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Even in democracies like the United States, government use of facial recognition technology, in its current form, corrodes civil rights and civil liberties because its errors disproportionately impact vulnerable communities.
Unless the United States redirects its approach in Syria, civilian stabilization programs will not achieve their stated objective: the “enduring defeat” of the Islamic State.
The Nigerian case highlights the challenges of local-level stabilization efforts while working with a host government that lacks political commitment, capacity, and coordination.
New technologies are arming governments with unprecedented capabilities to monitor, track and surveil individual people. Even governments in democracies with strong traditions of rule of law find themselves tempted to abuse these new abilities.
Sheri Berman’s substantial new history of democracy in Europe offers useful insights on the question of why democracy sometimes succeeds but often does not. Yet Western democracies are now experiencing tectonic shifts, and history offers only a limited guide to understanding their future.
The Nigerian government has rolled out big-budget programs with the stated aim of helping small businesspeople, but these schemes are more often used by corrupt officials to help themselves.
Addressing the forms of violence that plague the world today requires international actors to acknowledge that tackling state repression and organized crime necessitates looking beyond technical quick fixes. The private and social sectors also have an important role to play.
While the liberal-centrists style themselves as a progressive bulwark against populist-nativism, they have yet to develop a united vision for the future of European cooperation.
Ideas, experiences, and lessons from other countries are not panaceas but, if properly researched, disseminated, and discussed, they can magnify the reform moment in the United States.
Unchecked security spending and endemic corruption may destabilize the Bahraini regime and imperil U.S. interests, so the United States should push it to reform.