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Latest Policy Briefs and Reports
Contemporary Peace Research and Practice
Voters Tell Modi: Keep Going, But Under Caution
Policy Brief No.194 - June, 2024 • By Ramesh Thakur
The biggest takeaway from India’s eighteenth general election is that the death of Indian democracy has been much exaggerated. The exercise was a resounding win for the election machinery of the world’s most populous democracy. The entire exercise and the outcome affirm once again the competence, professionalism and integrity of the country’s election machinery. The truth is that Modi’s India has become more illiberal than many Indians, as well as Westerners, are comfortable with, but his mass appeal has endured because he has provided the most competent governance in decades that delivered more tangible outcomes on the ground.
Social Media, Technology and Peacebuilding
Unpacking Affective Polarization in Afghanistan: Ethnic Politics, Elite Competition, and Online Divisive Content
Policy Brief No.193 - June, 2024 • By Qasim Wafayezada
Affective polarization has been a persistent feature of Afghanistan’s society and politics in the past decades. However, with the return of the Taliban, the country has witnessed heightened affective polarization along ethnic and ideological lines, intricately linked with the elite’s behaviour and social media use. This article attempts to conceptualize the complex causal relations of affective polarization, elite behaviour, and social media platforms in Afghanistan’s fragmented social and political landscape.
Climate Change-Induced Community Relocation in Fiji: Challenges and Ways Forward
Policy Brief No.192 - June, 2024 • By Paulo Baleinakorodawa and Volker Boege
This report addresses the challenges of planned relocation, looking at cases in Fiji, and it presents a specific promising community engagement approach that is pursued by the peacebuilding NGO Transcend Oceania in its work with Fijian communities. Transcend Oceania’s approach encourages a shift away from the conventional ‘victimhood’ discourse; affected communities see themselves as active agents rather than entirely dependent on external assistance. This approach offers some insights that can provide guidance for other relocation endeavours in the Pacific and more generally.
Narendra Modi’s War on Civil Society on the Cusp
Policy Brief No.191 - May, 2024 • By Debasish Roy Chowdhury
This Policy Brief draws attention to thousands of civil society organizations which have died in the attack launched by India’s right-wing government that sees them as an internal threat to the state. The fate of many more, like India’s tottering democracy itself, hangs on the result of the ongoing election.
Capturing and Decapturing Democracies: Notes from India
Policy Brief No.190 - May, 2024 • By Debasish Roy Chowdhury
This Policy Brief addresses the question: How can right-wing populism be electorally reversed, and is democracy automatically restored when it is? A southern state in Modi’s India has important lessons as the world’s biggest election plays out.