Category: Civil Society

Cambodia’s Democratic Transition Has Collapsed, With Dangerous Consequences

     

As Cambodia prepares for national elections in two years, its politics have veered dangerously out of control, notes Council on Foreign Relations analyst Joshua Kurlantzick. Even though young Cambodians are… Read more »

Revitalizing Democracy Support in Troubled Times

     

The world has experienced a decade of decline in democracy, and the downward trajectory is accelerating, Freedom House reports: Nativist sentiments in the United States and Europe are weakening support… Read more »

China’s Future a Dictator’s Dilemma: Communist Party’s Strategy for Survival

     

China’s Communist authorities fretting about potentially “subversive” civil society groups — such as rights lawyers and labor activists — have a new red flag: the upcoming birthday of former president… Read more »

What failed Soviet coup tells us about 21st-century populism

     

The abortive coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev twenty-five years ago this week and its aftermath have echoes today, argues Stephen Sestanovich, a Columbia University professor and senior fellow at… Read more »

Nepal – no national unity without inclusive democracy

     

Nepal’s Parliament recently elected Pushpa Kamal Dahal as prime minister, in the country’s 25th change in leadership in 26 years, The New York Times notes: Political instability is harming Nepal’s… Read more »

Resisting the Tyranny of the Possible: Lessons from the Fall of the Berlin Wall

     

Resisting the Tyranny of the Possible. This was moral revolution, a revolution of conscience rooted in cultural reclamation, and it resonated through the region because it was entirely congruent with… Read more »