International Affairs Archives

Analyses

International Affairs

India, a country that loves to be defined as the world’s largest democracy, or the “mother of democracy” – using the words of its Prime Minister Narendra Modi – has just started its 18th general election. The massive democratic exercise is going to take place from today through June 1, with 970 million people heading to the polls in seven phases, with results expected to be announced on June 4. However, many have pointed out that it is not only simply the fact of holding elections that makes a country a democracy. According to V-Dem Institute’s Democracy Report, India dropped down to an “electoral autocracy” in 2018 and stayed in this category up to now.

International Affairs
Slovakia and Poland at the Ballot: Pellegrini Prevails, Political Deadlock in Warsaw
Fabio Turco 17 April 2024

On the weekend of April 6-7, the citizens of both Poland and Slovakia went back to the polls, only six months after elections that resulted in important shifts in their respective governments. These more recent elections constituted a first test for the new executives. The elections in Poland were for local administration, while those in Slovakia were presidential.
International Affairs
Turkey’s Elections a Defeat for Erdogan not a Victory for the Opposition
Alessandra Tommasi 5 April 2024

Turkey’s local elections on March 31 produced a historic result: the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, won 37.7 percent of the vote, beating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party (35.5 percent) for the first time in more than two decades in power. If the CHP’s result is not surprising in Turkey’s big cities, the AKP also lost regions such as Anatolia, once considered strongholds of the majority party. It was “a turning point,” as Erdogan stressed after the results of the elections. But the CHP’s “victory” was more of an AKP’s resounding defeat, according to Cengiz Aktar, professor of Turkish and Modern Asian Studies at the University of Athens.
Gender, International Affairs
The Irony of Iranian “Democracy” is not Lost on its People
Marina Forti 8 March 2024

The election held on March 1 last year marked the lowest turnout in the history of republican Iran. It was also the least competitive election in forty years, with the exclusion of nearly all candidates affiliated with the opposition or more moderate factions.
International Affairs
Netanyahu’s Refusals Pose a Challenge to Those Seeking to Quell the War in Gaza
Renzo Guolo 27 February 2024

Benjamin Netanyahu’s consistent refusals pose a challenge to those seeking to quell the Middle East conflict. Despite global pressure, Netanyahu remains steadfast in his decision to advance the fighting towards Rafah. In this area, millions of Gazans find themselves trapped between the Israeli Defense Force’s Merkava tanks and Egypt’s increasingly fortified barrier, which serves as the final obstacle preventing further dispersal of Palestinians from the Strip.
International Affairs
Ayesha Jalal: “The Only Winner of Pakistan’s Elections is
the Military Establishment”
Zafar Musyani 20 February 2024

After months of delay, Pakistan held its 12th general elections on February 8. However, the entire electoral process, from the lead-up to the polling and the announcement of the results, was marred by several controversies, further exacerbating the country’s political crisis.
International Affairs
Lev Gudkov: “Every Year 2% of Russia’s Elite Arrested by Putin”
Giancarlo Bosetti , Alessandra Tommasi 16 February 2024

Before the death of political opponent Alexei Navalny in the penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence, Reset DOC reached Russian statistician Lev Gudkov. In the interview, a figure emerges: the arrest of 2 percent of the Russian elite around Vladimir Putin every year, a form of control that goes beyond dissidents and anti-war voices.
International Affairs
Polls Foreshadow the Decline of Catalan Independence Movements
Andrea Walton 31 January 2024

The constitutional crisis and the repression by the Spanish authorities following the 2017 independence referendum have left their mark on Catalonia, and separatist parties have been reduced in a region that some believe was ready to transform itself into an independent state.
International Affairs, Religion
Once Upon a Time There was a Model of Free Political Debate
Mujibur Rehman 29 January 2024

On January 26, 2024, India celebrated its Republic Day – the day India adopted its current Constitution – with great fanfare, with French President Emmanuel Macron as the guest of honor. “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity’ is the major political ideal for France, though each of these terms has little meaning for Indians in the context of rapidly expanding Hindu majoritarianism.
International Affairs
The New Ram Temple: A Triumph of Hindu Nationalism
Maria Tavernini 22 January 2024

January 22 will go down in history as a big day in India. Construction works have been feverish in the months leading up to the inauguration of the Ram temple, an event that many have labeled as important as August 15, 1947, the day India gained independence.