Category: Democratic Transitions

Democracy in Asia the ‘unspoken issue’ in TPP agenda

     

  The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a national security imperative that is likely to enhance prospects for advancing democracy in Asia, analysts suggest. After World War II, the U.S., having learned… Read more »

Durability of democracy’s appeal is ‘biggest known unknown’

     

The durability of free-market democracy’s global appeal is “the biggest known unknown” about the next generation global economy, says a prominent analyst. Five significant political economy questions stand out, Tuft… Read more »

Myanmar: transition, competition and trust

     

The Obama administration plans to announce Tuesday that the U.S. is easing sanctions on Myanmar to make it easier for American companies to do business there, The Wall Street Journal… Read more »

Rewriting the Arab Social Contract: Toward Inclusive Politics

     

As the Arab uprisings have unfolded, the economic and social issues at their roots have received little attention and in some cases have been entirely overlooked by the transitioning countries… Read more »

What is the Arabic for democracy?

     

  The collapse of the post-colonial Arab system is, at its heart, a crisis of legitimacy. The impact of colonialism, often blamed by Arabs for their woes, should not be… Read more »

Cuba: another post-Communist failed state?

     

There are lessons for Cuba in “Reflections on Unfinished Revolutions,” a report by the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe, which examines the state of democracy in Eastern Europe 25 years after… Read more »

From the Bottom, Up: A Strategy to Support Syria’s Opposition

     

As negotiations continue to uphold a teetering ceasefire in Syria, the primary U.S. effort in Syria should be a bottom-up strategy to build cohesive, moderate, armed opposition institutions with a… Read more »

Democracy Promotion: A Distinctive European Approach?

     

The fact of different European states’ priorities on democracy and human rights reflecting different historical experiences may be illustrated by the initiative taken by Poland during its presidency for a… Read more »

New isolationism or a strategy for democratic renewal?

     

A joke in Milan Kundera’s novel “The Book of Laughter and Forgetting” goes like this, The Wall Street Journal’s Bret Stephens writes: “In Wenceslaus Square, in Prague, a guy is throwing… Read more »

Funding Mideast democracy in the face of authoritarian pushback

     

The U.S. Congress has taken note of the dexterity and flexibility of non-governmental democracy assistance groups in responding to the more challenging environment in the Middle East, says a report… Read more »