Middle Eastern countries have seen a “drastic” rise in their perceived level of corruption in the past year, according to analysis by Transparency International, The Financial Times reports: Qatar, Kuwait,… Read more »
There are two paths of democratic decay – authoritarian reversion and constitutional retrogression, according to the University of Chicago’s Aziz Huq and Tom Ginsburg: A reversion is a rapid and… Read more »
After years in jail as a dissident under communism, Adam Michnik took part in the groundbreaking 1989 Round Table talks that brought semi-free elections to Poland and helped bring down… Read more »
Unlike neighboring Arab Spring states that have been consumed by violent extremism, civil war and resurgent authoritarianism, Tunisia actually managed to build a vibrant democracy. A new poll from the International Republican… Read more »
The Azerbaijan authorities should release 18 people, including a prominent religious scholar and a leading political opposition activist, who were wrongly convicted and sentenced to long prison sentences on January… Read more »
The argument for liberalism and democracy has rested on economic success. More wealth for more people has been generated in societies calling themselves liberal, democratic, and capitalist, notes Zachary Karabell,… Read more »
The ideology underpinning the Iranian-led axis of resistance in the Middle East has evolved, according to Harvard analysts Payam Mohseni and Hussein Kalout. From a primarily state-centered enterprise, it has… Read more »
Proposals to proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood are raising questions about appropriate strategies to counter violent extremism, The Wall Street Journal reports: Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in particular, is a strong supporter… Read more »
Countries riven with corruption and inequality that turn to populist leaders to solve crises often see their problems get worse, according to the latest edition of an annual index of… Read more »
External challenges to the liberal world order from Russia and China and continuing weakness and fracturing from within are likely to feed on each other, says a leading analyst. The… Read more »