Backsliding is less a result of democracies failing to deliver than of democracies failing to constrain the predatory political ambitions and methods of certain elected leaders. Policymakers and aid providers seeking to limit backsliding should tailor their diplomatic and aid interventions accordingly. 

India is witnessing the dawn of a “Second Republic,” an inflection point that is equal in magnitude to the constitutional moment in 1950, when India’s “First Republic” was established. Several elements of the Second Republic were visible prior to these elections, and the BJP’s narrow victory has not dislodged them. 

To prepare for a larger union, the EU needs institutional reform. But enlargement and deeper integration have always gone hand in hand and should not be seen as mutually exclusive.

The EU’s enlargement momentum, fueled by Russia’s war against Ukraine, is wearing off. To make political conditionality work, the union must prioritize securing buy-in from candidate countries’ elites and civil society.

 An effective approach in Tunisia would emphasize economic stability and a healthy civic space along with fending off Russian and Chinese influence—all of which could serve American interests and lay the ground for a revitalization of Tunisia’s democratic project.

A stronger far-right presence in the European Parliament could put a brake on some EU policies. But the main test to the bloc’s stability and global role may come from the rise of nationalist politics in France and Germany.