A new collection of Liu Xiaobo’s writings demonstrates that the Chinese dissident has much in common with Vaclav Havel, writes Ellen Bork, “chiefly a faith in individuals and the impact they can have on a totalitarian system”:

The …

Do the Egyptian military’s raids on pro-democracy groups signal a strategic shift towards an accommodation with the country’s Islamist forces at the expense of liberal democratic forces?

This week’s storming of several democratic and civil society NGOs was reportedly …

Egyptian officials have given assurances that they will end raids on pro-democracy groups and return property seized in this week’s crackdown (above). But activists believe the security services’ storming of several organizations’ offices is a harbinger of a broader offensive …

Egyptian security forces today raided the offices of 17 NGOs (right), including three U.S.-based groups, signalling a renewed crackdown on foreign assistance and the country’s pro-democracy movements.

The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces council has blamed “foreign hands” …

Is a year of hope brought on by the Arab Awakening about to end on a sour note?

“We have a remarkable new model in the Arab world,” says Salman Shaikh of the Brookings Institute in Doha. “People from different …

Václav Havel spoke directly to Chinese dissidents, writes scholar and human rights activist Xiaorong Li. He knew intimately what a writer like Liu Xiaobo risks by criticizing a powerful authoritarian regime.

I have tried to write something to commemorate our …

Freedom of expression is really the essence of liberal democracy, the foundation on which all the other rights, institutions and democratic processes are based, said Carl Gershman, addressing a recent conference sponsored by the Václav Havel Library in Prague. …

Russia “needs democracy,” President Dmitry Medvedev said today, using his final state of the nation speech to promise reforms that would “give all active citizens a legitimate possibility to take part in political life.”

But analysts and activists dismissed …

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood today rejected proposals to bring forward presidential elections scheduled for mid-2012, insisting that a revised timetable would give too much authority to a new president at the legislature’s expense.

Liberal parties and the largely secular protesters who …

The Board of Directors of the National Endowment for Democracy in cooperation with the Embassy of the Czech Republic, Washington, DC, and the Vaclav Havel Library, Prague, Czech Republic invites you to a Memorial Tribute honoring the life and work …