The European Union and the United States “must stop pretending that they can transform Russia, or that they can simply ignore it,” argues analyst Ivan Krastev. “But nor should the EU allow Russia to reduce it to benevolent irrelevance.”…

Conventional theory suggests that a growing, politically assertive middle class is both a precondition and a safeguard for sustainable democratization. But, argues journalist Joshua Kurlantzick, recent events in Thailand, amongst other places, suggests otherwise:

But now, it appears, the …

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today delivered a scathing indictment of Russia’s leadership and archaic policies that are leading a great country to “self-inflicted isolation” and irrelevance.

The attack on Georgia “crystallized the course that Russia’s leaders are taking …

Developing a “strategy of peaceful resistance to impunity” of violence against women and children is the principal task of Colombia’s League of Displaced Women – the Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas – a Capitol Hill reception heard last night.

Patricia Guerrero, …

“Despite 25 years of growth in democracy assistance,” writes Carnegie democracy expert Thomas Carothers, “and many fine efforts by dedicated activists, such programs have never been coherently and solidly institutionalized in the U.S. foreign policy institutional landscape. Moreover, …

The murder of Ingushetia opposition activist Magomed Yevloyev threatens to undermine the prospects for building a legal opposition, forcing the regime’s opponents into more direct and violent responses, warns human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, head of Russia’s Rule of …

Democracy and civil society activists used the occasion of the United Nations’ first-ever International Day of Democracy to reiterate the universality of democratic values and demand  that rights to assembly, expression, advocacy, and to receive cross-border assistance be recognized. The …

“US Foreign Policy & Democracy Promotion” 
 
Dr Alexander Lennon, Editor in Chief, The Washington Quarterly  & International Security Fellow, CSIS, Washington DC 1.10pm, Tuesday 16th September 2008 Grimond Room, Portcullis House, House of Commons, Westminster, London, UK

To attend, …

Details are emerging of the power-sharing deal between Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF, and Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Democracy activists and foreign governments have responded cautiously.  

Reports suggest that under the accord, …

“Today’s world would be worse than it is without [Bronislaw] Geremek’s contribution to its history,” world-renowned philosopher Leszek Kolakowski asserts. The process that ended communist rule in Poland “was also the process that started the chain of events which in …