The Obama administration today moved to bolster Syria’s opposition with a commitment of $45 million in non-lethal and humanitarian assistance, but the aid may not be enough to stop a backlash against the U.S., a prominent senator warned.
The announcement …
The struggle over blasphemy is a part of the larger debate on the future of democracy in the Arab world and beyond, writes Arch Puddington Vice President for Research at Freedom House.
The amateur anti-Islamic video that provoked the recent …
Burundi is not making a good case for the virtuous circle of pluralism and good governance generating economic growth, writes Dave Peterson, especially when neighboring Rwanda’s authoritarian model of development appears so successful.
The Chinese model of authoritarian development seems …
“The Internet has become the principal staging ground for dissent in Vietnam, and its Communist rulers are trying to clamp down with new laws, stepped up arrests, intimidation and longer prison sentences. But so far, it’s a battle they …
A group of eminent persons today expressed concern about the “precarious state of affairs” in Venezuela and called on the international community to “remain firm and persistent” in demanding a free and fair election in next month’s standoff which pits …
Russia’s new NGO law requiring foreign-funded groups to register as “foreign agents” is comparable to the Nazi law requiring Jews to wear yellow stars, says a leading activist.
The current crackdown on pro-democracy and human rights advocates reflects Kremlin “hysteria,” …
The Friends of Syria group – Western and Arab states seeking President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster – “are under pressure to produce a plan to make that happen,” Reuters reports, ‘but their unwillingness to act outside a deadlocked U.N. Security …
Global poverty is regressing, despite the global economic downturn and uneven progress on the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, according to the World Bank.
But “we risk allowing these gains to come undone if we fail to strengthen the …
“What determines whether or not new democracies survive … is the way in which political leaders respond to their inability to solve the problems facing the country,” wrote Samuel Huntington. “Democracies become consolidated when people learn that democracy is a …
A prevalent school of thought has held that as Internet access and use grows, the trajectory of freedom in unfree settings would improve, given these technologies’ unique traits of proliferation and diffusion, writes Christopher Walker.* In other words, unlike old …