BEIJING—China’s campaign of repression against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang is brutal even by the standards of the worst authoritarian regimes. Since at least 2017, Beijing’s policies have included the mass internment of an estimated 1 million members of ethnic minorities, widespread surveillance, alleged forced labor, alleged forced abortions and sterilizations, the destruction of prayer sites and ethnic neighborhoods, and the desecration of burial sites. In January before leaving office, then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo labeled China’s treatment of the Uyghurs a genocide. China says its campaign is a legitimate push against terrorism and separatism, after sporadic bouts of violence rocked the region…

After my beautiful butterfly Dylan was murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary, I spent every waking hour working to expand background checks. I felt so empty, so lost—but this work gave me focus and purpose. I had to make sure my baby boy didn't die in vain, that his short life would be remembered by my helping others live. I spent weeks talking with dozens of lawmakers—Republicans and Democrats— who were still undecided, or said they would vote "no" on background checks. I brought pictures of Dylan to leave with the Senators, to give a face to the numbers of those…

While the number of fatalities attributed to Covid-19 is carefully tracked by governments, few people have recognized how pandemic-spurred crackdowns have devastated democracy around the world. Emergency proclamations have entitled presidents and other government officials to seize vast new powers previously forbidden to them. Government bureaucrats became a new priesthood that could sanctify unlimited sacrifices merely by invoking dubious statistical extrapolations of future perils. In October, Freedom House issued a report, Democracy under Lockdown – The Impact of COVID-19 on Global Freedom, which warned that since the pandemic started, “the condition of democracy and human rights has worsened in 80 countries.” Sarah Repucci,…

The political economies of the Arab world present a fascinating but puzzling paradox. On the one hand, the region’s trajectory over the past decade has reflected growing anger and frustration among Arab publics in societies wracked by economic stress and deepening economic precarity. On the other hand, these widely-held economic grievances co-exist with the lowest levels of extreme poverty among developing regions, defined by the number of people living on less than $1.90/day, the current International Poverty Line (IPL). How can we account for the region’s apparent success in achieving such low rates of extreme poverty even while widely-held economic…

ISSUES • After a decade of intense conflict, Syria is now a failed state divided roughly into four competing geographic zones of control: 1. Regime areas in the west, center, and south (~63%) 2. The “Eastern Security Zone” controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by U.S. troops (~28%) 3. Rural northern Aleppo, governed by the Syrian National Army, backed by Turkey (~6%) 4. Territory administered largely by former al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in the northwest (~3%). • While in control of nearly two-thirds of the country, Assad faces a series of security challenges that continue to…