Author Archives: DemDigest

Nigeria ‘running on empty’?

     

A former Nigerian military dictator has just won a historic democratic election and is sworn in amidst tremendous international and domestic goodwill, notes analyst Amaka Anku. He immediately goes to… Read more »

Hard-liners rebound: no more nonsense about ‘moderation’ in Iran

     

Backers of Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, who has pledged to improve the economy and relations with the West, won a sizeable minority in a parliament that has been under the… Read more »

Why public opinion matters for movement organizing

     

Although public opinion research can make a valuable contribution to movement organizing, it is a relatively untested technique in many new and emerging democracies, notes Lauren Kitz, a Program Officer… Read more »

A new breed of Cuban dissident

     

  For most of his career as a Cuban dissident leader, through his 2003 arrest and seven years as a political prisoner, José Daniel Ferrer was repeatedly pressed by the Cuban government… Read more »

How to reverse the extremist tide

     

Something great is afoot in Tunisia. Last weekend, the once-Islamist Ennahda party officially declared that it will separate its religious activities from its political ones, notes Maajid Nawaz, co-founder and chairman… Read more »

O.A.S. rebuke cites threats to Venezuela’s democracy

     

The Organization of American States said Tuesday that it had begun taking steps against Venezuela to defend democracy in the region, a rare rebuke once reserved for countries undergoing crises like coups…. Read more »

Reversing democracy’s retreat? Reasons to be hopeful

     

Democracy is being challenged today as never before since the end of the Cold War, notes Carl Gershman, president of the National Endowment for Democracy. Freedom House has recorded ten consecutive years… Read more »

Suu Kyi to lead effort on Myanmar’s restive Rakhine State

     

Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi will lead a new effort to bring peace and development to Rakhine State where violence between majority Buddhists and minority Muslims in recent years has… Read more »

The truth about populism and foreign policy

     

Last week in Foreign Affairs, Richard Fontaine and Robert D. Kaplan analyzed the impact of this year’s campaign populism on U.S. foreign policy, notes Council on Foreign Relations analyst Stephen Sestanovich. Domestic… Read more »