The inability of the Modi government to deliver higher growth is its biggest Achilles' heel, in my view. The Opposition's challenge -- and it is a big one -- is to convince voters it could do better. Right now, the credibility gap is so large that many disappointed voters will continue voting for the BJP because they don't believe any of the alternatives are substantially better.
News headlines this week warned that Russia is recruiting mercenaries to scale up its operations in Ukraine. Some 16,000 fighters from Syria and other Arab states have already volunteered, joining the hundreds of Russian mercenaries that were already reportedly operating in Ukraine.
There's a temptation to offer a lite version of Hindutva, but that's like offering a knock-off version of Coca-Cola when consumers would rather buy the real thing
To prevent the perception that his vice-presidential choice is merely theatrical, Lula is likely to give Alckmin significant visibility during the campaign.
One persistent problem is that only a small share of this aid actually reaches women-led organizations.
As President Biden said in his State of the Union address, the ongoing crisis in Ukraine has starkly illustrated “the battle between democracy and autocracy,” and new research from Freedom House underscores just how dire this crisis of global democracy has become.
Locating answers to these questions will be difficult, especially since the BJP will hardly be content resting on its laurels. But the assembly results indicate that while the BJP occupies a comfortable pole position, there are signs of churn among their adversaries. This upheaval is essential for the future of political competition, not to mention the health of a vibrant democracy.
Although it’s tempting to focus on Brazil’s risk of experiencing its own Jan. 6 in the aftermath of its 2022 presidential elections, the true lesson Bolsonaro derives from Trump’s staying power is that eroding democracy is a long-term effort, involving years of systematically sowing seeds that may produce tangible results down the line.
People really like being in liberal societies after they’ve gone through either horrible nationalist conflict (as in the two world wars of the 20th century) or they’ve had to live under authoritarian dictatorship (as people in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union did under communism).
Financial power must be an important component of the U.S.’s Russia containment strategy, not an afterthought.