What is Power 3.0?
Modern authoritarianism now takes advantage of the features once chiefly thought to empower democracies – the interconnected economic and financial system, ubiquitous communication networks, international norms and institutions, and global media and culture. In doing so, the authoritarians have in some ways leapfrogged the capabilities of democracies, whose very openness can be more easily exploited. While democracies have assumed the openness and interconnectedness of the liberal international order have strengthened their hand, authoritarian regimes have used those features to advance farther and faster than anticipated.
Power 3.0 seeks to unpack this phenomenon, exploring the strategies authoritarian regimes use to exert broad influence outside the hard security arena, and analyzing how democracies are responding.
Key areas of authoritarian influence explored by this blog include:
- Culture and Education
- Media/Information/Technology
- Norms/Ideas/Institutions
- Overseas Assistance/Trade/Investment
- Transnational Kleptocracy
About the International Forum for Democratic Studies
The International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy is a leading center for research, discussion, thought, and analysis on the theory and practice of democracy around the world. Established in 1994, the Forum strives to bridge the gap between academic research and the practice of democracy through several initiatives: conducting research and organizing conferences; publishing the Journal of Democracy; and hosting fellowship programs for democracy practitioners and scholars.
About the National Endowment for Democracy
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a private, nonprofit foundation dedicated to the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions around the world. Each year, NED makes more than 1,200 grants to support the projects of non-governmental groups abroad who are working for democratic goals in more than 90 countries.
Since its founding in 1983, the Endowment has remained on the leading edge of democratic struggles everywhere, while evolving into a multifaceted institution that is a hub of activity, resources, and intellectual exchange for activists, practitioners, and scholars of democracy the world over.