Perfect sandstorm? High stakes in the Sahel
There is only one region in which Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and ISIS have all emerged as major threats – the Sahel. United Nations secretary-general Ban… Read more »
Category: Civil Society
Obama’s visit to Cuba – civil society speaks
On the occasion of President Barack Obama’s historic visit to Cuba, independent civil society groups issued a rare joint statement: The visit to Cuba of Mr. Barack Obama, President of… Read more »
Cubama: a ‘new day’ or a ‘slap in the face’ for U.S.-Cuba relations
Change is coming to Cuba, President Barack Obama told his Cuban counterpart today, after Raul Castro called on the U.S. to lift longstanding trade and other restrictions as part of… Read more »
Democracy in retreat?
Despite the current democratic regression, there are three reasons why democracy advocates should maintain hope for the future, says Carl Gershman, President of the National Endowment for Democracy. The first… Read more »
Obama Doctrine – pendulum swung too far?
For any believer in the trans-Atlantic alliance, liberal interventionism and the overall beneficence of American power, President Obama’s long exposition of his foreign policy to Jeffrey Goldberg in The… Read more »
Cubama: what President Obama should say about Cuba
Cuba has released four dissidents and put them on a plane to the U.S. just days before President Barack Obama’s historic trip to the island as part of the rapprochement with President… Read more »
Renewed confrontation in Georgia?
European Union membership “is a historical choice” for Georgia, according to Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze (above). “We are not a country which just decides to join blocs,” he told… Read more »
The Obama Doctrine: from ‘democratic messianism’ to ‘passive progressivism’?
Experience has taught President Barack Obama to temper his idealism with a pragmatic, realist approach to foreign policy, leading him to reject liberal Democratic interventionism. Yet he remains a democratic… Read more »
Shaping the West’s stance toward Global Illiberalism
Today it looks as if the days of the [pro-Kremlin] Russlandverstehers’ unchallenged dominion in explaining Russia to Germany are over, at least on the expert level and in public opinion, analyst… Read more »
Putin’s Crimea – no vacation
Human rights and freedom of expression in Crimea today are more tightly restricted than in Russia, where the Kremlin cannot exert the same level of control. For Russian President… Read more »