Interviews
Prof. Joshi: Depoliticizing Courts, Bureaucracy, and Police Is Essential to Stabilizing Nepal’s Democratic Renewal
Professor Madhav Joshi argues that Nepal’s recent political upheaval reflects both “anti-elite” mobilization and “a form of generational democratic renewal,”...
Prof. Klein: Political Transformation in Iran May Come, but Not in the Way the West Expects
Professor Peter W. Klein offers a historically grounded warning against simplistic regime-change narratives in Iran. In this ECPS interview, the...
Dr. Arian: Neither Foreign Powers nor Clerical Elites Represent the Iranian People
In this interview with the ECPS, Dr. Amir Ahmadi Arian offers a penetrating account of Iran at a moment of...
Assoc. Prof. Huda: Bangladesh’s Democratic Future Depends on How Political Parties Exercise Power
In this interview with the ECPS, Associate Professor Kazi A. S. M. Nurul Huda offers a nuanced assessment of Bangladesh’s...
Samzir Ahmed: Institutionalization Is an Acid Test for Populist Politics in Bangladesh
Bangladesh’s 2026 election—the first since the 2024 uprising that toppled Sheikh Hasina—has been widely framed as a democratic turning point....
Prof. Kopstein: Trumpism, Better Understood in Patrimonial Terms, Treats the State as a Family Business
Professor Jeffrey Kopstein argues that Trumpism is best analyzed not primarily as populism, but as patrimonial rule—where “the state itself...
Dr. Shahriari: Without Western Recognition, Rojava Lacks Leverage to Secure a Lasting Power-Sharing Deal with Damascus
In this ECPS interview, Dr. Soheila Shahriari offers a theoretically grounded diagnosis of Rojava’s most precarious post-ISIS moment. She argues...
Prof. Hathaway: A Moment of Peril—and Possibility—to Reimagine the International Legal Order
Giving an interview to the ECPS, Professor Oona A. Hathaway reflects on the resilience and fragility of the post-1945 international...
Prof. Bjarnegård: Gender Will Become a Central Fault Line Between Liberal Democracy and Authoritarian Populism
In this ECPS interview, Professor Elin Bjarnegård (Uppsala University) argues that gender is no longer a side issue but “a...
Dr. Tsuda: Takaichi’s Ascent to Power Represents Continuity Rather Than a Populist Rupture
In an interview with the ECPS, Dr. Taro Tsuda of Meiji University argues that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s landslide victory...
Assoc. Prof. Mejía Acosta: State Erosion Is Faster Than State Building and Harder to Reverse
In this interview with the ECPS, Associate Professor Andrés Mejía Acosta (University of Notre Dame, Keough School of Global Affairs)...
Prof. Sundar: Almost Every Institution in India Has Been Subverted to Advance a Supremacist Agenda
In this interview with the ECPS, Professor Nandini Sundar (Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University) delivers a stark assessment of...