You actually have to fight in every generation, if you want to preserve liberalism. It's not just going to preserve itself. It's not just the end of history. It isn't just the final resting place of humanity - not by any stretch of the imagination. It's a continual struggle.

Robert Kagan

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

Robert Kagan is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a columnist for The Washington Post. He is the author of many books including most recently The Ghost at the Feast: America and the Collapse of World Order, 1900-1941 and Rebellion: How Antiliberalism Is Tearing America Apart--Again.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:20
• Traditions of Liberalism and Antiliberalism - 3:04
• Antiliberalism as an Idea - 8:35
• Tension Within Ourselves - 21:25
• Future of Liberalism and Antiliberalism - 37:42

Key Links

Rebellion: How Antiliberalism Is Tearing America Apart--Again by Robert Kagan

The Ghost at the Feast: America and the Collapse of World Order, 1900-1941 by Robert Kagan

Follow Robert Kagan at the Brookings Institution

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Robert Kagan Looks to American History to Explain Foreign Policy Today

Heather Cox Richardson on History, Conservatism, and the Awakening of American Democracy

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People in Congress are leaders in their communities and people in some parts of this country are, in my opinion, being led astray.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill

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.

Representative Mikie Sherrill represents the 11th Congressional District of New Jersey. She sits on the Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee on Readiness, Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, and the Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from the United States Naval Academy, a Master’s degree in Global History from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Law degree from Georgetown University.  She is a military veteran with almost ten years of active duty service.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:20
• Personal Background - 3:48
• Polarization and Foreign Policy - 13:50
• China - 23:36
• American Democracy - 28:41

Key Links

Learn more about Rep. Mikie Sherrill on her Congressional page

Follow Rep. Mikie Sherrill on X @RepSherrill or @MikieSherrill

Rep. Mikie Sherrill's Campaign Page

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Grading Biden’s Foreign Policy with Alexander Ward

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

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What does it mean to empower women politically in a context in which the dominant party is engaged in democratic backsliding or other forms of illiberal and exclusionary politics? Would you still want more women to be part of that party?

Saskia Brechenmacher

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Saskia Brechenmacher is a fellow in Carnegie’s Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program. Recently, she coauthored a new book with Katherine Mann called Aiding Empowerment: Democracy Promotion and Gender Equality in Politics.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:20
• Democracy Promotion and Gender Equality - 3:13
• Gender Quotas - 12:38
• Challenges - 28:12
• New Ideas and Issues - 44:53

Key Links

Aiding Empowerment: Democracy Promotion and Gender Equality in Politics by Saskia Brechenmacher and Katherine Mann

Learn more about Saskia Brechenmacher at the Carnegie Endowment

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Marc Plattner Has Quite a Bit to Say About Democracy

Larry Diamond on Supporting Democracy in the World and at Home

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We have to reconstruct the foundations of our democracy, building on the past, not repudiating everything we're building on it.

Bruce Ackerman

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Bruce Ackerman is the Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale. He is well known as a legal scholar and a political philosopher. His most recent book is The Postmodern Predicament: Existential Challenges of the Twenty-First Century.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:20
• Modernity - 2:37
• Postmodernism - 15:26
• Deliberation Day - 36:08
• Rethinking Modernity - 43:28

Key Links

The Postmodern Predicament: Existential Challenges of the Twenty-First Century by Bruce Ackerman

Learn more about Bruce Ackerman on Wikipedia

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Yascha Mounk Warns Against a Misguided New Ideology

Zizi Papacharissi Dreams of What Comes After Democracy

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

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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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