The military coup in Myanmar was more than just the result of flaws in its nascent democracy. Successive governments — military and civil alike — swept societal, ethnic, and economic challenges and inequalities under the rug for decades, crippling the growth of civil society and democratic safeguards.
All in Domestic Policy
Ten years after anti-government protests rocked the Middle East, instability continues to plague Yemen — yet even while the will of the Yemeni people remains largely forgotten, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Pakistan’s uneven distribution of development funding from CPEC in Balochistan and heavy-handed response to extremists is fueling the very ethnonationalist conflict it seeks to avert.
Bhutan’s reputation as the happiest country in the world is stained by its mistreatment and mass expulsion of the Lhotshampas — a sharp contrast to the jocund paradise it claims to be.
The success of 21st-century American statecraft will be defined by its ability to meet transnational challenges with a sustainable playbook that breaches the gap between domestic governance and foreign policy.
In today’s world, governments are more readily able to manipulate the public’s perceived reality, just as they would an audience in a play. Separating out the front- and backstage enables actors to give their audience the impression that they are meeting standards expected of them while behaving in an entirely different manner to achieve their underlying interests.
At a time when a polarized American political environment challenges U.S. capacity to construct and follow through on durable strategies for American engagement in the world, old enemies around the globe are empowered with new tools at their disposal. Authoritarian governments have found new ways to more effectively silence critics, harass opponents, control or influence the information at home, and manipulate online content to serve their own interests.
Domestic factors are substantially affecting the way the U.S. engages international affairs and will carry long term implications for the face of American power, values, alliances, and grand strategy abroad. Surveying the U.S. political landscape for ways to restore the foundations of American democracy is as important for the future of U.S. foreign policy as analyzing the global system within which the country operates.
Conceptually, this law presupposes a case where the Runet would need to be disconnected from the rest of the global network infrastructure due to threats to its stable and safe operation on Russian territory. However, many critics claim that this bill strikes a huge blow to Internet freedom in Russia. The capabilities that the Russian government now has could usher in a new era of widespread censorship.
There are a lot of expectations for China at this time, as the United States continues to abdicate responsibility and attack strategic institutions. The 19th Party Congress has set the trajectory on both the domestic and international stages, with Xi Jinping holding the banner.
For the last two centuries, the United States’ has developed and adapted to the demands upon it economically and geopolitically. Yet the American system of governance consistently fails to address both age-old and emerging domestic policy concerns such as job replacement from automation & free trade, political redistricting, and congressional paralysis. Rather than the fault of any one President or party, this is the result of systemic failures in the American style of Democracy.