Democracy in Crisis: What to Watch in 2019

As 2018 draws to a close, CFR’s James M. Lindsay and Robert McMahon are joined by Brookings senior fellow Constanze Stelzenmuller to reflect on the year that was and look ahead to 2019. Democratic backsliding and rising nationalism are at the top of the agenda.

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Episode Guests
  • Constanze Stelzenmuller
    Brookings Senior Fellow

Show Notes

As 2018 draws to a close, CFR’s James M. Lindsay and Robert McMahon are joined by Brookings senior fellow Constanze Stelzenmuller to reflect on the year that was and look ahead to 2019. Democratic backsliding and rising nationalism are at the top of the agenda.

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) wraps its seventy-fifth summit, pledging to keep Ukraine on an “irreversible” path to membership while concerns grow about the future of U.S. commitment; Japan hosts the tenth Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting to counter China’s influence in the region; France struggles to form a government as party differences intensify; and President-Elect Masoud Pezeshkian raises hopes for possible change in Iran.   

United States

This special episode of The World Next Week features a summerlong feast of reading, watching, and listening treats. Deborah Amos, the Ferris Professor of Journalism in Residence at Princeton University and a former international correspondent for National Public Radio, joins CFR’s TWNW hosts Robert McMahon and Carla Anne Robbins to discuss good reads they recommend, books they are looking forward to reading, and other entertainment they are enjoying this summer.

France

France’s governance is at stake as it holds snap elections for its National Assembly, with the far-right National Rally looking to build on its success in the European Parliament elections; the United Kingdom (UK) has its own snap general elections with Keir Starmer and his Labour Party looking to end the fourteen-year rule of the Conservatives; Iran’s snap presidential elections could signal unity of regime hard-liners or glimmers of change; the European Union (EU) plans to impose provisional tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles; and Ukraine strikes more than thirty Russian oil refineries.  

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