Populism replacing sectarianism as defining force in Iraqi politics?
In all the turmoil of the Middle East, the most significant development of the year thus far may be the democratic election Iraq held on Saturday. It was competitive,… Read more »
Tag: International Republican Institute (IRI)
Potemkin elections an ill omen for global democracy
This week’s tsumani-sized election shock in Malaysia does not necessarily augur well for forthcoming electoral contests elsewhere, observers suggest. In less than two weeks, Venezuela will conduct the latest in… Read more »
Revolution in Armenia? Prospects of the protest movement
Under pressure from a surging popular protest movement, Armenia’s Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan (left) resigned on Monday, less than one week after taking office, notes the Commission on Security and… Read more »
Trouble brewing in the Balkans
It has been more than two decades since I worked with Richard Holbrooke and our team to negotiate an end to the war in Bosnia. NATO deployed and then acted… Read more »
Specious narrative equates political warfare with democracy assistance
A specious narrative has come back into circulation: that Moscow’s campaign of political warfare is no different from U.S.-supported democracy assistance, note Daniel Twining and Kenneth Wollack, president of the International… Read more »
Russia looks to Balkans as a battlefield in ‘political war’ with the West
With migration, Russian aggressiveness and Brexit, the European Union is taking the western Balkans seriously again, the New York Times reports: The bloc’s strategy for the Western Balkans, published in February,… Read more »
Ukraine’s citizens optimistic, but concerned over corruption
Ukraine’s citizens are showing more economic optimism, but remain concerned over corruption, according to a nationwide poll by the International Republican Institute’s (IRI) Center for Insights in Survey Research: Twenty-three… Read more »
Digital Counterterrorism: Fighting Jihadists Online
In 2015, the International Republican Institute – a core institute of the National Endowment for Democracy – developed a Task Force of Western Balkan legislators, academics and thought leaders focused… Read more »
Dismantling Reagan’s infrastructure of democracy in face of ‘authoritarian international’?
The State Department’s fiscal 2019 budget request is a proposal not only to slash the budget of the National Endowment for Democracy but also to disassemble its relationships with its core institutes,… Read more »
China’s ‘next ideological front’: democracies need joint strategies to counter Beijing’s sharp power
US Republican senator Marco Rubio has called on Malcolm Turnbull and Donald Trump to work together to develop joint strategies to counter China’s growing political interference, The Australian reports: Senator… Read more »