Strategic patience needed in Af-Pak stand-off
Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary met China’s special envoy on Afghan affairs on Monday, a foreign office spokesman said, a day after Islamabad canceled a scheduled visit by a top U.S. official,… Read more »
Category: anti-corruption
President plunges Guatemala into constitutional crisis
Guatemala’s chief prosecutor Thelma Aldana says she’s giving unconditional support to the head of a U.N. anti-corruption commission who the president has ordered to leave the country, AP reports: Adana… Read more »
Democracy jobs
Check out the following opportunities in the democracy assistance, human rights and related fields. National Endowment for Democracy Job #1768 – Program Assistant, Research and Conferences Program – International Forum… Read more »
‘Judicial coup’ mars Pakistan’s democratic transition
Pakistan’s Supreme Court disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday from holding public office for life in a corruption inquiry linked to the Panama Papers, which had named three of his children as owners… Read more »
Weaponizing kleptocracy: the four circles of ‘Russia’s Crony Capitalism’
Russia’s political shift to an authoritarian kleptocracy started with Vladimir Putin’s prosecution and jailing of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, according to Bill Browder, CEO, Hermitage Capital, and author of “Red Notice: A… Read more »
‘A sickness beyond borders’ – understanding and combatting media capture
Recent developments in South Africa have highlighted how state capture has emerged as an increasingly dangerous threat to democratic governance and to prospects for democratic transition. According to a definition… Read more »
Resources and commitment needed to combat kleptocracy
The U.S. Justice Department has filed a lawsuit seeking to recover assets that include a $50 million Manhattan apartment and an $80 million yacht that it said were bought using… Read more »
What comes after ISIS? ‘There is nothing, no plan.’
The announcement of the so-called caliphate was a high point for the extremist fighters of the Islamic State. Their exhibitionist violence and apocalyptic ideology helped them seize vast stretches of… Read more »
Ukrainian civil society ‘gearing up’ to counter patronalistic regime?
The appointment of former U.S. ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker (right) to be special representative to Ukraine could breathe some much-needed life back into the drive for peace, whose momentum… Read more »
Angola’s kleptocracy resisting greater scrutiny
Angola’s reconstruction and oil boom presented the politically connected — those with “relatives in the kitchen,” as Angolans say — with a golden opportunity for self-enrichment. In an economy driven… Read more »