Defending Democracy in an Age of Sharp Power

Building on the NED's 2017 Sharp Power report, this edited volume from Johns Hopkins University Press brings together scholars, journalists, and practitioners to examine how democracies can defend themselves against authoritarian sharp power operations. The contributors address the full spectrum of sharp power vectors — media manipulation, academic interference, civil society penetration, diaspora coercion, and the exploitation of democratic legal and political processes — and the institutional, legal, and normative responses that have proved most effective.

The volume is authoritative and practically oriented, with contributions from some of the most respected names in the field including Larry Diamond, Anne Applebaum, and Christopher Walker himself. For practitioners advising governments or institutions on resilience against foreign interference, this is one of the most comprehensive and policy-relevant resources available. The comparative perspective — drawing on cases from Europe, the Americas, and the Asia-Pacific — makes it more useful than accounts focused on a single country or threat actor. The fact that it emerged from the Journal of Democracy editorial community gives it particular credibility in policy circles.