This forum critically reflects on the democracy support agenda and its future in light of the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the decline of Western political and normative dominance, and overall global democratic backsliding. Posing four topical questions to five leading scholars in the field—from Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia—it finds that these wars appear systemic in the sense that they sharpen already existing crises in world order. They have evidenced a structural weakness in the international liberal order (ILO): the West's selective adherence to and application of key principles of this order, effectively undermining Western credibility, influence, and its capacity to maintain the ILO and to promote democracy globally. They have also intensified practices of competitive norms promotion at the global level, with Russian norms promotion in particular scoring some successes in South America, North Africa, and Southeast Asia. This is taking place to the backdrop of multipolarity, which has led to greater strategic autonomy for states outside of the West, including in their responses to democracy promotion attempts. Taken together, these phenomena have allowed autocratic tendencies to gain strength globally, from the Mediterranean to Southeast Asia to Europe and the Americas. At the same time, democracy is also becoming more locally and regionally driven and diverse and might thus possibly become more resilient. In this new world in the making, Western democracy supporters will need to become mindful of the historical legacies of colonialism, their own internal problems with democracy, and stark normative inconsistencies of their policies—if the agenda should be kept. They will need to respect the unique historical and cultural contexts that have shaped democracies around the world and become more humble, inclusive, and dialogic with non-Western democratic middle powers such as South Africa and Brazil.

The WUB-hub project organised a book launch in London as part of the annual conference of Belarusian Studies in the XXI century. The book The Unbroken Generation: Youth Voices of Belarus 2020, a collection of student essays describing their experiences of being imprisoned during Belarus's political protests in 2020, was presented by Professor Elena Korosteleva, along with with Dr Paul Hanbury, Yahor Azarkevich and Ihar Ivanou, from Skaryna Press. The volume edited by Professors Victor Shadurski and Elena Korosteleva, was supported financially by the WUB-hub project, and was warmly received at the conference.

Details of the book can been found on the Skaryna Press website here. You can also download a free PDF version from the publisher's website.

Warwick Research Culture: Research Celebration 2025 – Congratulations to Professor Elena Korosteleva and Dr Paul Hansbury

Elena and Paul have been honoured with a “Highly Commended” award for establishing the Warwick Ukraine-Belarus Hub, which employs interdisciplinary insights to advance policy recommendations and support stakeholder interaction. Under Elena’s and Paul's leadership, the Hub has improved understanding of Belarus-Ukraine relations through higher-level webinars, targeted policy briefs, podcasts, film screenings and debates, and two international conferences at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Whitehall. The WUB-hub also raised awareness and offered policy advice to the UK FCDO, the EU institutions (EEAS, EU Parliament and Commission), NATO PPD, and established collaborations towards the European Belarus Forum, and its key stakeholders.

Further details here: Warwick Research Celebration 2025 Winners

Professor Korosteleva was interviewed by the Monocle Daily to talk about complex geopolitics of the world, and the challenges it poses to sustainability and international order.

Warwick's Sustainability Training Academy (STA) in Venice (WVC) has now come to a close, but what an event it was bringing together 21 ECRs from 13 countries, to share and develop their creative skills, and engage with critical theories and interdisciplinary methods! Blue skies, organic food from Sant'Erasmo farm, and new CA'Foscari friends; amazing cookies from Chiara at WVC and loads of pasta, pizza and aperol spritz - what else you could wish for!! All of these however was made so special and possible by the whole bunch of people and we at IGSD are indebted to them - Prof Harini Nagendra, Dr Bryan Brazeau, Dr Harriet Richmond, Dr Adela Glyn-Davies, Nargiz Ismayilova, Dr Anar Valiyev, and Dr Fariz Ismailzade!

We are also immensely fortunate to gather such a fantastic group of ECRs, and we hope to keep in touch with every single one of them! We are also grateful to our former ECR @TieazaSantos from NASA Open Science, for sharing NASA learning resources with us, and to everyone who made this STA a success, including the support from Warwick's Sustainability Spotlight and COP29 Scientific Council Azerbaijan. Watch the space for 2026!