AHS Comparative Government

On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning the use of internet proxy servers in Russia. The law is designed to prevent Russians from accessing material on the internet that is banned in the country, including content that the Russian government regards as politically "extremist." The same day, Putin signed a new law designed to prevent Russians from using messaging applications anonymously: beginning in January, messaging application operators will have to establish the identities of the people who use their applications:

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-putin-signs-vpn-law-internet/28648976.html

Russia's crackdown on proxy servers, including virtual private networks (VPNs), follows similar efforts in China to prevent internet users from accessing materials banned in China. (The Chinese government's censorship of the internet is far broader than the Russian government's: such sites as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the BBC are frequently off-limits, while both Facebook and Google are banned entirely.) China also requires SIM card purchasers to show identification, in an effort to prevent untraceable telephone texting.

Russia's rural villages  -- long regarded as the soul of the country -- are slowly disappearing. The country's population is falling; over the next 35 years, the population is expected to shrink by more than ten percent. Moreover, young Russians are leaving the countryside for better economic opportunities in Russia's cities:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/29/world/europe/russia-population-changes.html?ref=todayspaper

Mexico has seen a dramatic increase this year in the number of asylum requests from Central American refugees:

https://www.economist.com/news/americas/21725601-donald-trump-hardens-united-states-border-more-asylum-seekers-opt-stay

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari spent seven weeks in London at the beginning of the year, where he was treated for an undisclosed illness. In May, Buhari returned to London for further treatment; he has not been in Nigeria since. Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo is acting in President Buhari's stead; he claims to consult regularly with Buhari, and insists that Buhari will return to Nigeria soon.

Only seven years ago, another Nigerian President, Umaru Yar'Adua, died in office after a prolonged sojourn in Saudi Arabia for medical treatment. With that experience in mind, senior Nigerian politicians are jostling for position -- just in case:

https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21725289-muhammadu-buhari-has-been-absent-london-clinic-months-would-be-successors

Until last week, Mexico City had been spared the large-scale violence that has accompanied the Mexican government's decade-long war on narco-trafficking. Indeed, the city's Mayor, Miguel Angel Mancera, had even claimed that the country's drug gangs do not operate in the capital. Last Thursday, however, 1300 police officers and marines battled drug traffickers in a midday Mexico City firefight. Eight suspected gangsters were killed:

http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-mexico-shootout-20170721-story.html

The island of Ireland was partitioned in the 1920s: six northeastern counties, known as Northern Ireland, remained part of the United Kingdom while the other 26 counties (now known as the Republic of Ireland) gained their independence from the United Kingdom. From 1969 to 1999, political violence flared in Northern Ireland between "nationalist" paramilitary groups (such as the Irish Republican Army) that wanted Northern Ireland to secede from the United Kingdom and join the Republic of Ireland, and "unionist" paramilitary groups (such as the Ulster Protestant Volunteers) that favored continued Northern Irish union with Great Britain in the United Kingdom. The "Troubles" claimed over 3500 lives (in a region of fewer than 2 million people); they ended (for the most part) with the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

The Good Friday Agreement was possible largely because both the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland were members of the European Union. This meant that  goods, services and people could move freely between the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, without inspections or passport formalities -- at least they could once the violence stopped. Indeed, people from the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom had the right to live and work in both countries -- and everywhere else in the European Union, for that matter. Finally, whether Northern Ireland was part of the United Kingdom or part of the Republic of Ireland seemed to matter less in an era in which all of the countries in Europe were transferring more and more of their sovereignty (i.e., final control over what goes on inside their borders) to a continent-wide political entity.

Brexit changes this status quo dramatically: Britain will leave the European Union in less than two years, while the Republic of Ireland will remain a member. Brexit raises the possibility that a "real" border -- with passport controls and customs inspections -- will be established between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This would not only outrage nationalists, it would frustrate nationalists and unionists in Northern Ireland whose livelihoods depend on the rapid movement of goods between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Brexit thus threatens the Northern Irish peace process, and the prosperity of Northern Ireland. (Brexit makes no economic sense for the rest of the UK, either; it's also bad news for the Republic of Ireland.) Earlier this month, The Economist looked at the issues involved in some detail:

https://www.economist.com/news/britain/21725012-nobody-wants-hard-border-which-might-include-passport-and-customs-controls-yet-there-no

Several agencies of the Mexican government have purchased a spyware program called Pegasus from its Israeli manufacturer. The spyware is supposed to be used only against suspected criminals, and only when a search warrant has been issued by a Mexican court. Earlier this year, however, the software turned up on the smartphones of leading critics of the government, including human rights advocates and journalists. Predictably, the revelation that someone in the Mexican government is spying illegally on dissidents provoked outrage:

https://www.economist.com/news/americas/21723889-investigation-finds-spyware-phones-journalists-and-activists-mexicos-government