Special Projects
The Impact of Trump’s 2nd Term on Global Democracy
Trump’s policies are currently leading to a hollowing out of the country’s democratic institutions and democratic culture. The questions arise: how resilient are those democratic institutions, how stable is the country’s political culture, how are the economic and cultural elites of society reacting, and last but not least, what role does the demos, the people, play? Will US democracy survive as a constitutional and liberal system? What impact will internal developments in the world’s most powerful country have on the rest of the world? These and other questions will be published and discussed here over the coming months.
Publications
Casting a Long Shadow: Trump 2.0’s Impact on Aotearoa New Zealand
This report examines the alarm felt in Aotearoa New Zealand during the first seven months of the sec…
Is Trump Adding to the Backsliding of the ‘World’s Biggest Democracy’?
This report examines the consequences for India of a second Trump presidential term. With his steep …
The Sultanization of US Politics
This report examines the terminology applied to the second presidency of Donald Trump. It has been c…
The Return of President Trump and Its Implications for South America
This report outlines the significant threat to democratic governance in Latin America posed by Trump…
From Backsliding to Recalibration? Trump 2.0 and Democracy in the Philippines
This report analyses the three-fold impact of the Trump 2.0 presidency on Philippine domestic politi…
America’s Retreat and the Future of Economic Multilateralism
This policy brief discusses the systematic retreat of the United States from multilateral institutio…
‘Trump-ed’ Democratic Ideals in Arab–US Relations: ‘Democracy Promotion in Reverse’?
This report discusses the rise of transactionalism in the Gulf states' relations with the US, which …
Democratic Resilience in the United States: Containing Trump’s Threat to Democracy?
This report provides a comparative perspective on two crucial questions. First, what are the possibi…
Amerika: MAGA, China, Imperial Decline, Democracy
This report examines the current rivalries between the USA and China—two entangled but differently s…
Public Conversations
In Conversation – A public conversation on current challenges to democracy, and in particular challenges to democracy in America, with Professors Stephan Haggard and Bob Kaufman. The primary focus of the conversation is what’s happening to democracy in America under the second Trump administration.
May 9 2025