The search for proper solutions begins with a clear understanding of the nature of the problem. As one of the three inaugural awardees of the Fulbright Finland Foundation’s Seeking Solutions for Global Challenges Award, and the first awardee on the ground in 2021, I was mindful of the need to have a clear understanding of the problem that brought me to the University of Helsinki: What accounts for the erosion of liberal democracy around the world? As Sweden’s V-Dem democracy research institute at the University of Gothenburg notes in its Democracies Report 2021, “The level of democracy enjoyed by the average global citizen in 2020 is down to levels last found around 1990.”
To address this question, I worked with Professor Kaius Tuori, director of the Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narrative (EuroStorie CoE) at the University of Helsinki. Professor Tuori is himself a Fulbright Finland alum (New York University, 2007).