COMPASS Research Center

The Center for Democratic Advancement & Systemic Studies Research center- COMPASS - operationalizes the first pillar through predictive threat modeling and policy prototyping. Building on interdisciplinary frameworks, COMPASS synthesizes insights from hybrid warfare, economic statecraft, and digital ethnography.

 

The Center aims to provide policy makers with reliable alternatives and evidence-based policy prescriptions for good governance and integrity in public life. The Centre also undertakes applied policy research that supports the rule of law, peace-making, and conflict management as instruments of national and regional governance.

Mission

To illuminate pathways toward resilient, inclusive democracy in environments threatened by necropolitical and authoritarian governance, with a focus on foreign US politics, the Middle East and sub-saharan Africa - in particular South Africa and the Horn.

It uses comparative analysis, system-level innovation, and evidence-based policy interventions.

Focus areas

  • Practice of governance and Statecraft – mapping of regional governance trends
  • Corruption, society, and governance – conflict management, peace-making, and the rule of law
  • Democratic institutional architecture and constitutional design
  • Electoral system integrity and participatory mechanisms
  • Civic space preservation and civil society resilience
  • Democratic responses to authoritarianism and hybrid regimes
  • Technology impact on democratic processes and institutions

Key Functions

  • Refreshing the practice of governance and statecraft by tracking trends and analyzing events
  • Conducting longitudinal studies of democratic transitions and consolidation
  • Developing metrics and indices to assess democratic health tailored to subsaharan reality
  • Formulating policy prescriptions to strengthen democratic institutions
  • Producing policy toolkits for constitutional and electoral reforms
  • Producing evidence-based analyses of democratic backsliding
  • Monitoring the influence of external actors (e.g.) Qatar on governance and political transitions

  • Democratic Institutions Division

    This division analyzes the structural elements of democracies (separation of powers, checks and balances, accountability, hybrid regime responses). It studies the dismantling/resilience of parliamentary judiciaries, local councils, tracks state capture

  • Governance Innovation Division

    Dedicated to developing novel approaches to democratic governance challenges, this division explores innovations that enhance institutional performance and democratic responsiveness

  • Electoral Systems & Integrity Division

    This division focuses on electoral processes, manipulation, disenfranchisement, and external interference, with a special lens on the impact of Middle Eastern actors in subsaharan elections

  • Civic Engagement & Participation Division

    This division examines civil society resilience and the participation in democratic governance, including deliberative democracy innovations, and the participation of marginalized communities.

The Myth of Strategic Success : A Critical Analysis of US Regime Change (1979-2025)

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Research Projects

Participate Necropolitics Explore Self-Determination South Africa