Author Archives: DemDigest
Cuban hard-liners cast shadow on Trudeau visit
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is heading to Cuba Tuesday as part of a three-country tour that will also take him to Argentina and Peru, where an APEC summit is being held,… Read more »
Countering extremism while maintaining democracy
Democracies increasingly face a conundrum: how to counter violent extremism while maintaining democratic institutions and civil liberties, analysts suggest. Violent extremism is one of the principal challenges that emanate from… Read more »
Pro-Russian candidates win elections in Bulgaria and Moldova
Voters in Bulgaria and Moldova elected pro-Russian populist presidents on the weekend, adding to mounting concern about Western unity,The Daily Telegraph reports. Bulgarian Socialist ally Rumen Radev, a Russia-friendly newcomer… Read more »
Indonesian protests highlight fears of ‘creeping Islamization’
The sight of tens of thousands of Islamists marching through the Indonesian capital this month, demanding that its Christian governor be jailed for blasphemy brought back recurrent fears of “creeping… Read more »
Resisting China’s erosion of Hong Kong’s democratic institutions
Since Hong Kong’s democratic movement began some three decades ago, Hong Kongers have relied on Beijing’s good will to achieve democracy, says democracy advocates Joshua Wong (left) and Jeffrey Ngo… Read more »
Libya: time for a reset?
Libya may descend into a “free-fall” if the peace process among its myriad of political actors is not “reset”, a new report warns. An accord between rival factions reached last… Read more »
Defending democracy a Sisyphean task
History does not follow a teleological path. There is no straight road towards freedom, notes David Motadel, an Assistant Professor of International History at the London School of Economics. Throughout… Read more »
How populism can strengthen democracy, not imperil it
Populism has long been a contested and ambiguous concept, notes Michael Kazin, who teaches history at Georgetown University: Scholars debate whether it is a creed, a style, a political strategy,… Read more »
Beyond Dysfunction and Devastation: Iraq, the Arab Spring, and Lessons for Today
Kanan Makiya* has been described as the Arab world’s “Solzhenitsyn” for courageously bearing witness to unspeakable cruelty, notes the Foreign Policy Research Institute. His new critically acclaimed novel, The Rope, is… Read more »