We thought we were strengthening the militaries in the Cold War. In fact, the political effects of those strengthened militaries ended up leading to a longer-term deterioration and instability.

Adam Casey

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A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.

Adam E. Casey is an analyst in the United States government. He wrote Up in Arms: How Military Aid Stabilizes―and Destabilizes―Foreign Autocrats while he was a research fellow at the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies at the University of Michigan. All the content in the book and this interview reflects the views of the author and does not reflect the position of any US government agency or department, nor does it assert or imply US government authentication of information or endorsement of the author's views.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:20
• Why Military Aid Destabilizes Some Autocrats - 4:23
• The Soviet Approach to Military Aid - 21:50
• Revolutionary Governments - 29:09
• Modernization - 35:57

Key Links

Up in Arms: How Military Aid Stabilizes―and Destabilizes―Foreign Autocrats by Adam Casey

"The Origins of Military Supremacy in Dictatorships," by Dan Slater Lucan A. Way Jean Lachapelle and Adam E. Casey in Journal of Democracy.

Follow Adam Casey on X @adam_e_casey

Democracy Paradox Podcast

After a Coup, Can the Constitutional Order Be Repaired? Adem Abebe on Rebuilding Constitutions in West Africa

Naunihal Singh on the Myth of the Coup Contagion

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We have to care more about truth than tribe. We have to care more about each other than about profit.

Barbara McQuade

This episode was made in partnership with the Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy

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A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.

Barbara McQuade is a professor from practice at the University of Michigan Law School. She is also a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, and a co-host of the podcast #SistersInLaw. Her new book Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:20
• Propaganda Today - 3:05
• Disinformation and Polarization - 19:57
• Free Speech - 24:29
• Attack from Within - 37:14

Key Links

Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America by Barbara McQuade

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Democracy Paradox Podcast

Peter Pomerantsev on Winning an Information War

Samuel Woolley on Bots, Artificial Intelligence, and Digital Propaganda

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Whoever you vote for, Biden or Trump at this point, you are voting for a radically different vision of American foreign policy.

Alexander Ward

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A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.

Alexander Ward is a national security reporter at Politico and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also the author of the book The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore American Foreign Policy after Trump.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:20
• A Foreign Policy for the Middle Class - 2:47
• Crises - 20:13
• Ukraine - 27:56
• The Grade - 40:32

Key Links

The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore American Foreign Policy after Trump by Alexander Ward

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Democracy Paradox Podcast

Can America Fight Back Against the Authoritarian Economic Statecraft of China? Bethany Allen Believes We Can

Larry Diamond on Supporting Democracy in the World and at Home

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All this stuff about half of America just won't listen to this. You're just not trying. You're just not trying. I fear in America people don't try to reach people in echo chambers.

Peter Pomerantsev

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A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.

Peter Pomerantsev is a Senior Fellow at Johns Hopkins University where he co-directs the Arena Initiative. His past books include Nothing is True and Everything is Possible and This is Not Propaganda. His most recent book is called How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:20
• Sefton Delmer - 3:37
• Der Chef - 11:34
• Communication and Propaganda - 25:27
• Winning an Information War - 37:45

Key Links

How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler by Peter Pomerantsev

This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality by Peter Pomerantsev

Follow Peter Pomerantsev on X @peterpomeranzev

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Samuel Woolley on Bots, Artificial Intelligence, and Digital Propaganda

Allie Funk of Freedom House Assesses Global Internet Freedom

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Without an elected government, without a government that truly represents... a lot of things are imperiled - rights, democracy, freedom, certainly peace. I think that's another kind of challenge as we go into this year of widespread elections. It's not just about preserving democracy. It's also laying the foundation for peace.

Yana Gorokhovskaia

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Yana Gorokhovskaia is the Research Director at Freedom House and one of the lead authors of this year’s Freedom in the World report titled, The Mounting Damage of Flawed Elections and Armed Conflict.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:20
• Nagorno-Karabakh - 2:15
• Gaza and Israel - 7:46
• Freedom in Decline - 13:18
• Autocratic Elections - 35:43

Key Links

Freedom in the World 2024: The Mounting Damage of Flawed Elections and Armed Conflict

Freedom on the Net 2023: The Repressive Power of Artificial Intelligence

Follow Freedom House on X @freedomhouse

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Staffan Lindberg with a Report on Democracy in the World

Sarah Repucci from Freedom House with an Update on Freedom in the World

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As a writer I had the space to try to humanize him without sanitizing him. That was my mission: to try to see the world from behind his eyes in order to explain his otherwise inexplicable behavior.

Steve Coll

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Steve Coll is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who has served as President and CEO of New America and the Dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is currently a staff writer at The New Yorker. His most recent book is The Achilles’ Trap: Saddam Hussein, the CIA, and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:20
• Saddam Hussein - 2:56
• Iran-Iraq War - 10:22
• WMD - 27:06
• 2003 American Invasion - 46:03

Key Links

The Achilles’ Trap: Saddam Hussein, the CIA, and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq by Steve Coll

“How Iraq was Lost” by Robert Kaplan in The New Statesman (Book Review of The Achilles' Trap)

Read more from Steve Coll at The New Yorker

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Robert Kaplan on the Politics of the Past and Future of the Greater Middle East

Steven Simon on American Foreign Policy in the Middle East including Iran and the Wars in Iraq

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Written into the DNA of American immigration policy, which we tend to regard as a kind of domestic policy - and which in many ways it is - has to do with US foreign policy.

Jonathan Blitzer

This episode was made in partnership with the Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy.

Proudly sponsored by the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. Learn more at https://kellogg.nd.edu

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Read Justin Kempf's essay "The Revolution Will Be Podcasted."

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Jonathan Blitzer is a staff writer at The New Yorker. He won a 2017 National Award for Education Reporting for “American Studies,” a story about an underground school for undocumented immigrants. His writing and reporting have also appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, The Atavist, Oxford American, and The Nation. He is an Emerson Fellow at New America. His most recent book is Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:20
• Personal Experiences - 3:12
• Immigration and Foreign Policy - 12:25
• Migration as a Crisis - 31:20
• Bukele and El Salvador Today - 46:26

Key Links

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis by Jonathan Blitzer

“Do I Have to Come Here Injured or Dead?” by Jonathan Blitzer in The New Yorker

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Democracy Paradox Podcast

Rachel Schwartz on How Guatemala Rose Up Against Democratic Backsliding

Joseph Wright and Abel Escribà-Folch on Migration’s Potential to Topple Dictatorships

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I think a powerful surveillance apparatus will continue to be a major obstacle to the development of democratic forces, but it will not be the decisive factor.

Minxin Pei

Proudly sponsored by the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. Learn more at https://kellogg.nd.edu

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Minxin Pei is the Tom and Margot Pritzker ’72 Professor of Government and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College. His most recent book is The Sentinel State: Surveillance and the Survival of Dictatorship in China.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:20
• What is a Surveillance State - 2:55
• Informants - 12:02
• History - 23:43
• Surveillance and Elites - 35:26

Key Links

The Sentinel State: Surveillance and the Survival of Dictatorship in China by Minxin Pei

"Why China Can’t Export Its Model of Surveillance" by Minxin Pei in Foreign Affairs

"Totalitarianism’s Long Shadow" by Minxin Pei in Journal of Democracy

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Josh Chin on China’s Surveillance State

Deng Xiaoping is Not Who You Think He is. Joseph Torigian on Leadership Transitions in China and the Soviet Union

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As democracy promoters, we also need to pay a lot of attention to the material needs of people... When these material needs are not satisfied, people will be more willing to give nondemocratic forms a chance.

Adem Abebe

This episode was made in partnership with the Constitution Building Programme at International IDEA

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Adem Abebe is a senior advisor on constitution-building processes at International IDEA. He supports transitions from conflict and authoritarianism to peace and democracy, generates cutting edge knowledge, convenes platforms for dialogue and advocates for change. Adem is also Vice President of the African Network of Constitutional Lawyers, which promotes democratic constitutionalism across the continent.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:20
• Why Military Coups Happen - 4:05
• Holding Back Political Institutions - 19:23
• Restoring Constitutional Order - 34:31
• The Role of Constitutions - 48:54

Key Links

Follow Adem Abebe on X @AdamAbebe

Learn more about International IDEA

Learn about the Constitution-Building Programme at International IDEA at Constitutionnet.org

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Can Poland Repair its Constitutional Democracy? Tomás Daly Believes it Can

Marcela Rios Tobar on the Failed Constitutional Process in Chile

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Poland will be showing us the endless ingenuity of constitutional thinkers who are genuinely committed to democracy in its many forms.

Tomás Daly

This episode was made in partnership with the Constitution Building Programme at International IDEA

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Tomás Daly is a Professor at Melbourne Law School and Director of the Democratic Decay & Renewal (DEM-DEC) platform at www.democratic-decay.org. His new project on ‘constitutional repair’ addresses a pressing question: how can a democracy be repaired after being deeply degraded, but not ended, during a period of anti-democratic government?

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:20
• What is Constitutional Repair? - 3:48
• Poland and its Constitutional Damage - 7:36
• Constitutional Repair in Poland - 20:06
• Avoiding Democratic Backsliding - 40:12

Key Links

Constitutional Repair: A Comparative Theory by Tomás Daly

Follow Tomás Daly on X @democracytalk

Learn more about International IDEA

Learn about the Constitution-Building Programme at International IDEA at Constitutionnet.org

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Kurt Weyland on the Resilience of Democracy

How Can Democracy Survive in an Age of Discontent? Rachel Navarre and Matthew Rhodes-Purdy on Populism and Political Extremism

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Apes of the State created all Music

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