Egypt’s hollowed-out civil society
Authoritarian regimes are, in general, averse to a strong civil society. Egypt is no exception, notes Gamal Eid (left), an Egyptian lawyer and the director of the Arabic Network for… Read more »
Category: Democratic Transitions
Tunisia can ‘save’ Arab democracy. Really?
To have a good foreign policy, policymakers need to have good assumptions about the way the world works, notes Council on Foreign Relations analyst Steven A. Cook, who writes that… Read more »
Ukrainians want reform, oligarchs block it
Ukrainians are growing increasingly frustrated with their government and the slow pace of reforms, especially when it comes to tackling corruption, according to a new nationwide poll released today by the International… Read more »
Europe’s troubled neighborhood: From ‘circle of friends’ to ‘ring of fire’?
Sustaining stable, democratic, and economically-successful states in its surrounding regions is a strategic priority and core interest for the European Union. However, Europe’s neighborhood is currently confronting a series of… Read more »
Burma’s troubled transition
On April 5, Francis Fukuyama, Director of Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law held an interview with FSI Senior Fellow Larry Diamond on Burma’s recent… Read more »
How to halt Tunisia’s descent
Although the revolution upgraded Tunisia’s regime hardware from an authoritarian to a democratic government, its operating system — its state institutions, laws, bureaucracies, courts and police — remained largely… Read more »
Dictators don’t stabilize the Middle East
A number of American politicians have suggested that the Arab Spring was a disaster and that the region needs strongmen to stabilize it, but while working on Middle East policy at the… Read more »
Can Ukraine achieve a reform breakthrough?
It is easy to characterize Ukraine’s latest attempt to reform as a repeat of the unrealized potential of the 2004 Orange Revolution, analysts John Lough and Iryna Solonenko write… Read more »
After Yatsenyuk: Ukraine government ‘likely to be less reformist’
Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, the prime minister of Ukraine, announced his resignation on Sunday in a surprise move that opened a new period of political uncertainty, The New York Times reports:… Read more »
West’s response to Ukraine conflict: a transatlantic success story
Transatlantic cooperation in dealing with Russian aggression in Ukraine has been a surprising success story, according to a new report. European countries and the United States, together with partners such… Read more »