Author Archives: DemDigest

Democracy means legitimacy for Indonesia’s counter-terrorism policy

     

  The case of Indonesia demonstrates that in countering violent extremism, democracy and serious efforts to gain legitimacy from the people before taking action are a necessary part of a… Read more »

DRC ‘at a precipice’

     

Pro-democracy activists in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Lutte pour Le Changement (Lucha) movement have called for nationwide protests to demand that President Joseph Kabila steps down from power… Read more »

Fragile states need strategic, systemic, selective, and sustained response

     

  Fragile states may seem like a distant and abstract concern, but they are not, according to William J. Burns, Michèle A. Flournoy, and Nancy E. Lindborg. They are at… Read more »

Repressing civil society a recipe for failure, autocrats told

     

Autocratic regimes which repress civil society and curb human rights are “pursuing policies that will almost certainly fail,” according to Tom Malinowski, Assistant Secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of… Read more »

EU slams Egypt’s asset freeze on activists

     

The European Union External Action Service, the EU’s diplomatic arm, has criticized the Egyptian government’s decision to freeze the assets of leading civil society activists. “The increased pressure on independent… Read more »

Jordan election a ‘small step toward democratic reform’

     

Jordan‘s parliament election on Tuesday is being touted as proof that the pro-Western monarchy is moving forward with democratic reforms despite regional turmoil and security threats, AP’s Karin Laub writes:… Read more »

Could intervention have tilted the balance in Syria?

     

Today, five years later, it’s easy to forget that Syria’s revolution started off amid the optimism of the Arab Spring. The first protests against Assad’s dictatorship were peaceful: Demonstrators were… Read more »

Civil Society in Eastern Europe and Eurasia: Thriving, or Just Surviving?

     

Is the trend to restrict civil society, visible in Russia and neighboring countries, getting worse?  In some of the countries of the former communist world, it has become more difficult… Read more »