China is getting a reputation for asserting its soft power, intent on promoting a more benign image of the communist state – and countering democratic trends. But who would have thought that New York’s iconic Empire State Building …

The National Endowment for Democracy and The Embassy of Poland invite you to attend a memorial symposium celebrating the life and thought of Leszek Kolakowski (1927-2009).

Democracy, Totalitarianism, and the Culture of Freedom

Moderator: Zbigniew Brzezinski, CSIS

Panelists: Richard …

Few analysts believe that intensified sanctions or military strikes will do more than delay Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons. So why not pursue an alternative, asks Anne Applebaum – a sustained and well-funded human rights campaign would boost the Green …

The US-Korea Institute at SAIS and the National Endowment for Democracy are pleased to co-sponsor a seminar on the status of human rights violations in North Korea, featuring Dr. Yoon Yeo-sang and Mr. Kim Sang-hun, on October 8, 2009. …

The Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe risks losing its democratic character, an imprisoned human rights activist warned today, as the head of the US delegation to the organization’s Warsaw meeting said that engagement remains the best way to …

Guinea’s military junta appears unrepentant a day after troops open fire on a pro-democracy rally, killing as many as 200 civilians.  The ruling National Council for Democracy and Development refuses to negotiate with opposition figures.

“The protest is yet …

Opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi today opposed further sanctions against Iran, claiming that they would harm the people and the nascent opposition rather than the regime.  

“These sanctions would not be against a government but the people who have already been agonized …

With democracy promotion as one of the five strategic priorities of U.S. foreign assistance, improved information-sharing and coordination between State, USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy is needed to “maximize available resources to pursue this important objective,” a new …

Further to this item on suppressing dissent in Egypt, the Project on Middle East Democracy draws our attention to Lee Smith’s Weekly Standard piece lamenting the campaign against editor and democracy advocate Hala Mustafa for the offense of meeting Israel’s …

Amid jubilant scenes outside the Supreme Court in Harare, democracy and human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, was today released after being granted a permanent stay of criminal proceedings.

Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, was one of 16 …