For a fleeting moment this month, the separate human rights movements of the Han Chinese and Tibetans met at a point of solidarity, say Tenzin Palkyi and Louisa Greve. But such significant instances which build mutual trust are still …

Most Twitter users try to ignore messages from robot accounts. But maybe we should be putting bots to work for a more noble cause—democracy, writes the University of Washington’s Philip N. Howard

“One estimate holds that 75 percent …

There are extraordinary human beings who of right ought never to die for their very existence is a ray of hope in the tragedy of life, writes Iranian activist and historian Ladan Boroumand (right). 

This thought came to my outraged …

Posts will be light and sporadic over the next couple of weeks as the DemDigest site is redesigned and vacations taken.

Happy Holidays!

Vladimir Putin has called on Russians “not to lose ourselves as a nation,” to seek inspiration from the country’s traditional values rather than Western political models.

Russia had chosen the path of democracy, he said in his first major speech …

The revolts of the Arab awakening have been a wake-up call for European Union policy-makers, as rapid change in the Southern Mediterranean again highlighted the EU’s inability to act swiftly, decisively and audaciously to events unfolding on its borders. Last …

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is in a “complex” condition following his latest surgery for cancer in Cuba, his designated successor said today.

The incumbent’s illness has prompted the populist leader to name Vice President Nicolas Maduro (above left) as his …

…and the West may regret its lack of assistance for the opposition, says Michael Ignatieff, a former Canadian politician, now at the University of Toronto:

The agonized questions the international community has been asking for the last 18 months …

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is reviving the authoritarian agenda and contributing to what one analyst calls “the entrenchment of Islamist-liberal cleavage in the Arab world.”

“Beware the Islamists now that they have shown their true colors. That’s the message that …

They showed a military-style precision, writes AP’s Sarah El Deeb: Crowds of bearded Islamists proclaiming allegiance to Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi and chanting “God is great” as they descended on tents set up by anti-Morsi protesters outside the presidential …