“An army of human-rights defenders are risking their lives to protect the freedoms of others, but who is defending them?” asks Rebecca Grant at VentureBeat.

Stockholm’s Civil Rights Defenders handed out the first five of the group’s new …

The familiar cliché about Margaret Thatcher, the first woman to lead a major Western democracy, is that she changed the way Britons thought about themselves and the way the world thought about Britain.

Her death today attracted somber tributes …

The Russian Foreign Ministry’s updated Foreign Policy Concept document reveals much about the Vladimir Putin’s emerging foreign policy doctrine and confirms that the Obama’s administration’s “reset” policy is effectively defunct, says a leading analyst.

“Russia’s new foreign-policy doctrine is rooted …

Rock star Mark Knopfler [right] has cancelled two shows in Russia to protest the Kremlin’s crackdown on civil society groups.

“When Russian tax and law enforcement authorities recently raided the Moscow offices of Human Rights Watch, they invited …

The failure of young democracies in so many regions of the world has had enormous consequences, writes Joshua Kurlantzick. Most obviously, the renewed strength of authoritarian rule means that billions of people continue to live under repressive or pseudo-democratic …

International civil society groups are expressing alarm at the current wave of official raids on the offices of domestic and international NGOs operating in Russia.

The Civic Solidarity Platform, a consortium of human rights NGOs from Europe, Eurasia and the …

Democratic backsliding in Eurasia, Egypt’s dependence on foreign subsidies, Kenya’s elections, Russian anti-corruption initiatives and the U.S. military’s efforts to help promote democracy feature in this week’s Democracy Lab roundup:

Anna Nemtsova sends a dispatch from Moscow on the …

A divergence of interests between the emerging powers known as the BRICS is complicating Beijing’s efforts to form an alternative axis to counter Western democracies’ influence, says a leading analyst.

“Given the leverage that China enjoys in BRICS, it should …

While the Kremlin is forcing overseas-funded NGOs to register as “foreign agents” in an attempt to undermine entirely legitimate, transparent and locally-driven civil society programs, Eurasia’s post-Communist states have proven adept at using GONGOs and similar fronts to exert influence …

Vladimir Putin has been president of Russia for 13 years and if his grip over the establishment remains as tight as it is now, many fear he could reign for the rest of his life, writes Ben Judah. Since December …