Showing 21 - 30 of 33
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 03/05/2017
» Leaked details of a dinner conversation between UK Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker suggest that the Brexit talks won't just be contentious -- they'll be brutal. At this point, the perception helps Ms May as much as it does the EU leaders. After the June election in the UK, however, Ms May will be at a disadvantage.
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 03/04/2017
» Recent and upcoming political upheavals in a number of countries provide some evidence that the institutional design of democracies can be critically important. A clear advantage is emerging for countries that don't directly elect a president: They are more likely to resist the wave of populism sweeping the West.
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 22/03/2017
» The Socialist candidate for the French presidency, Benoit Hamon, says he doesn't believe in the "myth" and "quasi-religion" of growth -- it's part of the "consumerist, productivist and materialist model" of development, he argues.
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 16/01/2017
» Compared with the alleged Russian hacks of the Democratic National Committee and other US targets, another important cyber theft that has also been tentatively attributed to Russia is getting far less attention. The revelations are much less titillating than those that have made headlines recently -- they aren't even understandable to most people -- but they may be part of the same cyberwar, one whose rules seem to be changing.
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 09/01/2017
» Russian President Vladimir Putin is on a roll. The catalog of his alarming moves is well-known: aggression in Ukraine, interference in Syria on the side of President Bashar al-Assad, stepped-up intelligence efforts that may include a hybrid operation to discredit Hillary Clinton, a slick, prolific propaganda machine, support for nationalist and populist movements in Europe. But why is Mr Putin doing all this?
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 04/01/2017
» The "Russian hacking" story in the US has gone too far. That it's not based on any solid public evidence, and that reports of it are often so overblown as to miss the mark, is only a problem to those who worry about disinformation campaigns, propaganda and journalistic standards -- a small segment of the general public. But the recent US government report that purports to substantiate technical details of recent hacks by Russian intelligence is off the mark and has the potential to do real damage to far more people and organisations.
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 17/11/2016
» The footage of the anti-Donald Trump marches and the belligerent tweets criticising the US president-elect fill me with ambivalence. On the one hand, Mr Trump's victory hardly makes me happy; then again, as someone who has seen, and taken part in, both successful and failed mass protests, I believe the liberal cause would be better served if the demonstrators stayed home.
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 31/08/2016
» Germany's vice-chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, says talks about a major trade deal between the European Union and the US have failed, though "nobody is really admitting it". That statement should be taken with a grain of salt, but the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) appears to be doomed, at least until after elections in the US and major European countries.
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 11/05/2016
» It's the bread and butter of pundits to speculate what the world might look like after a relatively improbable but potentially disruptive event, like the UK's exit from the European Union or a Donald Trump victory in the US presidential election. The perceived probability of these "black swan" events is pretty high, after all, and contingency plans may be in order. It's useful, however, to remember how the author of The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb, framed it in his 2007 book:
News, Leonid Bershidsky, Published on 18/04/2016
» Last week, a respected Russia scholar in the US speculated that the Kremlin might be behind the so-called Panama Papers, the big dump of data about offshore accounts that has implicated several countries' officials in shady dealings. And on Thursday, President Vladimir Putin of Russia blamed the US for the leak.