Kosovo edging closer to anarchy?
Scenes of violence at Kosovo’s parliament during which opposition MPs released tear gas to prevent the election of a new president were “extremely worrying“, said the European Union: The protests… Read more »
Category: National Endowment for Democracy
Legal Restrictions on Thought & Expression: Pakistan, Egypt, Thailand, Bahrain – and Turkey
Turkey’s “strongman” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is going the extra mile in his trajectory of authoritarianism by challenging a Constitutional Court ruling, effectively conflating freedom of expression with espionage,… Read more »
Pakistan ‘resolved to reverse tide of extremism’
The authorities in Pakistan were bracing for the possibility of violence and escalating protests on Monday after the execution of the man who killed Salmaan Taseer, a governor who had campaigned for… Read more »
Russia, Ukraine and the ‘surrealism of realism’
Before the war in Ukraine, respected Russia experts have long claimed that Russia had already become a “post-imperial” state and stressed that they saw no grounds for adversarial relations between… Read more »
Honoring Nemtsov, a call for action
Thousands of people marched in honor of slain opposition politician Boris Nemtsov on February 27, one year after he was shot dead near the Kremlin. Five suspects have been charged… Read more »
Egypt’s civil society: two misperceptions
During a congressional hearing on the Obama administration’s FY17 budget request, Secretary of State John Kerry spoke briefly regarding the state of human rights in Egypt, expressing his concern over the… Read more »
Five things China’s censors cut from Fukuyama’s book
At the American Interest, Francis Fukuyama provides a list of cuts made to the Chinese edition of his latest book, “Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to… Read more »
Obama revives anti-slavery law to target Thai seafood
Seafood produced by slaves in Thailand will be among goods banned from sale in the US as Barack Obama revives laws targeting industries that use forced and child labor, the… Read more »
Iran poll balances ‘external loosening’ with ‘internal stiffening’
Iranians headed to the polls Friday in elections made easy for conservatives after sweeping bans that left many pro-reform candidates off the ballots, adding further political pressures on Hassan Rouhani,… Read more »
Chinese labor unrest tests Communist Party authority
An upsurge in industrial militancy in China is presenting a challenge for a Communist Party that bases much of its legitimacy on its ability to manage the economy, Simon Denyer… Read more »