States of emergency are no longer exceptional. Between 1985 and 2014, at least 137 countries experienced at least one declared state of emergency. Some follow clear and immediate crises — war, pandemics, natural disasters, with about 90% of constitutions worldwide including explicit provisions for states of emergency. Others arise from far more ambiguous threats.
“Emergency powers are meant to be temporary and targeted,” explains Ed Bogan, a former CIA officer with more than two decades of overseas experience. “But more and more, they’re being used to consolidate authority, suppress dissent, and weaken democratic accountability. The warning lights are blinking red right now.”
Bogan is the founder and board chair of the newly launched Institute for the Study of States of Exception (ISSE), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to tracking, analyzing, and exposing the misuse of emergency powers worldwide.
The concept of a “state of exception” refers to moments when normal legal protections are suspended in the name of crisis management. While such measures are embedded in constitutions across the globe, Bogan argues that the real danger lies not in their existence, but in their normalization.
When states of emergency become permanent
We met with Edward Bogan earlier this year in Kyiv, during the Invest in Bravery conference. Bogan is a retired CIA Operations Officer with 24 years of experience in national security and intelligence operations across South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. He served as a two-time Chief of Station and three-time Chief of Base, completing five of his seven PCS assignments in designated war and combat zones, as well as multiple acting leadership roles in countries experiencing active armed conflict.
Bogan’s interest in states of exception began at the intersection of philosophy and law. While studying constitutional structures and contemporary continental philosophy, he encountered the work of Italian thinker Giorgio Agamben, who warned that emergency measures, once exceptional, were becoming permanent features of modern governance.
“That idea stopped being abstract for me during COVID,” Bogan explains. “We saw roughly 180 states of emergency declared around the world, all with different contours. Some were handled responsibly. Others were weaponized.”
For Bogan, the pandemic merely accelerated a trend he had already witnessed during his career abroad. Serving in regions under immense political pressure, South Asia, North Africa, Eastern Europe, he saw how leaders made extraordinary decisions during moments of instability.
“Emergency powers aren’t inherently bad,” he says. “In fact, they’re necessary. The problem is what happens after. Too often, leaders don’t let go.”
How power stretches
Abuse of emergency authority tends to follow two patterns, Bogan explains. In some cases, a real crisis is stretched far beyond its original scope. In others, an emergency is manufactured altogether.
South Korea offers a recent example of the latter. In December of last year, the country’s president declared martial law amid corruption investigations involving himself and his wife. While the constitution allows for such a declaration, the legislature must immediately approve it. The president attempted to block that process. The legislature ultimately rejected the move, and courts later ruled it an abuse of emergency powers.
“That’s the system working,” Bogan says. “But not every country has those safeguards.”
El Salvador illustrates the opposite case. President Nayib Bukele’s state of emergency was declared in response to gang violence in March 2022 and has been extended repeatedly, while efforts to remove presidential term limits move forward.
“That’s how you work the system while you have power,” Bogan says. “You change the rules so you never have to give it back.”
Europe’s democratic stress test
The phenomenon is not limited to the Global South. In Europe, Bogan points to Hungary as a cautionary tale. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán used migration flows following the Arab Spring to declare a state of emergency, and has largely governed under it ever since.
“It’s not autocracy overnight,” Bogan says. “It happens gradually.”
Turkey follows a similar trajectory, he tells me. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan responded to genuine crises with emergency measures, then used them to restructure political institutions, reduce accountability, and ensure long-term control.
“This isn’t a light switch,” Bogan emphasizes. “Countries exist on a spectrum. What matters is whether they resolve emergencies and return to the rule of law, or slide further away from it.”
A systematic approach to executive power in crisis
There isn’t one single, perfect global dataset for “states of exception” (because countries define and publish emergencies differently), but there are several strong datasets. (For example, these include the ICNL COVID-19 Civic Freedom Tracker, the Lex-Atlas Emergency Powers Dataset, and academic datasets such as Bjørnskov et al.’s “Unconstitutional States of Emergency” dataset.)
That spectrum is exactly what ISSE aims to track; formally declared states of emergency, prolonged ones, and informally maintained emergency powers. The institute is built around three core pillars: monitoring, research, and public engagement. Its work will range from curating interdisciplinary scholarship and hosting conferences to drafting model laws and filing amicus briefs in key court cases.
One of ISSE’s flagship projects will be a country-by-country scorecard assessing how emergency powers are used, and abused, across jurisdictions. The institute also plans to release an annual “State of the World” report examining democratic resilience and executive overreach.
“We want a methodology that’s transparent, defensible, and comparable across time and geography,” Bogan says. “And we want people to actually look forward to these reports, like they do with the Freedom House Index, because they can feel something is wrong.”
The United States is not immune
ISSE’s launch comes amid growing debate over emergency powers in the United States. Bogan stresses that the institute was not created in response to any single administration. But the trend is unmistakable.
“Over the last four or five presidents, emergency powers have been used more frequently than ever,” he notes. “Partly because Congress is so dysfunctional.”
Recent Supreme Court rulings, including those invoking the “major questions doctrine”, signal growing judicial concern over executive overreach. Future decisions, particularly those involving national security and trade, may further define the limits of emergency authority.
“These are foundational questions,” Bogan says. “If we get this wrong, the system collapses. If we get it right, the system can bend without breaking.”
Ukraine: A necessary exception
Ukraine presents a different case. The country has been under martial law since Russia’s full-scale invasion, suspending elections and concentrating power in the executive. Bogan argues that the circumstances justify extraordinary measures.
“A country under occupation can’t make fully free choices,” he says. “That doesn’t mean everything is beyond scrutiny, but it does mean context matters.”
Beyond research, Bogan remains deeply involved in Ukraine through defense technology and strategic coordination. He frequently travels to the country, connecting companies, investors, and capabilities to strengthen Ukraine’s ability to defend itself.
“Early on, people said the war would be over in three days,” he recalls. “That was based on flawed assessments of Russian capabilities. Corruption hollowed out what looked powerful on paper.”
Building a global platform
ISSE is intentionally global in scope. Its team spans continents, and its work is designed to bring academics, lawyers, policymakers, journalists, and affected communities into conversation.
“This won’t work if it’s only theoretical,” Bogan says. “And it won’t work if it’s only practical. We need dialogue between people who study power and people who wield it.”
For now, much of the institute’s work is volunteer-driven. Bogan hopes that sustained fundraising will allow ISSE to support paid research positions, fellowships, and global conferences beginning in 2026.
“We’re building the plane while we’re flying it,” he says.
“But this issue is too urgent to wait. The question isn’t whether emergencies will happen. It’s whether we allow them to permanently redefine how power works, ” explains Bogan.
