The closing of civic space has become a defining feature of political life in an ever-increasing number of countries, notes Saskia Brechenmacher, an associate fellow in Carnegie’s Democracy and Rule… Read more »
The jailing for blasphemy this month of Jakarta’s former governor raised fears that the moderate traditions of the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation were under siege. Now the government is… Read more »
After an unexpectedly close race between President Hassan Rouhani, the pragmatic incumbent, and hardline challenger Ebrahim Raisi (left), ordinary Iranians on the eve of the vote appeared united only in… Read more »
2016 was a dismal year for liberal internationalism. But a new index of global “fragility” by the Fund for Peace (FfP) think-tank suggests that, overall, the world did not become… Read more »
The presidential election in Iran this Friday is being billed as yet another contest in which a spirited but ineffectual reformer is fighting it out with a hard-boiled theocrat. Meanwhile,… Read more »
Poland’s alleged slide from democracy came under scrutiny from fellow European Union states on Tuesday, with some openly questioning the nationalist government in Warsaw’s commitment to EU values, Reuters reports:… Read more »
Ukraine has moved to block access to top Russian social media sites and search-and-email portals, adding them to a list of companies and individuals sanctioned over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea… Read more »
Tensions are rising between west and east and over the Balkans. Albania, Macedonia, Serbia and other Balkan countries that aspire to EU membership remain a long way from entry because… Read more »
Several recent analyses depict Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is set to meet with President Trump in the White House on Tuesday, as a once moderate and liberal politician… Read more »
A leaked document on China’s Silk Road investment plan poses diversity and multi-party democracy as problems, notes analyst Anders Corr. It raises questions about the extent to which the international community should… Read more »