Invisible Nation: How to Fight Authoritarianism. Disinformation, repression, and geopolitical influence are spreading rapidly. Regimes like Russia, China, and Iran exploit media and control resources, trade, and social networks. They coordinate across strategic areas of vulnerability, while democracies compartmentalize foreign policy by region or issue. Furthermore, autocracies’ tools: corruption, kleptocracy and disinformation work in a system where oligarchs use Western legal/financial systems to launder money and buy influence. These tactics destabilize democracies from within, fueling far-right populism, xenophobia, structural racism, and white and male supremacy. INVISIBLE NATION shows practical and effective strategies used in Taiwan for pushing back against authoritarian influence from coalition building, and the role of civil society, and social justice, to how international alliances can support nations on the frontlines of defense against authoritarianism. The speakers will be announced soon.

Watch the film in advance (11/5-11/16) and join us for a live panel on 11/16, 7pm ET.

About Invisible Nation: Unprecedented access to Taiwan’s first female president, Tsai Ing-wen, centers this portrait of the constantly colonized island, as it struggles to preserve its hard-won democracy, autonomy, and freedom from fear of authoritarian aggression. Thorough, incisive, and bristling with tension, Invisible Nation is a living account of Tsai’s tightrope walk as she balances the hopes and dreams of her nation between the colossal geopolitical forces of the U.S. and China. Invisible Nation captures Tsai at work in her country’s vibrant democracy, while seeking full international recognition of Taiwan’s right to exist. At a time when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has demonstrated the ever-present threat of authoritarian aggression around the world, Invisible Nation brings a punctual focus to the struggles of Taiwan.

Speakers:

Vanessa Hope (Director of Invisible Nation). Vanessa Hope is an award-winning producer and director who has produced multiple acclaimed films in China including Berlin International Film Festival selection, Wang Quanan's The Story Of Ermei and Cannes Film Festival selection, Chantal Akerman's Tombee De Nuit Sur Shanghai, part of an omnibus of films, The State Of The World. She has also directed and produced several doc shorts, including China In Three Words, an official selection at DOC NYC. Hope made her directorial feature debut with the documentary All Eyes and Ears, an exploration of the complex links between the U.S. and China featuring former President Obama’s US Ambassador to China and premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Scot Nakagawa is the co-founder and Executive Director of 22nd Century Initiative and has served as an organizer, political strategist, and social movement analyst in the struggle against authoritarianism and for equitable and inclusive democracy since 1988. He has worked with organizations such as the Coalition for Human Dignity, the National Anti-Klan Network, the National LGBTQ Task Force, the Highlander Research and Education Center, and numerous political campaigns to limit the power and influence of racist, antisemitic, patriarchal, and religious fundamentalist leaders and groups. He is a writer whose essays can be found online in The Anti-Authoritarian Playbook on Substack. 

Dr. Van Jackson is an associate professor of international relations at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, a senior non-resident fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington, DC, and a senior research adviser at the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Nonproliferation & Disarmament. He specializes in the class politics of geopolitics, peace studies, and East Asian and Pacific security. Jackson writes the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter, hosts The Un-Diplomatic Podcast, and co-hosts The Bang-Bang Podcast--an anti-imperialist show about war movies and political thrillers. He is the author of five books, including The Rivalry Peril: How Great-Power Competition Threatens Peace and Weakens Democracy (2025, with Michael Brenes), Grand Strategies of the Left: The Foreign Policy of Progressive Worldmaking (2024), and Pacific Power Paradox: American Statecraft and the Fate of the Asian Peace (2023). His writing has been featured in wide-ranging outlets, including The Nation, New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Dissent Magazine, Jacobin, and Current Affairs. 

Catherine Chou is an assistant professor of world history at National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan. With Mark Harrison, she is the co-author of Revolutionary Taiwan: Making Nationhood in a Changing World Order (Cambria Press, 2024).