Analyses
International Affairs
Brazil Shows Accountability Works: A Lesson for the US
Andre Diniz Pagliarini 30 September 2025
Earlier this month, Brazil did something the United States couldn’t: it punished a president who tried to overturn an election. Jair Bolsonaro lost in 2022, claimed fraud, encouraged his supporters to storm Brasília, and is now serving a 27-year sentence for subverting democracy. Donald Trump lost in 2020, made nearly identical false claims, watched as his most fervent supporters sacked the U.S. Capitol—and he’s back in the White House. That contrast is telling. It goes to the heart of whether democracies can enforce the rules that make them democracies in the first place. Brazil’s message is clear: accountability is possible, even in a deeply polarized society. The United States’ is equally stark: polarization can become an alibi for impunity.
  • Raluca Ganea: “We Must Offer an Alternative to Netanyahu’s Eternal War”
    Alessandra Tommasi 26 September 2025
    After almost two years of war in Gaza and at least 65,000 Palestinians killed, recognition of Palestine as a state has become an urgent issue internationally. France and the United Kingdom recently recognized Palestine, joining other Western countries and bringing the tally to four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council whose recommendation is required for recognition at the United Nations. Meanwhile, calls for a Palestinian state are multiplying. Among them is a petition by 60 Israeli NGOs, united under It’s Time, a coalition supporting a two-state solution that organized a peace summit in May. Reset DOC spoke with Raluca Ganea—co-founder and executive director of Zazim, a civic movement of Arabs and Jews working together for democracy and equality, and a member of It’s Time—about what is required to turn the vision of a two-state solution into a political reality.
  • Centuries of Jail Sentences Pile Up in Tunisia Crackdown
    Federica Zoja 18 September 2025
    Ramla Dahmani is the sister of Tunisian political commentator, journalist, and lawyer Sonia Dahmani, who is currently imprisoned in her country for allegedly spreading false information. Ramla herself, speaking out from a secret location in Europe to defend her sister and draw international attention to her case, has also been sentenced to prison. The ruling, issued in absentia on July 1, came to light only by chance, when her lawyers—having received no formal notification—stumbled upon it in judicial records. Otherwise, Ramla would have faced an unexpected arrest and imprisonment upon any return trip to Tunisia.
  • Can China’s Global Governance Initiative Adapt the World Order to Multipolarity?
    Seán Golden 12 September 2025
    China marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II (WWII) with an orchestrated set of events designed to visualize how much the current world order has changed. It convened a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) that included Xi Jinping’s announcement of a Global Governance Initiative (全球治理倡议 Quanqiu zhili changyi), and staged a massive military parade that highlighted the advanced technology of China’s armed forces. Donald Trump’s typically hostile and narcissistic reaction showed how successful it had been.
  • The Price of Partnership: Can South Africa Trust Washington Again?
    Rabia Turnbull 9 September 2025
    On a crisp morning in Citrusdal, trucks brimming with oranges idled under the blazing South African sun, farmers watched helplessly as port authorities halted shipments to the United States. A new 30 percent tariff, one of the highest imposed by the Trump administration, had shut off access to one of South Africa’s largest export markets. For families whose livelihoods depend on agriculture, the shock was immediate, putting an estimated 30,000 jobs at risk.
  • Stephen Hanson: Putin’s Patrimonial Power Under Strain
    Giancarlo Bosetti , Alessandra Tommasi 9 September 2025
    As the war in Ukraine drags on and Vladimir Putin presents himself as the architect of a “new world order” alongside Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un, Reset DOC spoke with Stephen Hanson, a leading American political scientist and expert on Russia and authoritarian regimes. Hanson is Professor of Government at the College of William & Mary and has previously served as director of Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and of the Reves Center for International Studies.
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    Israel: A “Belligerent Democracy” that Embarrasses the West
    Claudia De Martino 16 July 2025
    Many media outlets highlight how Israel is increasingly isolated in the West regarding Gaza. According to a Pew Research Center survey, the number of pro-Western states—above all Australia, Indonesia, Japan, and Turkey, and in Europe, Spain, Sweden, Greece, Ireland, and the Netherlands—that hold a negative perception of Israel is growing. The Israeli government and army continue to present the current military intervention—Operation “Gideon’s Chariots,” launched last May—as a necessary response to the “existential threat” posed by Hamas, while a growing part of the international community can no longer perceive any danger in the starving masses of Palestinians wandering around food distribution centers in constant danger of being killed.
  • Abraham Accords: Syria and Lebanon Facing the Test of the Arab Concert
    Riccardo Cristiano 11 July 2025
    United by geography and a long history that, since the end of the Ottoman Empire and especially during the long rule of the Assads, has taken on the characteristics of colonialism and occupation in the name of a “Greater Syria,” Lebanese and Syrians today share the same hope: that tomorrow will be different from today, putting an end to conflicts and reducing them to “wars of the past.” Reality demands this. In 2018, Lebanon’s GDP exceeded 55 billion dollars; today, it barely reaches 20 billion. One hundred thousand Lebanese pounds, which were worth 65 dollars at that time, are now worth just one. In Syria, in 2011, when the brutal repression of anti-government protests began, GDP reached 45 billion dollars; today it is only 9 billion.
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