“I knew that they had been doing very good work, but I admit I was amazed and impressed when I saw with my own eyes the progress they have made,” said Atlas Network’s Dr. Tom Palmer, who celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the Afghanistan Economic and Legal Studies Organization (AELSO) in Kabul. 

“In 1979, Fouad Ajami wrote that Egypt finds herself between her ‘pride and place, between her limited material resources and her unbounded psychological esteem for herself, between her old glory and her current poverty,’ Forty years later, Egyptians are still immersed in the same contrast, and their struggle to leave poverty is still evident,” writes Mahmoud Farouk, founder and board member of the Egyptian Center for Public Policy Studies, in this widely-read analysis of Egypt’s economic and political struggles.

Whoever holds the reins of political power often determines the narrative that drives public policy change. In Unmasked: López Obrador and the End of Make-Believe, Luis Rubio of Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute takes on the problems of corruption, insecurity, violence, and economic instability that have plagued Mexican politics for decades and emerges with a hopeful set of alternatives that could impact the country’s future. 

Although South Sudan has adopted legal protections that explicitly recognize the rights of women, laws are often ignored in isolated areas of the country—especially laws that ensure women's right to own land. For most women, a lack of knowledge and entrenched discrimination has kept them from changing their lives for the better. Students’ Organization for Liberty and Entrepreneurship (SOLE) is helping to lay the foundations for change in a system that continues to push women out of home ownership.

Excessive government spending has been a hot topic in Argentina since Fundación Libertad launched a creative public awareness campaign that revealed the extent of government waste. The campaign left politicians no room to justify additional government spending on their own salaries. Now, Argentina’s congress has frozen salaries for at least 180 days.

CapX, the media arm of the Centre for Policy Studies, has published an interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Anne Applebaum about the rapidly evolving politics of Eastern Europe. The interview is one in a series of essays, podcasts, and interviews on the theme of Illiberalism in Europe. CapX has also released a new e-book that introduces readers to the different forms of illiberalism.

On October 17, 2019, hundreds of people flooded the streets of major cities in Lebanon, blocking traffic and protesting the government. The demonstrators demanded the immediate resignation of all elected officials, including the president, prime minister, and parliament—all of whom they deemed to be corrupt. 
The Lebanese Institute for Market Studies (LIMS) is working to create a path out of turmoil by defusing economic tension. Atlas Network’s Erik Eppig was on the ground for an event LIMS held for protesters, and he details the think tank’s blueprint for positive change.

Since the U.S. Bureau of Land Management implemented an adoption incentive program recommended by The Property and Environment Research Center in 2019, adoptions of wild horses have increased 62 percent. The incentive program offers $1,000 to help cover the cost, training, and caring of these animals that have overpopulated the American West in recent years.

In Finland, civil society organizations and think tanks receive a bulk of their funding from what Lasse Pipinen, CEO of Libera Foundation, calls the “state lottery and gambling monopoly.” Libera’s new database highlights government involvement in these organizations and illustrates why state-funded think tanks are intellectually compromised. 

Created to reach a younger audience, “Bakoel Kosong” (Empty Bowl), is a humorous short film created by the Center for Indonesian Policy Studies in collaboration with the Cameo Project that explains how trade restrictions cause higher food prices, especially for those in poverty.