The nightmare of the Cultural Revolution continues to disturb the dream of Chinese democracy, The Economist notes: The violence of the Cultural Revolution, and the many officials it claimed… Read more »
Venezuela‘s army is to be backed by civilians grouped into ancillary security units, to tackle food shortages and public unrest, under a state of emergency decree published on Monday, reports suggest:… Read more »
In an illuminating anecdote that David Shambaugh heard from two Chinese officials who witnessed an encounter between Hu Jintao and Russian leader Vladimir Putin with Beijing’s increasingly harsh scrutiny of… Read more »
The Organization of American States should invoke the Inter-American Democratic Charter to press Venezuela to restore judicial independence and the protection of fundamental rights, Human Rights Watch said today in… Read more »
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 »
Developing countries, like teenagers, are prone to accidents. One pretty much expects them to suffer an economic crash, a political crisis, or both, with some regularity, according to the Carnegie… Read more »
About five years ago, everyone was talking about the “Turkish model.” People in the West and in the Muslim world held up Turkey as a shining example of the compatibility… Read more »
When Iran makes headlines, it is usually as a result of its conflicts with other countries, notes analyst Ervand Abrahamian. Far less attention is paid to Iran’s conflicts with itself, which are… Read more »
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 »
Fidel’s brother [Raul Castro] has clearly been thinking ahead in a way the aging Fidelistas in the Cuban Communist Party have not, notes Alma Guillermoprieto. He may be trying… Read more »