Preparing for a democratic mañana in Cuba


Cuba’s democratic opposition is not yet a viable alternative to communist rule, nor are the island’s communist authorities prepared for the challenges of inheriting the Castro brothers’ failed state.  But both sides could be “nudged” into making the adjustments required to effect a “perfect” democratic transition, writes the author of a new book on post-communist [read full story]

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Venezuela’s democratic deterioration prompts international concern


Venezuela’s authoritarian trajectory is prompting international human rights groups to express growing concern about the suppression of dissident voices, particularly independent media and civil society representatives.  
A lawyer who represents the country’s sole independent TV channel yesterday became the latest critic of President Hugo Chavez to be prosecuted.
A group of US senators has warned Secretary of [read full story]

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Cambodia: Khmer Rouge verdict prompts outrage – and catharsis


The UN-backed war crimes tribunal has found the Khmer Rouge’s chief executioner guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. But many of his victims and their relatives are far from happy with the verdict.
Kaing Guek Eav, better known by his nom de guerre, “Duch,” supervised the notorious S-21 prison where up to 17,000 people [read full story]

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Labor militancy feeds Egypt’s political turmoil


A terminally ill president, public outrage over police brutality and a widely discredited ruling party are contributing to a summer of political turmoil in Egypt. With President Hosni Mubarak reportedly dying of cancer, uncertainty over his succession is fuelling unrest and contributing to a sense that the country is at a watershed.
“This is an historical [read full story]

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Castro’s godson on hunger strike to protest regime restrictions

The son of a hero of the Cuban Revolution and a godson to Raul Castro is on a hunger strike to protest travel restrictions preventing him from leaving the island. 
Juan Juan Almeida, son of the recently deceased Juan Almeida Bosque, was incarcerated in a state security prison in Havana known as Villa Marista.
Although since released [read full story]

Time to embrace Somaliand?

The recent election in Somaliland appears to have had quite an impact on observers.
This “desperately poor, Muslim, and nomadic” society, with few natural resources and limited exports, defied the odds – including threats of violence from the Islamist Al-Shabab militia – to hold the election, writes former US Ambassador Richard S. Williamson.
“The people would not [read full story]

China: pushy abroad, closed at home

More on China’s projection of its new-found soft power:
A former United States ambassador to Thailand tells of being asked to contribute to a local university in Bangkok that wanted to set up an “America corner” in its library—nothing more than a computer station and a few shelves of informational material. During the Cold War such [read full story]

China’s hard-headed use of soft power

Check out Stratfor’s interesting analysis of China’s efforts to manipulate world opinion.

Iran’s history suggests Green opposition will re-emerge

The imminent departure of John Limbert, the US administration’s leading point man on Iran, is casting further doubt on the feasibility of engaging the Islamic Republic.
But if Iran’s politically tumultuous history is any guide, the opposition Green movement will survive its current downturn, consolidate and emerge as a force for democratic change, Michael Singh argues [read full story]

Nike agrees Honduras labor fund

A major sportswear manufacturer will pay $1.5 million to a relief fund for Honduran workers to be jointly monitored by the Solidarity Center, a core institute of the National Endowment for Democracy.
Nike Inc. will make the contribution as part of a settlement of a dispute with the Central General de Trabajadores de Honduras, a union [read full story]

Activists challenge North Korea’s ‘efficient, relentless brainwashing’

Some 20 years after The Wall Street Journal featured an article about North Korea’s “coming collapse,” the regime survives.
“Stalin led a government for 29 years, Mao 27 years, Hitler 12 years,” writes Robert Fulford. “The dictatorship of Kim Il-sung and his son, Kim Jongil, one continuous government, has now reached the outlandish age of 65.”
One [read full story]

Oliver Stone’s “South of the Border” – dishonest propaganda

Check out this excellent critique of a “tendentious and dishonest film whose arguments collapse when subjected even to the slightest bit of scrutiny.´
Oliver Stone’s “South of the Border” distorts the role democracy assistance organizations have played in Venezuela by “quoting selectively” and “simply cherry-picking” sections of State Department documents, writes Larry Rohter of The New [read full story]

Rushing to the polls – or deferring democratization?

The “earlier a country holds its first post-conflict election, the more likely that the vote will be a revolving door spinning the country back into violence,” Harvard University’s Jack Snyder writes in Foreign Policy.
Since the end of the Cold War, the time it takes for a post-conflict state to go from a peace agreement to [read full story]

Political prisoners in China: trends and implications

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China holds a hearing on “Political Prisoners in China: Trends and Implications for U.S. Policy” next Tuesday, August 3, 2010 from 10:15 a.m to 12 p.m. at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 628.
Recent trials of scholars, activists, lawyers, and others in China have shined a spotlight on the Chinese [read full story]

Azerbaijan court rejects dissident blogger’s appeal

A dissident blogger will remain in jail after an Azerbaijani judge rejected an appeal for early release, RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service reports.
Adnan Hajizada – sentenced last November on charges of hooliganism along with fellow blogger Emin Milli – was denied released because he refused to admit his guilt, the court ruled.
On her recent trip to Baku, [read full story]

Somaliland: democratic beacon, but no easy model

There are lessons for Somalia in the election of Ahmed Mohamed Mahamoud ’Silanyo‘ as Somaliland’s third democratically elected President, whose inauguration has confirmed the durability of the country’s democratic institutions in an inhospitable regional environment.
“With few, if any, appropriate role-models amongst neighboring states…Somaliland achieved an election and a transfer of power that many more established [read full story]

“One last, best chance” for Iraqi democracy?

The long-standing political impasse since Iraq’s March elections is threatening to spark a renewal of sectarian violence.
The United States and its UN partners must seize that moment to give Iraq “one last, best chance to develop into a stable democracy,” writes Kenneth Pollack, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings [read full story]

Jobs

National Endowment for Democracy 
Currently available opportunities include: Research Associates – Fellows Program, Program Assistant -Eurasia, Program Assistant -East and Southern Africa, Assistant Program Officer -Sudan, Program Officer for Middle East and North Africa, Program Officer –Eurasia, Business Systems Engineer, Manager, Finance, Manager, Grants Administration.
 Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program
The Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program at the Washington, [read full story]

Autocrats silence dissent at home, get a voice in Washington

Some of Washington’s most prestigious firms are lobbying on behalf of some of the world’s most corrupt and repressive regimes, Joshua Kurlantzick writes in Newsweek.   
Department of Justice data show the number of registrants—forms submitted by people registered to represent foreign countries—grew to 1,900 in the first half of 2009, with an even steeper rise [read full story]

Prominent Serbian journalist attacked

RFE/RL reports that a prominent Serbian journalist and democracy activist known for his anti-nationalist politics was attacked on Saturday night in Belgrade.
Teofil Pancic, a reporter for the weekly magazine “Vreme” and columnist for RFE/RL’s Balkan Service, was hospitalized with a concussion and injuries to his arm after being attacked on a bus. A metal bar [read full story]

Cowardly or cautious? Promoting Chinese democracy

Promoting democracy in China is a delicate if not dangerous business as the fates of Wei Jingsheng and Liu Xiaobo attest.
But do the “multiple head-spinning contradictions” of modern China’s Market-Leninism provide openings for gradual reform or has the ruling Communist Party devised a system for pre-empting and forestalling political change?
The New York Times carries an [read full story]

Events

Tuesday, July 27, 2010- 9:30 a.m. “What’s Next for Iran? How can the U.S. and European Union Enforce Sanctions against Tehran?”
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is holding a discussion on “What’s Next for Iran? How Can the U.S. and European Union Enforce Sanctions against Tehran?” The speakers will include, Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla.; [read full story]

Tocqueville in China

What does the development of China’s NGOs mean for the country’s democratization prospects?
Their emergence reflects growing diversification in civil-political matters, writes Amy E. Gadsden, former country director for China at the International Republican Institute. Chinese citizens are identifying their interests and articulating grievances on a wide range of issues, from the environment and housing to [read full story]

Uyghur journalist’s ‘draconian’ sentence highlights Beijing’s intolerance of dissent

Human rights activists have condemned a prison sentence imposed by China’s communist authorities on an ethnic Uyghur journalist. Gheyret Niyaz, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, after he gave an interview to a Hong Kong newspaper last August, shortly after violent ethnic rioting in the western region of Xinjiang.
“Niyaz’s draconian prison sentence raises serious [read full story]

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