The purported winner of Malaysia’s recent elections “emerged weaker out of the contest than before he went into it,” says a leading analyst.  

After the Barisan Nasional coalition captured only 47 percent of the popular vote but won …

Iranians voted for a clerical bureaucrat with whom they have hardly anything in common because they want democracy – and believe it should take precedence over shari’a, according to a recent survey.

“Having lived with clerical rule for decades, Iranians …

Celebrities from across the Balkans and beyond have lent support to Bosnia’s ‘Babylution’ protests over personal ID cards, Balkan Insight’s Kenan Efendic reports:

Serbian actor Sergej Trifunovic on Tuesday published a picture of himself on Facebook holding up …

Reports that Iran’s president-elect, Hassan Rohani spoke approvingly about concealing his nation’s nuclear program have raised fresh concerns about his moderate credentials.

“Rohani is not an outsider and any gains by him do not mean the system is weak …

Afro-Cuban dissident Cuesta Morua (right) can’t understand why some American progressives who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. or identify with him today can support a regime that would never permit a similar movement, writes The Washington Post’s Harold …

The transition from authoritarianism to democracy is notoriously difficult, according to Council on Foreign Relations analysts Isobel Coleman and Terra Lawson-Remer. Countries like Egypt, Tunisia and Myanmar should draw on the democratization experience of Poland, Ukraine, Thailand, Indonesia, …

“For a lesson in what Hasan Rohani’s reformist-backed presidency could mean for Iran, a promise Sunday by the ultra-powerful Revolutionary Guard to cooperate with him is a good guide,” Associated Press reports:

Like the rest of Iran’s ruling Islamic …

“U.S. President Barack Obama announced more than $300 million in new humanitarian aid on Monday to address the Syrian crisis and to help neighboring countries cope with the 1.6 million refugees who have fled the civil war,” Reuters reports.

Obama …

Hassan Rohani’s victory in Iran’s presidential election “proved that the Islamic Republic’s instinct for self-preservation trumps its ideology,” says a leading analyst.

A former head nuclear negotiator and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s current representative in the Supreme …

Tunisia faces risks linked to its political transition and a fragile global economy but it will not be a “new Greece,” the International Monetary Fund said today:

In early June, the IMF approved a two-year standby loan for about …