Bangladesh democracy hangs in the balance
By any measure, the current state of democracy in Bangladesh is grim, note analysts Atif Ahmad, a researcher at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and Michael Kugelman, senior… Read more »
Search Results for: rule of law
Sri Lanka turmoil points to China’s ‘new colonialism’
The surest way to lose an election in south Asia is to be too enthusiastic about China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Wherever Chinese influence has grown, governments have turned more… Read more »
Backsliding or renewal? Democracies must unite to survive
The United States should adopt a new foreign policy focused on defending and expanding the ranks of democracies around the world, argues Michael H Fuchs, a senior fellow at the… Read more »
Civil courage deprives authoritarians of vital weapon
Liberal democracies are facing an authoritarian resurgence and various forms of sharp power projections on the part of Russia and China. These countries are becoming more authoritarian and prohibiting independent… Read more »
Venezuela loses ‘beacon of democratic integrity’
A restless defender of democratic values, Teodoro Petkoff never stopped criticizing Hugo Chávez’s autocratic tendencies and never gave up on his country, notes Dorothy Kronick, an assistant professor of political… Read more »
Conservative civil society pushing back against Western liberal norms
The rapid rise of Brazil’s new far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro may have surprised some observers but it did not come out of thin air. His success follows years of support… Read more »
Latin America braced for ‘Bolsonaro effect.’ How did the unthinkable happen?
Following the crushing victory of right-wing candidate Jair Bolsonaro in Sunday’s runoff presidential election, Brazil’s Latin American neighbors are bracing for a regional “Bolsonaro effect,” AFP reports: The knock-on effect… Read more »
Putin’s Russia: emergence of democratic alternative an unlikely scenario?
Authoritarian rule is not imposed on Russians from above but is solicited from below by the people themselves, claims Sergey Karaganov, a former Putin advisor and one of Russia’s leading… Read more »
What the Arab world needs most
The apparent abduction, and probable murder, of the prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi unmasked the ugly despotism behind the reformist image of the kingdom’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, notes Mustafa… Read more »
Zimbabwe: eight steps to full democracy
It is beyond dispute that the massive voter turnout for Zimbabwe’s July 30 presidential election demonstrated that Zimbabweans want a transition away from the divisions, brutality and economic ruin of… Read more »