The Trump administration has replaced U.S. democracy promotion with funding for right-wing populist causes abroad. But by tying those movements so visibly to the U.S. state, is Washington undermining their appeal to their own audiences? wpr.pub/4iw1Hnf

Norms are often most visible in how people react when they’re violated. The outcry over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream a U.S. military execution gave troops clear evidence of what the public sees as acceptable, @charlicarpenter writes. wpr.pub/4yB891h

Azerbaijan’s 2023 offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh ended both the West’s push for a negotiated peace and Russia’s “frozen conflict,” tilting the South Caucasus toward illiberal regional powers, Laurence Broers argues. Revisited for WPR’s 20th anniversary: wpr.pub/4ys983B

Paris and Berlin still agree on European strategic autonomy in principle. But when it meets concrete trade-offs on cost, performance and national industry, German actors increasingly go their own way, @RikeFranke writes. wpr.pub/4yz0d0q

Syria is convicting Assad-era officials of war crimes and crimes against humanity in a court created by decree, with no transitional justice law. It seems built for speed over a full accounting, Francisco Serrano writes. wpr.pub/3VTkSyI

MAGA treats durable power as a matter of embedding ideas in a society’s educational institutions, intellectual networks and media. Under Trump, the U.S. is now exporting that approach to promote right-wing populism abroad. wpr.pub/4iw1Hnf

Lawmakers from both parties, 8 in 10 Americans, the U.N., faith leaders, retired generals and troops all objected to livestreaming the Fort Hood shooter’s execution, and Trump backed down. It shows how international norms constrain even the most powerful states. wpr.pub/4yB891h

The exodus of more than 100,000 Karabakh Armenians after Azerbaijan’s 2023 offensive set reconciliation back by at least a generation and set the stage for a new cycle of disputed claims, Laurence Broers writes in a piece we’re highlighting for WPR’s 20th anniversary. wpr.pub/4ys983B

The experiences of Vietnam, Indonesia, Chile, Pakistan and Honduras suggest countries should judge ties with Beijing not by the access they gain to China’s market, but by whether those ties strengthen their own productive capacity, Juan Fernando Herrera Ramos writes. wpr.pub/3WhXHy2

About 70 percent of Ecuador’s power comes from water, and dry conditions have pushed reservoirs to critically low levels weeks before Nov. 29 local elections—and voters may blame President Daniel Noboa for failing to keep the lights on as promised. wpr.pub/47oVN19

Under Trump, the tools Washington once used to promote democracy abroad are now advancing an ethnonationalist agenda instead, Robert Pee writes. wpr.pub/4iw1Hnf

Some say U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream a military execution chipped away at the norm against public executions. Columnist @charlicarpenter argues the opposite. Norms become more powerful, not less, when publicly rearticulated and defended. wpr.pub/4yB891h

For WPR’s 20th anniversary, we’re revisiting Laurence Broers’s analysis: Azerbaijan’s 2023 military takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh ended the conflict over the enclave without resolving what drives it, instead embedding those grievances in new cycles of injustice. wpr.pub/4ys983B

Beijing’s economic relationships can produce remarkably different results depending on the partner governments’ policy frameworks. wpr.pub/3WhXHy2

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa can blame gangs when crime flares, but blackouts are harder, James Bosworth (@bloggingsbyboz) writes. El Niño’s threat was known for months, and less than 10 percent of planned new power generation was online by mid-September. wpr.pub/47oVN19

Deeper trade with China can strengthen a partner country’s productive capacity or create new dependencies—and as Juan Fernando Herrera Ramos writes, which one happens depends on the partner government’s own policies. wpr.pub/3WhXHy2