which the European Union, as well as the United Nations and […]

A student takes notes inside a classroom at a school in Harare, Zimbabwe, Sept. 28, 2020 (AP file photo by Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi).

The topic of my column last week, the first in an occasional series of a Q&As with interesting thinkers, was ostensibly the rapidly changing nature of cities in Africa. But an important subtext of the piece, present throughout the conversation, was African performance or, perhaps better stated, underperformance on a range of issues. My interlocutor last week, George Kankou Denkey, noted, for example, that Africa, a continent that is presently urbanizing on a scale never experienced anywhere before, generally lacks urban planners; even its universities seem unengaged with the topic. Elsewhere, he pointed out that although one of the largest megalopolises […]

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