2021 was definitely better than the horrible year tha preceded it, but only that much as societies and economies recovered from Covid-triggered lockdowns and battled to get some sense of the way the world would move after the once-in-a-century pandemic changed the way we lived, worked and thought. At lookingbeyondborders.com we tried to share with […]
Cambodia’s longtime Prime Minister Hun Sen, one of the world’s longest-serving leaders after 36 years in power, has backed his eldest son to succeed him, paving the way for a political dynasty. Read More Here
It was never in doubt… really. Hard-line Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi was elected president of Iran, trouncing a field handpicked by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In fact Raisi, who will replace the more moderate Hassan Rouhani, is a top contender to become Iran’s next supreme leader. Read More Here
For several months, Annalena Baerbock has been the It Girl of German politics. Baerbock, who is the Green Party candidate for chancellor, has been widely touted as a successor to Angela Merkel. Her party has stood roughly at parity with the conservative Christian Democratic Party at about twenty-nine percent in the polls. Read More Here
A consensus is forming that the election will be gerrymandered by the powers that be. In reality, they are applying Western norms of democracy, although the 1979 Iranian revolution created a unique political system devolving upon the unassailable supremacy of the concept of velayit-e-faqih (guardianship of the jurists in power), but renewable through free elections on the […]
Bill Clinton was fond of saying that when it came to elections it was the economy, stupid. Judging by his unusually large budget stimulus package so early in his Administration, it would seem that Joe Biden does not subscribe to Clinton’s view. Read Here | The National Interest
For now, Brand Modi seems to have escaped into the political stratosphere, untouched by the conventional laws of political competition. It remains near the peak of its appeal, undiminished by a series of recent crises, each of which might have felled lesser leaders. Read Here | The Diplomat
Greenlanders are bracing for a snap election that is being viewed as a referendum on a controversial mine that has not yet opened. Kvanefjeld, the rare-earth mineral project near Narsaq in southern Greenland, has divided the political system for more than a decade, and is of significant importance to the global mining industry. Read Here […]
The events in the United States demonstrated that democracies are self-correcting and resilient because they vest power in institutions, not in rulers. Rather than yield to the political violence of a fringe minority, representative institutions upheld the will of a majority of American voters. Read Here |Foreign Affairs
The down-ballot parroting of Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud began right after the election. But in the weeks since, it has evolved into a self-sustaining phenomenon of its own. Republican candidates for House, legislative and gubernatorial races in more than half a dozen states are still refusing to concede. Read Here | Politico
looking beyond borders 