Jordan Ryan

When Destruction Becomes Policy: What the Munich Security Report Reveals About the Future of Global Governance | Toda Peace Institute The Munich Security Report 2026, released ahead of this year’s conference, offers a diagnosis that should concern anyone invested in rules-based international order. ,

Power without constraint is becoming a doctrine. In Washington, withdrawal and defunding are framed as strength. The 2026 Munich Security Report shows the cost: weakened institutions and multiplied risk. My latest analysis for Toda.

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When GDP dominates policy, other risks go undercounted: inequality, ecological stress, institutional fragility. These are not side effects; they are drivers of instability. My new @TodaInstitute brief examines why metrics matter for peace. toda.org/assets/files...

The deaths of Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti mark the moment when the language of “domestic terrorism” displaced due process.

After Degradation maps a roadmap for democratic repair — because degradation now has a body count.
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Democratic erosion does not announce itself as collapse. It advances as normalization — until it kills people.

The 2026 US midterms will test whether the decentralised structure of American election administration can withstand coordinated federal pressure. My latest policy brief for the Toda Peace Institute analyses the challenges and offers recommendations.

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Middle Powers After Davos | Toda Peace Institute At the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a speech that cut against the prevailing diplomatic instinct to soften uncomfortable truths. ,

Davos 2026 marked a shift. Rules never stopped great powers, but they once shaped how power was exercised. Mark Carney warned against pretending this still holds. Middle powers now face a choice over how the UN is used or sidelined. Delay will not preserve legitimacy.

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Peace built by deal-making risks becoming peace without legitimacy. In today’s Global Outlook 2026 piece, I dissect the strategic risks of commercialized peace architectures. Full text: toda.org/global-outlook/…

The UN’s Withering Vine: A US Retreat from Global Governance | Toda Peace Institute The Trump administration’s recent announcement of its withdrawal from 66 international organisations has been met with a mixture of alarm and applause. While the headline number suggests a dramatic r...

The US is withdrawing from 66 international organisations — not leaving the UN, but hollowing out multilateral cooperation. What this means for global governance: toda.org/global-outlook/2026/the-uns-withering-vine-a-us-retreat-from-global-governance.html

Digital polarisation isn’t just degrading debate—it’s eroding the human capacities democracy depends on.

New Toda Peace Institute policy brief argues for governing platforms around democratic capacity—attention, agency, belonging—not just content or speech.

The Danger of a Transactional Worldview | Toda Peace Institute On December 4, the Trump administration released its 2025 National Security Strategy, the document articulating America's approach to global security. ,

The 2025 U.S. security strategy treats peace as something to be brokered fast, flipped, and showcased.
History tells a different story: durable peace requires governance, inclusion, and patience.
My analysis for Toda: toda.org/global-outlo...

Trump Renames Institute of Peace for Himself

In the spirit of efficiency and winning, the Trump administration has renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace after the President.

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/u...

A modest proposal follows. 🧵

Digital Polarisation and the Future of Peace: Why Governance Must Catch Up With Power | Toda Peace Institute Democracy today is at a critical juncture. Political systems worldwide face pressures that once would have been extraordinary: accelerating authoritarianism, deepening civic fragmentation, and collaps...

The dynamics of digital polarisation are now central to understanding conflict, fragility and the erosion of public trust. This article for Toda maps structural forces inside today’s information systems and assesses their implications for peace and democratic integrity.
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The New Fragility: Peacebuilding Meets Digital Democracy | Toda Peace Institute Established democracies are exhibiting governance stresses that were once associated primarily with fragile and conflict-affected states. Polarisation is weakening institutional trust, fragmenting civ...

Democratic fragility is rising. Tech alone won’t fix it. Peacebuilding lessons can. My latest for Toda

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Opinion | Are We Losing Our Democracy? Donald Trump has wielded power as no previous president has.

Are We Losing Our Democracy? www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

When governments step back, people step up.
Help @KarunaPeace keep community-led peacebuilding alive—from Nigeria to Massachusetts.

Every contribution matters. 💙

👉 karunacenter.org/donate

#Peacebuilding #KarunaCenter #ActForPeace

The Empire Has No Clothes: America's Democratic Sermons and the Authoritarian Boomerang | Toda Peace Institute In 2025, a startling spectacle emerges: the nation that proclaimed itself democracy's global arbiter now displays the very symptoms of authoritarianism it once denounced.,

For decades, the U.S. preached democracy to the world—while subverting it abroad. Now the tools it once used overseas are being turned inward.

The Empire Has No Clothes: America's Democratic Sermons and the Authoritarian Boomerang | Toda Peace Institute toda.org/global-outlo...

Why the UN Needs a Charter Conversation, Not More Power Struggles - PassBlue Why the UN Needs a Charter Conversation, Not More Power Struggles - PassBlue

Why is the United Nations’s founding Charter more than a historical document? In our new PassBlue essay we argue that at 80 its core constitutional principles must guide reform — not mere power-bargaining. Read here:

passblue.com/2025/10/23/w...

Opinion | The U.N. Shouldn’t Give Up on Its Carbon Tax The IMO understands the urgency of the moment while the U.S. dithers.

My letter in today’s Wall Street Journal: the UN shouldn’t abandon its carbon tax on shipping. Climate policy needs resolve, not retreat. Global coordination must not yield to populist pressure. www.wsj.com/opinion/the-...

Letters: The U.N. Shouldn’t Give Up on Its Carbon Tax

Happy No Kings Day

From Reform to Retreat: How the US Is Rewriting Multilateralism - IPI Global Observatory Jordan Ryan on how the US has turned “reform” into retreat, reshaping multilateralism itself.

The U.S. is rewriting multilateralism — but does “reform” now mean “retreat”? In this new piece from IPI’s Global Observatory, I examine a pivotal shift in American diplomacy and its implications for global governance.
Read more:

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When law is used to punish rather than protect, democracy quietly unravels.

My new Toda policy brief, Weaponisation of Law: Assault on Democracy, exposes how governments—democratic and authoritarian alike—are twisting legality into a tool of control.

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Creativity — and tension — in push-pull of freedom and limits - The Boston Globe A complete meditation on freedom and limits must grapple with actors who seek to exempt themselves from constraints they impose on others.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/28/o...

Opinion | Trump at the U.N.: A Bitter Display

My letter to the editor on Trump’s performance at the UN

Trump at the U.N.: A Bitter Display www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/o...

The UN’s Coherence Paradox: Why the UN80 Reforms Are Not Enough - IPI Global Observatory Today’s global challenges—including climate shocks, geopolitical conflicts, mass displacement, and the rapid spread of disruptive technologies—are more interconnected than at any point in the UN’s his...

The UN’s 80th-anniversary reforms call for a “paradigm shift.”
But can you shift a system with no coherent center?

My new essay argues that without hard levers—financing, integration, leadership—“Shifting Paradigms” falls short.

👉 Read here:

theglobalobservatory.org/2025/09/why-...

From Words to Violence: Countering Extremist Rhetoric in Democratic Societies | Toda Peace Institute This policy brief examines how sophisticated rhetorical strategies—combining overt divisive messaging with coded extremist language—operate across multiple communication levels to legitimise violence ...

How do words turn into violence? 🗣️
Toda Peace Institute’s new brief shows how extremist rhetoric uses both overt messages and coded language to weaken democratic norms — and why fact-checking alone isn’t enough. Collective action is critical. Read more: toda.org/policy-brief...

A Vicious Spiral: Political Violence in Fragile Democracies | Toda Peace Institute The assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in the United States on 10 September 2025 signals a renewed threat to democratic stability in the United States and beyond. , i

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US Bars Palestinian Delegation: A Dangerous Precedent for UN Universality | Toda Peace Institute While past exclusions of entry to the US targeted individuals, the revoking of visas—directed at an entire visiting leadership delegation from the PA and PLO—is without precedent in UN history., i

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Opinion | Kofi Annan’s Legacy (Published 2018)

A memory of Kofi Annan

Kofi Annan’s Legacy www.nytimes.com/2018/08/20/o...