Soft power not enough in the Balkans
The 21st century in the Balkans is starting to look dangerously like the 19th — with one important difference. In the 19th century, Russia and Turkey were big rivals in… Read more »
Category: Authoritarianism
Legislating authoritarianism in Egypt
Egypt’s new authoritarian regime is rapidly closing the public space—cracking down on autonomous civil society and independent political parties, asphyxiating the practice of pluralist politics, and thwarting citizens’ peaceful and… Read more »
How to ensure Kremlin remembers Boris Nemtsov
Last month, thousands of people held rallies and vigils in cities across Russia to mark the second anniversary of the murder of former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, a leader of the… Read more »
How to keep the human rights high ground
The U.S. is threatening to withdraw from the controversial U.N. Human Rights Council if it does not undertake “considerable reform,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned a group of nine… Read more »
How Egypt’s activists became ‘Generation Jail’
Six years after the Arab Spring, Egypt’s democracy activists live under constant threat of prison — or worse, notes analyst Joshua Hammer. It was just six years ago that Ahmed… Read more »
Growing threats to civil society
A healthy and functioning civil society is vital for human rights and democracy everywhere, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission writes: Civil society organizations (CSOs) play a crucial role in… Read more »
Boris Nemtsov: The Man Who Was Too Free
In the shadow of the red brick Kremlin walls, an informal shrine marks the spot and the memory of Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister and President Vladimir Putin’s loudest critic,… Read more »
Drugs trial exposes Venezuela’s kleptocratic elite
When a US federal judge sentences two Venezuelan drug smugglers, perhaps later this month, it will mark the final chapter of a story worthy of the Netflix series “Narcos,” say… Read more »
How Russian social media is reliving the revolution
A century after the Russian Revolution, Project 1917 is a reminder of how revolutions today unfold in real time — a subject of sensitivity for President Vladimir Putin, who has… Read more »
Kremlin hopes for ‘Post-West’ world order recede
Europeans are waking up to the fact that Russia is trying to do by peaceful means what the Soviet Union once threatened by violent ones: overthrow democratic governments, James Kirchik… Read more »