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 …

Russia is trying to “re-Sovietize” Eastern Europe and Central Asia under the auspices of a Eurasian Union, the 57-member Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe heard last week.  

“We know what the purpose of these efforts is and …

Assistance to civil society and pro-democracy groups inside Belarus is yielding political dividends, writes Rodger Potocki, Senior Director for Europe at the National Endowment for Democracy. The Belarus case demonstrates false dichotomy between isolation and engagement, even if there …

Is Georgia’s first peaceful transfer of power “a good deal for pretty much everyone,” raising the possibility that the country “could once again punch way above its weight in global affairs”? Will the transition set a precedent “in a …

Anti-democratic regimes of the past employed a variety of nefarious means to silence and cow their opponents, writes Joanna Rohozinska. Now midnight visits by shadowy men and Black Marias have given way to less dramatic, but certainly no less effective …

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 …

Russia today sought to justify its “provocative” expulsion of the U.S. Agency for International Development by claiming that the U.S. government agency was deploying funds to influence the outcome of elections.

“We are talking about attempts through the …

The Pussy Riot case “reveals as much about the nature of Russian politics as it does about Russia‘s problems with foreign policy and its image abroad,” says a leading opposition activist.

“The reaction of the Russian authorities fails to show the necessary tolerance of the state and society …

As soon as the U.N.’s Human Rights Council wrapped up its annual summer meeting last week, defenders of the 47-nation body declared: mission accomplished, writes Hillel Neuer.

I applaud the Obama administration for pushing the council to censure Syria…

The European Union yesterday formally agreed to establish a European endowment for democracy to encourage “deep and sustainable” change in countries ruled by repressive regimes.

The initiative was confirmed as the EU released its Strategic Framework and Action Plan on …