Lodi Gyari Rinpoche, Dalai Lama’s former Special Envoy, passes away
Lodi Gyari Rinpoche, the former special envoy for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, passed away in the early hours of Monday morning in San Francisco at the age of 69…. Read more »
Author Archives: DemDigest
Blunting the hard edge of China’s ‘Sharp Power’
Faculty members at Cornell University said on Monday that they were cutting ties with a leading Chinese university after reports that it was harassing and intimidating students leading a campaign… Read more »
Latin America braced for ‘Bolsonaro effect.’ How did the unthinkable happen?
Following the crushing victory of right-wing candidate Jair Bolsonaro in Sunday’s runoff presidential election, Brazil’s Latin American neighbors are bracing for a regional “Bolsonaro effect,” AFP reports: The knock-on effect… Read more »
Brazil election means ‘much tougher line’ against ‘Cubazuela’
The victory of the right-wing Jair Bolsonaro in Sunday’s runoff presidential election in Brazil will improve prospects for placing pressure on the authoritarian ‘Cubazuela’ axis, observers suggest. At the very… Read more »
Kleptocratic solidarity: Russia aids Venezuela’s ‘mafia state’
Russia has sent a senior delegation to Venezuela to consult high-ranking government officials on a plan to stem the brutal economic collapse in a key Kremlin ally, Bloomberg reports: Venezuela… Read more »
In ‘an authoritarian era’, how to advance democracy?
There’s a rising angst in foreign policy circles over the status of democracy around the world, CNBC reports. “This is an authoritarian era, all things being equal. Democracy is in… Read more »
Putin’s Russia: emergence of democratic alternative an unlikely scenario?
Authoritarian rule is not imposed on Russians from above but is solicited from below by the people themselves, claims Sergey Karaganov, a former Putin advisor and one of Russia’s leading… Read more »
How to save constitutional democracy
Democracies can collapse or erode beyond repair, but they can also suffer substantial yet “non-fatal” deterioration in the quality of democratic institutions, and then experience a rebound, according to Tom… Read more »
Oxi Courage Awards honor international freedom fighters
Two prominent advocates of freedom and human rights were honored on Thursday at the 8th annual Oxi Day Courage Awards, held at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington DC, notes… Read more »
The big factor at the heart of Middle East protests
In the spring, major protests swept through Jordan over economic grievances and subsidy reforms. In July, protesters took to the streets in the south of Iraq, demanding that the government address persistent unemployment, underdevelopment and corruption, say… Read more »