The Chinese Communist Party is increasingly adapting its domestic coercive tactics to influence and interfere in foreign democratic countries. Find ASD’s work on the tools China uses—ranging from the weaponization of its economy to Beijing’s attempts to control global and domestic narratives—to interfere in democracies on this page.
Hamilton Toplines: January 23-31, 2021
The Russian embassy in Mexico’s Twitter account received uncharacteristically high engagement last week after a January 25 phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, during which they discu [...]
Zack Cooper Testifies Before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Commission
On January 28, 2021, Co-Director Zack Cooper testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in a hearing titled "U.S.-China Relations at the Chinese Communist Party's Centennial." Diverging Perspectives on U.S.-China Relatio [...]
On 5G, Is Germany Selling Out Europe to China?
Senior Fellow Kristine Berzina moderated this GMF Face Off debate on the question "On 5G, is Germany selling out Europe to China?". She was joined by Reinhard Bütikofer (agree), a member of the European Parliament, Alliance 90/The Greens, and Julia [...]
Hamilton Toplines: January 16-22, 2021
While the weekend’s protests against the detention of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny upon his return to Russia fell outside of the week monitored, his arrest was accompanied by official statements characterizing Navalny as a criminal, crit [...]
Spies and Money: Legal Defenses Against Foreign Interference in Political Campaigns
Executive Summary In recent years, U.S. government officials have normalized a damaging notion: that soliciting or participating in foreign interference in a U.S. election will not be prosecuted. Foreign governments from Beijing to Moscow and else [...]
Censorship and the Capitol Riot: How Big Tech Became the Target of Russian, Chinese, and Iranian Messaging
Overview Since the riot at the U.S. capitol on January 6, there has been a clear element of schadenfreude in Iranian, Russian, and Chinese state media coverage of political and social disunion in the United States. That adversarial state media outle [...]
Bryce Barros in Foreign Policy: More Black Ambassadors Would Highlight America’s Greatest Strengths
An open position in China is an opportunity to show U.S. diversity. At a critical time in U.S.-China relations, one of the most important roles is vacant. U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad stepped down from his post last October, and, amid th [...]
Hamilton Toplines: January 9-15, 2021
In response to tech platforms’ more aggressive content moderation in the wake of the capitol riots (including Facebook and Twitter banning President Trump), RT has drilled down on the narrative of censorship, with isolated examples from other Russia [...]
Hamilton Toplines: December 26, 2020-January 1, 2021
Last week, Russian state media and diplomats continued to champion the Sputnik V vaccine, with the announcement of a deal for Venezuela to buy 10 million doses of the Russian vaccine receiving particular attention. Four of the top ten most-retweeted [...]
Defending Democracy in the Digital World: A Conversation with Lindsay Gorman and Marietje Schaake
In 2020, the role of technology as a playing field in the geopolitical struggle between democracy and authoritarianism was magnified. While some governments like China seized control of their information environments; democracies were disadvantaged [...]
Hamilton Toplines: December 12-18, 2020
Russian state media and diplomats sought to characterize the attribution of the SolarWinds hack that affected multiple U.S. government agencies and private sectors companies to Russia as part of the tradition of the United States blaming Russia for [...]
Zack Cooper and Laura Rosenberger in Foreign Affairs: Democratic Values Are a Competitive Advantage
The contest with authoritarianism requires the United States to understand its strengths. Upon winning the presidency, Joe Biden promised to lead “not by the example of our power, but by the power of our example.” That pledge is important, because [...]