Category: democracy promotion

Democracies in ideological competition with China – not clash of civilizations

     

China’s President Xi Jinping is now invoking cultural diversity as a pretext for opposing democracy and asserting Beijing’s sharp power, reports suggest. Xi repeated his rallying cry on Wednesday as he… Read more »

Democratic revival needs diplomatic renewal?

     

A revival of diplomacy will facilitate democratic renewal, a leading diplomat contends. The liberal order that the United States had built and led after World War II would, we hoped,… Read more »

Americans not turning isolationist, but ……

     

Americans are not retreating into isolationism, but neither are they persuaded by the traditional justifications for efforts to shape the world, notes Johns Hopkins University Professor Hal Brands. For those… Read more »

Implacable Hostility: Russia’s response to Ukraine’s ‘stunning’ election

     

Russia is treating Ukraine and its newly elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky, with the same implacable hostility as it did during Petro Poroshenko’s presidency, according to a leading analyst. The Kremlin… Read more »

Delicate balancing act: freedom of press vs freedom from disinfomation

     

  This year’s World Press Freedom Day focuses on ‘journalism and elections in times of disinformation’, Teresa Mioli writes for the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. Western policymakers and… Read more »

Hopes for Venezuela transition ‘fizzle for 3rd time this year’

     

For the third time this year, the big moment in Venezuela has turned into a bust, AP reports: Trump administration officials had expected that Wednesday might turn out to be… Read more »

Democracy protests a legacy of ‘voice of Sudan’s dispossessed and marginalized’

     

A new tide of people power is rising in Africa, according to analysts Zoe Marks, Erica Chenoweth and Jide Okeke. On April 2, a nonviolent resistance movement in Algeria succeeded in pressuring Abdelaziz… Read more »

Pro-democracy veteran explains why ‘democracy will arrive in China’

     

For almost 40 years, Martin Lee has been promoting democracy in Hong Kong, The South China Morning Post reports. He helped draft Hong Kong’s Basic Law: the city’s mini-constitution that… Read more »

Algeria’s transition scenarios: ‘dreams of democracy tempered by fear of Islamism’?

     

President Bouteflika’s resignation has left Algeria facing a period of uncertainty replete with hope and fear, The (London) Times reports. The hope is that, at long last, this oil and gas-rich… Read more »

To defend liberal order, Western democracy must compete with alternative models

     

We are witnessing an intellectual transition to a worldview that is in equal parts “naïve, dangerous and ahistorical,” scholars Hal Brands and Charles Edel argue in a “brilliant” new book,… Read more »