Is Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement undergoing a strategic shift? During her fourth annual policy address, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam praised the controversial national security law Beijing imposed earlier… Read more »
Even before the coronavirus emerged, growing political polarization, illiberal populism and sectarianism, the legacy of authoritarian rule, and the continuing influence of militaries in politics were undermining democratic politics in… Read more »
“We’ve witnessed a sharp rise in nationalist rhetoric that plays to people’s fears instead of their hopes. Institutions and reforms are being challenged… compromise and cooperation dismissed.” Those are the… Read more »
The latest wave of arrests of human rights activists in an unprecedented crackdown on civil society and political dissent overseen by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi may be a pre-emptive move in… Read more »
Are policies of engagement and enlargement that sought to encourage the spread of democracy and free markets appropriate in a new strategic context of great power competition? The COVID-19 pandemic… Read more »
For the fifteen or so years after the end of the Cold War and the collapse of communism, efforts to advance democracy appeared to have historical momentum on their side…. Read more »
The robustness of democratic institutions in large part rests on citizen activism, according to a leading civil-resistance expert. “Regular people should know that there are steps they can take to… Read more »
The Covid pandemic is presenting political parties with severe challenges – and unique opportunities, analysts suggest. Peruvians woke up Monday morning without a president, after Congress failed to agree on… Read more »
Egypt’s security forces detained the manager of a prominent rights group in Cairo after he met with European diplomats (see below), which the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) described… Read more »
China’s ideological challenge against liberal democracy seems orders of magnitude more effective than anything Soviet propaganda of the Cold War era could hope to achieve. As the U.S. sinks ever-deeper into… Read more »