Identifying sources of democratic resilience and renewal
Authoritarianism has reemerged as the greatest threat to the liberal democratic world, and we have no idea how to confront it, Robert Kagan wrote in the first edition of The… Read more »
Arab Spring: the sequel?
The mantra of the Arab Spring is back. Protesters in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and the Palestinian territories [and Sudan] have demanded better governance of late, prompting talk of… Read more »
What’s at stake in Ukraine’s election?
Ukraine votes for a president on March 31. Will the pro-Western incumbent, Petro Poroshenko, win? Or will he lose to his old foe, Yulia Tymoshenko, or wild card Volodymyr Zelenskiy?… Read more »
Will China’s plan for global supremacy spark a new Cold War? Not quite
Institutions of higher learning around the world should resist the Chinese government’s efforts to undermine academic freedom abroad, Human Rights Watch said today. On March 21, 2019, Human Rights Watch published a… Read more »
The New Normal? From non-state actors to ‘terrorist governors’
The Venezuelan regime’s mobilization of violent colectivo gangs against opposition protesters is only the latest instance of authoritarian regimes orchestrating illiberal non-state actors to counter democratic forces. Some non-state actors… Read more »
Time to ‘double down’ on consolidating Iraqi democracy
Iraqis need to consolidate their democracy and eliminate the deficiencies in its foundation and framework, argues Dr. Abbas Kadhim, Senior Fellow and Director of the Iraq Initiative at the Atlantic… Read more »
‘Clear strategy’ needed to end Venezuela’s prolonged power struggle
The chief of staff of opposition leader Juan Guaidó was detained in a pre-dawn raid on his home by Venezuela’s intelligence forces, igniting a new flash point in the U.S.-backed… Read more »
Oligarchs ‘suffocating’ Eastern Europe’s democracies
Days before the hotly contested Ukrainian presidential election on March 31, incumbent Petro Poroshenko’s party faces credible allegations of voter bribery, notes Mikheil Saakashvili, president of Georgia from 2004 until 2013…. Read more »
Middle East’s ‘distasteful theocracies’ under fire for rights abuses
The prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh’s draconian sentence for her peaceful activism shows the threat posed by Iran’s revolutionary courts to human rights work, the Center for Human… Read more »
‘Soft Power Superpowers’: the powers of attraction
Real democracy perhaps requires no written constitution, argues Simon Critchley, a professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research and the author of “What We Think About When… Read more »