The Big Idea
The Playbook
The Playbook uncovers the hidden patterns that are reshaping our world.
From Russia to Hungary, India to Georgia, Coda has tracked how powerful people follow eerily similar steps to change the rules of the game.
Now, as Americans ask “What’s coming next?”, we offer a simple answer: look at what’s already happened elsewhere.
The blueprint is hiding in plain sight—if we know where to look. We’ve seen this movie before—but we don’t know how it ends.
The Shadow Puppet: A Russian’s Warning about Trump
The US president is not a Kremlin asset. But Americans beware, he and Vladimir Putin are different expressions of the same worldview
How the West lost the war it thought it had won
On the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has reason to celebrate. He has scripted a new ending to the Cold War by exploiting the gap between Western democratic ideals and their practice
Confessions of a (former) Russian state TV reporter
After working for Kremlin TV, a Russian reporter explains how the state turns journalists into propagandists
The Orbán precedent
Donald Trump has studied the playbook of his favorite European leader. All Americans should, to see what happens when a country elects an authoritarian
Trump admires a lot of authoritarians. Viktor Orbán is special
Trump endorsed the Hungarian prime minister. Orbán has more in common with the GOP than you might think
How to find your voice when you are being silenced
Resisting authoritarianism is about remaining engaged, remaining receptive and, above all, not turning away
Erasing August: How Russia Rewrites Georgia’s Story
On the anniversary of Russia’s 2008 invasion of Georgia, an increasingly autocratic Georgian government toes the Kremlin line, blaming its predecessors for “instigating” war
A Message from a Budding Autocracy
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgians embraced democracy. But a new generation, faced with the return of authoritarian rule, find themselves fighting for their freedoms .
The demolition of dissent in India
Bulldozers, symbols of unchecked state power, are being celebrated in Indian popular culture. And the ‘Bulldozer Baba’ in Uttar Pradesh is becoming India’s favorite Hindu nationalist politician
Putin’s playbook: Strongmen around the world are using Russian tactics to quell dissent
Leaders from Nicaragua to Egypt are using “foreign agent” laws to target overseas-backed NGOs and media
How Democracies Die: The Script for a Three-Act Play
In Trump’s America, the plot is starting to seem all too familiar
The Age of Broligarchy
The U.S. Election result marks the start of a new era in global politics. We’re calling it Broligarchy
The Alaska Spectacle and the War on Memory
Trump’s Alaska summit was more than diplomatic theater, it exposed how authoritarians weaponize our collective amnesia to reshape narratives and seize control
Why Florida’s new university restrictions are ‘straight out of the global authoritarian playbook’
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis just unveiled a sweeping plan to overhaul the state’s public university system. If enacted, it could become the most extreme set of higher education restrictions in the country
I’m trans, and in 2016 I voted for Donald Trump. Now I want to leave the country
As Donald Trump tries to effectively prevent trans people from participating in public life – most recently asking the Supreme Court to reinstate a ban on trans troops – it’s difficult to imagine that he might have any supporters at all who identify as trans. But they exist. In March 2018, as a graduate student
Imagining the unimaginable annexation of Alberta
Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea showed how spreading a narrative can erode sovereignty before any force is necessary: framing borders as conditional and natural resources as rightfully belonging to the powerful. Is America now doing something similar to its closest ally?