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By Michael Allen on March 8, 2010
Fourteen years on from the Dayton Accords, Bosnia’s political crisis threatens a renewal of extreme nationalism in the run-up to next year’s elections. The prospect of a referendum on the status of the Republika Srpska could lead to renewed ethnic violence.
Bosniaks and Croats would not accept partition, warns Reuf Bajrovic, a Sarajevo-based political analyst with [read full story]
Posted in Bosnia, Eastern Europe, state-building |
By Michael Allen on March 5, 2010
This weekend will see something rare: an election in the Arab world in which the winner can’t be predicted in advance. Aside from the predictably confessional alignments of Lebanese elections, Iraq’s March 7 parliamentary poll is the region’s only election where there is a real prospect of political power changing hands.
The campaigns have been genuinely [read full story]
Posted in Democracy assistance, Elections, Iraq, Islam and democracy, Islam/politics, Middle East and North Africa, NGOs/Civil society, Religion and Democracy, democracy promotion, democracy support, democratic reform, democratization, emerging democracies, promoting democracy, state-building |
By Michael Allen on March 3, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010 – 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM – The Iraqi Elections & the Changing Politico-Security Environment in Iraq – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1779 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. – Featuring keynote speaker Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, this one day conference presents a number of panels and experts discussing key issues of security and [read full story]
Posted in Africa, Analysis, Asia, Backlash, Blogs, China, Democracy assistance, Egypt, Elections, Fragile States, Iran, Iraq, Islam and democracy, Islam/politics, Journal of Democracy, Middle East and North Africa, NGOs/Civil society, National Democratic Institute, National Endowment for Democracy, Publications, Religion and Democracy, Russia, Soft power, Tools/technology, Women, accountability, authoritarianism, autocrats, backsliding, color revolutions, corruption, democracy, democracy and development, democracy promotion, democracy support, democratic reform, democratization, dictatorships, dissidents, economic crisis, emerging democracies, foreign policy, governance, media, promoting democracy, protests, religious freedom, rule of law, smart power, solidarity, state-building | Tagged Broadcasting in UN Blue: The Unexamined Past and Uncertain Future of Peacekeeping Radio, Center for International Media Assistance, Dalia Ziada, democracy in Mexico, Democratization in Africa, freedom of the internet for democracy, Human rights, Human Rights in the North Caucasus, Iraqi Elections, Islam and Religious Freedom, Islamic Republic of Iran, Mark Lagon, Mexican Media Under Attack, Mobilizing for Women's Rights and Eliminating Violence against Women, National Endowment for Democracy, Restoring America’s Reputation, Second Geneva Summit for Human Rights, velayat-e-faqih, Women in a Changing China, Women's Learning Partnership, Yemen, Zalmay Khalilzad |
By Michael Allen on March 2, 2010
Serious regression on Afghanistan’s political front threatens to undermine the promising gains secured on the battlefield, a new analysis suggests.
President Hamid Karzai’s backtracking on reform commitments, most recently rewriting the electoral law while the parliament was out of session and his brazen assumption of control over the formerly independent Electoral Complaints Commission, require a forceful [read full story]
Posted in Afghanistan, Asia, Failed states, Transparency, corruption, democratic reform, governance, state-building | Tagged Center for American Progress, Electoral Complaints Commission, functioning democracy |
By Michael Allen on January 28, 2010
News of secret talks with Taliban leaders broke today as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced a new international trust fund to finance the reintegration of its fighters into Afghan society – and politics. The decision came at today’s international conference in London where delegates from over 70 states and organizations met to discuss strategy [read full story]
Posted in Afghanistan, Asia, Failed states, Featured, Human rights, Islam/politics, National Endowment for Democracy, democracy support, state-building |
By Michael Allen on January 14, 2010
Why Are There No Arab Democracies? asks Larry Diamond in the latest issue of The Journal of Democracy. The January 2010 issue, which marks the Journal’s twentieth anniversary, also includes a must-read analysis of Populism, Pluralism, and Liberal Democracy by Marc F. Plattner. The full text of these articles is available online here.
You will need [read full story]
Posted in Backlash, Closed societies, Democracy assistance, Elections, Failed states, Islam and democracy, Islam/politics, NGOs/Civil society, National Endowment for Democracy, authoritarianism, autocrats, color revolutions, communist regimes, democracy, democracy and development, democracy promotion, democracy support, democratization, dictatorships, dissidents, economic crisis, emerging democracies, foreign policy, governance, legislatures, populism, promoting democracy, rule of law, state-building |
By Michael Allen on January 7, 2010
Bosnia’s political fragility suggests that the Balkans remain potentially combustible. Yet the European Union is neglecting the region and, in particular, the significance of Serbia’s bid for EU membership, argues former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer.
Belgrade’s application for EU membership was greeted with “an embarrassing silence” in Brussels, he writes, suggesting that Europeans are “too [read full story]
Posted in European Union, corruption, democratization, promoting democracy, rule of law, state-building |
By Michael Allen on December 8, 2009
The political crisis in Bosnia-Herzegovina is back on the international agenda, and the focus of intense European and U.S. diplomatic efforts. The U.S. administration will “sustain and re-energize its commitment to Europe,” Vice President Joseph Biden recently told the Bosnian parliament. “We are back, we will stay.”
But democracy advocates are concerned that speculation about partition [read full story]
Posted in Balkans, Bosnia, Democracy assistance, Elections, European Union, Featured, National Democratic Institute, democracy promotion, democracy support, democratization, promoting democracy, state-building |
By Michael Allen on November 12, 2009
November 16, 2009. U.S. Private and Non-U.S. Funding of Media Development, featuring: Anne Nelson, Author, Experimentation and Evolution in Private U.S. Funding of Media Development; Mary Myers, Author, Funding for Media Development by Major Donors Outside the United States. With comments by: Marjorie Rouse, Internews Network. Moderated by: Marguerite Sullivan, Center for International Media Assistance.
As [read full story]
Posted in Africa, Asia, Backlash, China, Democracy assistance, Egypt, Eurasia, Human rights, International Republican Institute, Islam/politics, Jordan, Latin America and the Carribean, Lebanon, Morocco, NGOs/Civil society, National Democratic Institute, National Endowment for Democracy, Pakistan, Russia, Soft power, Tools/technology, Women, authoritarianism, backsliding, corruption, democracy and development, democracy promotion, democracy support, democratization, dictatorships, dissidents, freedom of expression, governance, media, promoting democracy, rule of law, smart power, state-building | Tagged democracy support, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, International Foundation for Electoral Systems, International IDEA, uyghurs |
By Michael Allen on October 27, 2009
Endemic corruption, poverty, poor governance and executive abuse of power are the leading threats to the world’s fragile democracies, a Washington conference heard today. But too much aid and assistance addresses the symptoms rather than the underlying causes of underdevelopment, especially the endemic corruption that retards economic and democratic development.
While humanitarian assistance’s focus on quantifiable [read full story]
Posted in Democracy assistance, National Endowment for Democracy, Women, corruption, democracy and development, democracy promotion, emerging democracies, governance, rule of law, state-building | Tagged Center for International Private Enterprise |
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