Category: Democracy Assistance and Promotion

Governance critical to Syria’s post-conflict stabilization

     

The prospects for the removal of Syria’s Assad regime and a near-term transition to a “moderate opposition” are poorer than ever, according to a new RAND report. But there is… Read more »

Malawi’s corruption prompts democracy group pull-out

     

Malawi’s endemic corruption has prompted the National Democratic Institute to cease funding governance and civil society organizations after five years, reports suggest. “The government and other stake holders should come… Read more »

Engage Russia, but ‘grand bargain with Putin is a terrible idea’

     

Advocates of engaging Vladimir Putin’s Russia should avoid fueling unrealistic expectations of a breakthrough and instead seek incremental progress on specific topics based on a set of guiding principles, says… Read more »

How Putin became global ideological hero of nationalists, populists

     

Russian President Vladimir Putin has achieved his current geo-political “prominence because he anticipated the global populist revolt and helped give it ideological shape,” argues analyst Franklin Foer. “With his apocalyptic… Read more »

How not to fuel extremism

     

Analysts at the Central Intelligence Agency have warned that labeling the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization “may fuel extremism” and damage relations with America’s allies, according to a summary… Read more »

Tzvetan Todorov – highlighted democracy’s ‘inner enemies’

     

Tzvetan Todorov, a Bulgarian-French literary theorist and historian of ideas whose concerns in dozens of books ranged from fantasy in fiction to the moral consequences of colonialism, fanaticism and the… Read more »

Upheaval could lead to ‘more vibrant’ democracies – eventually

     

The current confrontation in Romania exemplifies the “new politics” in the era of global populism, where pushback against democratic norms by incumbent politicians is met with popular resistance, according to… Read more »

Will Somalia election benefit Shabab?

     

Wednesday’s presidential vote is part of the rebuilding effort in Somalia, which was shattered by more than two decades of conflict and where clan loyalties still tend to trump policy… Read more »

Putin critic falls into coma

     

Vladimir Kara-Murza, a leader of the Russian opposition who has been a vocal critic of what he calls a Kremlin policy of assassinating political enemies has fallen into a life-threatening… Read more »