Category: Asia

Myanmar’s Burden of High Expectations

     

By April 1 Myanmar will have elected its new president, heralding the end of over six decades of authoritarianism, Carnegie Endowment writes. But the new administration—burdened with high expectations, little… Read more »

Amid media crackdown, looming crisis within China’s legal system

     

  China is dramatically increasing its restrictions on foreign media operations in the country. Foreign-owned media or joint ventures in China will not be able to publish online without prior… Read more »

North Korea’s ‘fear society’: why human rights must come first

     

North Korea is the world’s most oppressive example of what former Soviet dissident, Natan Sharansky, called a “fear society,” according to Carl Gershman, president of the National Endowment for Democracy. … Read more »

Cambodia: ‘old-style politics in a new society’

     

For 30 years, Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge fighter, has wielded power through a combination of threats, clever deal-making and sheer willpower. And for most of that… Read more »

U.S.-ASEAN summit needs more than symbolism

     

  Human rights and democracy advocates are calling on President Barack Obama to use the occasion of this week’s U.S.-ASEAN summit at California’s Sunnylands retreat to publicly raise concerns about… Read more »

‘Great Surge’ marks end of the Third World

     

  The assertion that democracy is better than autocracy at facilitating the move into prosperity butts up against the theory that authoritarianism is more conducive to rapid economic growth (as… Read more »