Category: Fragile states

Connecting democratic leaders for a hemisphere of freedom

     

  As authoritarian regimes in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela generate sociopolitical turmoil, economic disruption, and human rights abuses, only a concerted international effort by liberal democracies will establish a “hemisphere… Read more »

Escaping the fragility trap: don’t rush democracy, coax it

     

Democracy should be coaxed, not rushed, Bloomberg suggests, citing a new report which argues that developed nations trying to help fragile states have been doing it wrong: They have pushed… Read more »

Ukraine’s ‘double existential threat’ – West’s credibility at stake

     

The West’s credibility and cohesion are at stake in Ukraine, according to a new analysis from Chatham House, the London-based foreign policy think-tank. The international community has invested heavily in… Read more »

Venezuela’s predicament goes from bad to worse, but opposition’s ‘hope is gone’

     

Five months of violent antigovernment demonstrations in Venezuela have dissipated and the epicenter in Caracas, Plaza Altamira, sits eerily quiet. The barricades that opponents once set up to slow government… Read more »

Non-state actors feed failing states, new global disorder

     

  Non-state groups from ISIS to transnational crime syndicates deploy an assortment of tactics and new technologies that strengthen their power to organize, mobilize, fight, and wield influence. As a… Read more »

Strategic patience needed in Af-Pak stand-off

     

Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary met China’s special envoy on Afghan affairs on Monday, a foreign office spokesman said, a day after Islamabad canceled a scheduled visit by a top U.S. official,… Read more »

What comes after ISIS? ‘There is nothing, no plan.’

     

The announcement of the so-called caliphate was a high point for the extremist fighters of the Islamic State. Their exhibitionist violence and apocalyptic ideology helped them seize vast stretches of… Read more »

Post 9/11 wars not about promoting democracy, says Condoleezza Rice

     

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that U.S.-led interventions in the Middle East and Central Asia were not about spreading democracy, but about addressing regional security issues, Newsweek… Read more »