Democracy Paradox

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

Sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Learn more at https://carnegieendowment.org

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

Learn more about 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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Sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Learn more at https://carnegieendowment.org

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

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

Sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Learn more at https://carnegieendowment.org

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

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."

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

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

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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

Access Episodes Ad-Free on Patreon

Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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I think his heart is in the right place. I've talked to him about these things. He's very sensitive to the judgment of history. He knows that. Ukraine has been fighting since long before he became president to be an independent sovereign democracy with freedom of speech.

Simon Shuster

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

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

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

Simon Shuster is a staff writer for Time magazine who covers politics in Ukraine and Russia. His new book is called The Showman: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:20
• The Early Zelensky - 3:30
• Wartime President - 19:16
• Politics in Wartime Ukraine - 33:59
• Democracy in Ukraine - 36:18

Key Links

The Showman: Inside the Invasion that Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky by Simon Shuster

"Where Zelensky Comes From" by Simon Shuster in Time

Follow Simon Shuster on X @shustry

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Serhii Plokhy on the Russo-Ukrainian War

Olga Onuch and Henry Hale Describe the Zelensky Effect

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When politics has to solve the problems that it has caused, how can politics do that?

Marcela Rios Tobar

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

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

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Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox.

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

Marcela Rios Tobar is the Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at International IDEA. From March 2022 until January 2023 she served as the Minister of Justice and Human Rights in Chile under Gabriel Boric.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:20
• Background - 3:40
• The Draft Constitutions - 18:04
• Lost Opportunity? 35:11
• Exceptional or Harbinger - 46:55

Key Links

Learn more about International IDEA

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

Read more about Chile's constitutional journey

Democracy Paradox Podcast

Jennifer Piscopo on the Constitutional Chaos in Chile

Aldo Madariaga on Neoliberalism, Democratic Deficits, and Chile

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Apes of the State created all Music

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100 Books on Democracy

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