The resurgence of populism has disrupted the post-Cold War political order and raised the prospect of instability in Europe and Eurasia, according to Nations in Transit 2017, the 22nd edition… Read more »
Kazakhstan’s leader, Nursultan Nazarbayev, is the country’s only president since independence — elected five times with 97.5 percent of the vote. Nazarbayev has created a kind of “authoritarian lite” system… Read more »
Kyrgyzstan models itself as Central Asia’s only parliamentary democracy, but multiple challenges threaten its stability, says a new report from the International Crisis Group: Divided ethnically between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks… Read more »
In the wake of the widespread authoritarian crackdown, we are witnessing a confluence of factors affecting the sustainability of different aspects of civil society (its organizations, actors and actions) in… Read more »
After a quarter-century, the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union looks like a de-democratizing event. Leading up to that fateful year, Mikhail Gorbachev had been one of the world’s great… Read more »
While economic downturns are threatening the stability of the former Soviet Union’s “entrenched dictatorships,” the migration crisis is fueling populism in Eastern Europe, and reforms in the Balkans are in… Read more »
China and Russia may forge a tactical alliance based on their compatible authoritarian systems and aimed at managing their frontier areas and standing up to the West, a leading analyst… Read more »
The Freedom Support Act of 1992 (Freedom for Russia and Emerging Eurasian Democracies and Open Markets Support Act) made the “promotion of democracy” a main strategic priority of the US… Read more »
Are the major international institutions covering the former Soviet Union meeting their human rights commitments? A new report shows how the independence and integrity of institutions defending human rights in… Read more »
Central Asia’s authoritarian governments have rarely found it easy to keep a lid on social discontent or to inoculate their countries against chronic instability in Afghanistan. Ethnic tensions and religious… Read more »