Dr. Semuhi Sinanoglu

🎓 Meet the 2025 MMF Fellows! (Part 4)

📣 GMF is proud to introduce the participants of the 2025 Marshall Memorial Fellowship. The fellows will begin their programming in Washington, DC, and then continue with 24 days of immersive, transatlantic travel to three European cities.

🔗 buff.ly/NPYvdep

On #FirstView -

"Autocrats and Their Business Allies: The Informal Politics of Defection and Co-optation" - shorturl.at/4spJG

by Semuhi Sinanoglu (@semuhi.bsky.social)

#HumanitarianAid is increasingly guided by strategic interests rather than humanitarian needs. Europe’s humanitarian commitments are under strain as geopolitics reshapes international solidarity. 💡 New IDOS #PolicyBrief by IDOS expert @semuhi.bsky.social doi.org/10.23661/ipb...

🎙️ In the new episode of our special series produced in partnership with @jodemocracy.bsky.social, @semuhi.bsky.social and @lucanway.bsky.social reflect on capitalism’s enduring imperfections while presenting it as a plausible force for democratic change.

🎧 Listen to it now:
👉 tinyurl.com/2mdcv2cw

Logo of the journal "Government & Opposition" displayed in white text on a black and red background, with the hashtag #OpenAccess in white at the bottom.

#OpenAccess from @govandopp.bsky.social‬ -

Autocrats and Their Business Allies: The Informal Politics of Defection and Co-optation - https://cup.org/3HMMH51

- @semuhi.bsky.social

#FirstView

#OpenAccess on #FirstView -

"Autocrats and Their Business Allies: The Informal Politics of Defection and Co-optation" - cup.org/3HMMH51

by @semuhi.bsky.social

#Throwback to #GMF2025: @semuhi.bsky.social shares key insights from the IDOS session on “Rethinking #InformationResilience: Alternative Toolkit, New Alliances” – 🎥 Watch the full video on #YouTube: youtu.be/ls2-vkxc-S4

#Humanitarian #aid is taking a backseat to #geopolitics. As an act of solidarity, it helped win hearts & minds. But would it have the same effect linked to strategic interests? The results are surprisingly positive! Thanks Diplomatisches Magazin for featuring my research. @idos-research.bsky.social

Countering information pollution to protect democracy This policy brief discusses international efforts to counter information pollution. It critically discusses available tools against information...

If you are interested in reading more on this, here is our recent policy brief on the topic: doi.org/10.23661/ipb...

#GMF25 #BreakingBarriers #Business #Democracy

@idos-research.bsky.social

3️⃣ Businesses are getting more and more invested in preparedness against information pollution, because, in the end, it also impacts their bottom line. However, stakeholders are still struggling to foster these cross-sectoral collaborations. But there are good examples to learn from.

2️⃣Two key actors are still pretty much trusted: local media and employers. Stakeholders should maintain and increase this trust and leverage it for interventions to protect information integrity.

1️⃣ The interventions should be context-sensitive. Some stakeholders operate under resource constraints. Also, providing only factual information is not always the solution. People are worried about being misled, but they are also often willing to mislead if it helps their cause.

What a day! @deutschewelle.bsky.social Global Media Forum is just another reason to love this beautiful city of #Bonn. We organized a panel on how to foster cross-sectoral collaborations with businesses to protect information integrity. I have three key takeaways from our conversations:

Are you #GMF25 in Bonn? Then join us for our panel in the afternoon! We have an amazing line-up!

How can businesses help protect the information space? How did the US funding cuts impact collaborations? How to improve the audience perception of toolkit?

@news.dw.com @idos-research.bsky.social

Join us at @news.dw.com #GMF25! Our panel will focus on #InformationResilience: How can we defend #InformationIntegrity amid rising geopolitical tension, funding cuts & shrinking civic space? What new alliances can help overcome these challenges?
gmf-event.com/event/progra... semuhi.bsky.social‬

Check out this issue @jodemocracy.bsky.social ! It features insightful articles by a great lineup of scholars, including @fromagehomme.bsky.social, @berkesen.bsky.social, ‪‪@sebnemgumuscu.bsky.social, @makrevis.bsky.social among others.

Can Capitalism Save Democracy? | Journal of Democracy Capitalism is often blamed for democracy’s ills. But much of the blame is misplaced. It is not business capture of the state but rather state capture of business that poses the greatest danger to…

www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/can...

Why #democracy needs #business? A strong private sector is key to democratic resilience. But there are risks! It isn't business capture of state but state capture of business that poses the greatest danger to democracy, we argue in
@jodemocracy.bsky.social w/ @lucanway.bsky.social & S. Levitsky.

Capitalism is often blamed for democracy’s ills. Yet it is not business capture of the state but rather state capture of business that poses the greatest danger to democracy, argue Semuhi Sinanoglu, Lucan Way, and Steven Levitsky.

"Can Capitalism Save Democracy?"

muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/a...

1. "Can Capitalism Save Democracy?" by
@lucanway.bsky.social @semuhi.bsky.social and #stevenlevitsky

muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

⚡ NEW ISSUE OUT NOW!

Authors and their essays below 👇

muse.jhu.edu/issue/55125

💡 Early warning systems (EWS) for emerging threats: The sector needs EWS capable of detecting smear campaigns and coordinated troll or bot attacks on development practitioners, aid agencies, and other stakeholders with personalized risk scores.

💡 AI-empowered toolkits: Imagine a program officer no longer manually scrolling through tens of 100-page-long toolkits for content but interacting with an AI assistant trained on a knowledge repository: “I’m working on media protection in a shrinking human rights space. What are the first steps?”

Die Entwicklungszusammenarbeit braucht dringend ein Technologie-Upgrade Entwicklungszusammenarbeit braucht Technik. Wissen und Toolkits werden noch oft als PDFs und Downloads veröffentlicht. Aber wo sind Sprachassistenten, interaktive Modelle und intelligente Frühwarnsyst...

Let’s be honest: development cooperation is overdue for a tech upgrade. It fails to keep pace with threats it seeks to tackle.

I propose two solutions published on @tspbackground.bsky.social:

background.tagesspiegel.de/digitalisier...

cc: @jleininger.bsky.social @idos-research.bsky.social

Die Entwicklungszusammenarbeit braucht dringend ein Technologie-Upgrade Entwicklungszusammenarbeit braucht Technik. Wissen und Toolkits werden noch oft als PDFs und Downloads veröffentlicht. Aber wo sind Sprachassistenten, interaktive Modelle und intelligente Frühwarnsyst...

💡 Technologische Innovation in der #Entwicklungszusammenarbeit darf nicht länger als zukünftiger Zusatz betrachtet werden – sie muss mitgedacht, finanziert und implementiert werden, schreibt IDOS-Experte @semuhi.bsky.social in @tspbackground.bsky.social: background.tagesspiegel.de/digitalisier...

I will send you the pre-print once it's out. Thanks so much!🙏

I presented an early draft at @wzb.bsky.social, and Armin is presenting it at @epsanet.bsky.social in Madrid as we speak.

@idos-research.bsky.social

Stay tuned for an interesting paper on autocratic propaganda effectiveness. @avonschiller.bsky.social and I conducted an experiment that examines how autocrats create responsive administrative tools and then use them for propaganda. Is it effective? To a certain extent, yes, but it also backfires!

Can a foreign-imposed regime change occur through only aerial strikes and air supremacy? Coupled with sanctions, NATO's Op. Unified Protector resulted in Gaddafi's fall. Op. Allied Force eventually forced Milosevic out. But they took place in a different international context.

2️⃣ Autocrats aim to discredit the international community as hypocritical and biased to win ideological victory for their regime and stoke nativism. But there are a few tools at our disposal that #prodemocracy actors can use against such #propaganda. And we need to learn more about them!