Alexander Cooley, an SIWPS Member and Chair of Barnard College’s Political Science Department, has written an analysis of recent action by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to fight what the SCO calls the “three evils” of terrorism, extremism, and separatism. In the piece, “The League of Authoritarian Gentlemen,” Dr. Cooley argues that organizations like the SCO and CIS are attempting to create an “international front of anti-democrats” opposed to Western humanitarian values of human rights and freedom of expression. If the United States, the UN, and the EU want to promote global humanitarian values, Dr. Cooley says, they will have to challenge the increasing legitimization of authoritarianism in Eurasia head-on.

This article is available on Foreign Policy’s website.