Mike Henning spent 31 years working for USAID on democracy promotion, human rights and other issues around the world. He was among the first Democracy Officers hired in the mid 90s to support the values of democratic participation as the world was settling following the end of the Cold War. On the other side of his career, he had a front row seat when the Trump administration enabled Elon Musk to destroy the congressionally established USAID, and dismantled an agency that has been a key element of America's soft power - contributing to comprehensive security - for decades.

Our conversation is sprawling, but focuses on lessons he has learned from his work around the world on how to fight authoritarian trends, government corruption and self-dealing, and to push back against efforts by elites to create a system in which citizens feel that there is nothing they can do to change things. We talked about how labor unions and other collective acts of solidarity can create opportunities for reform. Some of our conclusions are familiar to many who have done work on democracy and development either in their hometown or abroad - empowerment and community engagement are necessary to create a system in which people feel that their elected representatives work for them.

Valery Perry talks with Dr. Louis Monroy Santander about last weekend's elections in Colombia which saw a narrow win by a far-right populist candidate against a candidate from the left. The left/right split was notable as it reflects a polarization that has emerged in Colombia, and which needs to be understood in the context of seven decades of violence in that country. They talk about what this election means for a country still trying to move out of this cycle of violence toward some sort of transitional justice.

Louis spent a number of years in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Kosovo, so brings a perspective that enables useful learning about these conflicts in both directions and beyond. He finds hope in collective action and the empowerment of cultural practices that create space that is not dominated by elites yet can generate bottom-up change.

DPC's Valery Perry talks with Randall Puljek-Shank, who was involved in conflict transformation, community building and citizen activism in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) for over two decades. He returned to the US shortly before the 2024 presidential elections and reflects on how his work in BiH and elsewhere around the world has prepared him for the current democratic challenges in the US, and what citizens in the US and BiH could learn from one another in terms of being a part of positive change.

DPC's Valery Perry talked with Pippa Gallop of Bankwatch about the southern gas interconnection gas pipeline project, which has become a main US political priority in BiH in spite of major questions about transparency, environmental impact, due diligence, the potential for it to become a stranded asset, and the long-term cost to the people of BiH.

Bankwatch warned of the pitfalls of this project already in early 2025: https://bankwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025_03_The-southern-gas-interconnection-from-Croatia-to-Bosnia-and-Herzegovina.pdf

Why have we been led to think that in an election 50% + 1 is somehow a good outcome, and represents a real majority of preferences? Are there better options?

Valery Perry talks with Peter Emerson of the De Borda Institute in Belfast to try to answer this question and introduce the concept of multi-preference decision making. He also shares his experiences over several decades cycling around the world talking to people in small villages and big cities - from Bosnia to China and in many places in between - about how there are in fact better decision-making procedures out there.

To try out the online decision making tool, visit: http://www.deborda.org/

Valery Perry talks with Samir Beharic, who started his career as a young activist in high school and is now working on his PhD in Germany. They talk about the lack of concerted civic actions in BiH and the region taking on the big issues and frustrations that unite people, in general but in particular with regard to mining and extraction. The inability to break out of these straight jackets makes the global tectonic shifts happening even more worrying. But both agree that the only solutions that work will ultimately come from the bottom up.

Valery Perry talks with Adnan Huskić in a conversation that quickly veers into the big picture macro political shifts that are shaking the world, while considering what this means for BiH and the region.

Huskić, a seasoned Bosnian political analyst and academic, provides a forensic and wide-ranging examination of the democratic crises simultaneously afflicting Bosnia-Herzegovina and the wider liberal world order. He describes the Dayton thirtieth-anniversary events as "lukewarm" — exercises in box-ticking rather than genuine stock-taking — and situates Bosnia's stagnation within a global pattern of "entropy": the slow, barely noticed dismantling of norms, educational quality, institutional integrity, and media independence that has allowed autocratic instincts to fill the vacuum. He notes the concept of "distortion of preferences" — the growing gap between what populations actually want and what political elites deliver — as the structural driver of democratic backsliding everywhere, from Washington to Sarajevo.

DPC's Valery Perry talks with City Councilman Matt Joseph, a big friend of Bosnia and Herzegovina about his vision for BiH, and his reflections about democracy in the US in 2026.