Authoritarianism Watch

Sub-sections

Wanted in Riga, welcomed in Minsk

The case of Alexei Roslikovs, a Latvian politician who was welcomed in Minsk, has highlighted a growing trend of Western refugees in Russia and their allies. Authoritarianism Watch editor Alyaxandar Stukanaŭ investigates what led him to present himself as a political dissident in Belarus —and if (…)

Monday 29 June 2026

Crossing the red line: Romania’s centre-left and far-right team up

As Europe celebrated the defeat of Viktor Orbán, Romania’s pro-European Government collapsed after just a year when the centre-left teamed up with the far-right against its own coalition partners. Authoritarianism Watch editor Elfriede-Maria Colec looks at what led to this shocking development — (…)

Monday 8 June 2026

European foreign policy has failed ordinary Belarusians

On the 19th March, 250 political prisoners were released by the Lukashenka regime - although 15 were instead forced into the EU’s member states as refugees. This comes as a new development in the ongoing negotiations between the Trump administration and Lukashenka’s representatives. So far, it (…)

Wednesday 1 April 2026

Orange is the new brown: America is not the country we knew

Millions of words were published across Europe in 2025 about the next phase of its relationship with the US ever since the second inauguration of Donald Trump - and most of them are wrong. Europe’s media still largely refuses to describe the situation as it is and to say what we can all see with (…)

Wednesday 25 March 2026

The Georgian Dream That Poisoned Its People

There are moments when politics ceases to be abstract. In Georgia, that moment did not arrive through parliamentary debate or official statements, but through burning eyes, poisoned air, chemically washed streets, and the screams of citizens. In late 2024 and early 2025, thousands of Georgians (…)

Monday 16 March 2026

The US Dollar and the Slow Death of American Hegemony

Since his inauguration, President Trump’s second term has consistently alienated the US’s allies, especially with its stances on the war in Ukraine and its hostile tariff policies. The Administration’s erratic behaviour has led to questions about the future of the US’s international standing, (…)

Monday 2 February 2026

How to Talk About European Unity: Lessons From Dealing With the AfD

In the German democratic, pro-European juste milieu, a common explanation for the rise of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the idea that their voters are like uneducated children: holding little-to-no political agency, falling for the most basic rhetoric, and voting on the basis of (…)

Wednesday 28 January 2026

We are not the only kind of we

Globalization, once steadily advancing, now appears to take a break or perhaps even reversed? The acknowledgement that humanity has, in many ways, lost itself in the very technologies it has created, reminds us that we need to confront the aspects of technology that obscure our true selves, (…)

Wednesday 22 October 2025

Authoritarianism Ascendant: Why is the Left losing the battle?

In the year 2025, we can make an assumption: the centre-right, and especially the far-right, is booming in all Western liberal democracies, such as Austria, Italy, Germany, the USA, and many more. All of these countries’ right-wing parties share common traits: nationalism, sympathy for (…)

Friday 13 June 2025

Arming Europe — And Abandoning It

The European Union was born from the trauma of war — to become its antidote. It expanded under the promise of peace, solidarity, and the rule of law: pillars that granted it, for decades, a moral authority unmatched in the global order. Today, that edifice trembles. The continent that once (…)

Saturday 31 May 2025

Europe in the shadows of the New American Empire Part III: The European response

The European Union could not be in a more precarious position as it faces a Trump administration that has reframed the transatlantic alliance into a tool of economic coercion. For decades, European security has been built on the foundation of U.S. military guarantees via NATO—allowing for (…)

Friday 11 April 2025

Europe in the shadows of the New American Empire Part II: Democracy Under Siege

This essay is the second part of a three-piece series for the Democracy Under Pressure week by Samuel Tammekann and Risto Rajala, analyzing the rise of a new American imperialism under Trump’s second administration, its ideological foundations, and the urgent need for a European response to (…)

Wednesday 9 April 2025
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