“History is cluttered with the examples of academics, philosophers, renowned writers, and eminent advocates of humane ideals who have aligned themselves with or apologized for the world’s most despicable tyrants,” said Arch Puddington, vice president of research at …
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March 1, 2013
in Bloggers, Elections, freedom of association, Freedom of expression, Human rights, Iran, Middle East and North Africa, News
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The Leveretts’ Iran Syndrome
February 5, 2013
in Arab Awakening, Arab Spring, Bahrain, Civil Society, Democracy Assistance, Democratic transitions, Dictatorships, Dissidents, freedom of association, Freedom of expression, Human rights, Middle East and North Africa, National Endowment for Democracy, NGOs and Civil Society, Opposition movements, Qatar, Saudi Arabia
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As Bahrain offers reconciliation talks, any ‘prospects for democracy in Gulf States’?
Bahrain will begin reconciliation talks this weekend with opposition groups, Reuters reports, in an attempt to end two years of conflict over demands for democratic reform.
Opposition groups contacted by Reuters suggested they would attend the talks but cited differences …
February 5, 2013
in Analysis, Democracy Assistance, Democracy Promotion, Dictatorships, Dissidents, freedom of association, Freedom of expression, Human rights, National Endowment for Democracy, NGOs and Civil Society
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Kampelman – a role model for ‘the right and wrong ways to change your politics’
But there’s an exception to every rule.
“Evolving from pacifist to hawk …
February 4, 2013
in Authoritarianism, Civil Society, Corruption, Democracy Assistance, Dissidents, Eurasia, freedom of association, Freedom of expression, Human rights, National Endowment for Democracy, NGOs and Civil Society, Rule of Law, Russia
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US must place realism above values to ‘reset the reset’ with Russia?
US-Russian relations will remain strained as long as Washington continues to criticize the country’s human rights record, says a close ally of President Vladimir Putin.
The US violated “a tacit understanding” to refrain from publicly criticizing Russia’s democratic regression, undermining …
February 4, 2013
in Asia, Burma, Civil Society, Corruption, Democracy Assistance, Democratic transitions, Freedom of expression, Human rights, National Endowment for Democracy, NGOs and Civil Society
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Ethnic conflicts one of three threats to the ‘Burmese Spring’
Burma’s government today held talks with senior commanders of the rebel Kachin Independence Army in an effort to end a violent ethnic conflict that threatens to undermine the country’s reform process.
“The KIA is fighting for autonomy for Kachin state …
February 4, 2013
in Asia, Authoritarianism, China, Corruption, Dictatorships, Dissidents, Freedom of expression, Human rights
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China’s dissident writers – ‘plucking feathers from a frog’?
“I think Kafka could not have written anything more absurd and unbelievable than this,” said Liu Xia (right), the wife of the jailed Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo….
….when she described [
January 31, 2013
in Asia, Bloggers, Democracy Assistance, Dictatorships, Dissidents, freedom of association, Freedom of expression, Human rights, Middle East and North Africa, Vietnam
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Vietnam ‘escalating crackdown on critics’
Vietnam’s Communist authorities are “is systematically suppressing freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, and persecuting those who question government policies, expose official corruption, or call for democratic alternatives to one-party rule,” according to Human Rights Watch’s World Report …
January 31, 2013
in Bloggers, Cuba, Dictatorships, Dissidents, Freedom of expression, Human rights
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Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sánchez gets passport
Shortly after using her Twitter account, @yoanisanchez, to blame the “lethargy of the bureaucracy in Cuba” for her inability to get a passport, the well-known blogger Yoani Sánchez (right) received permission to travel, The New York Times reports:…
January 31, 2013
in Arab Awakening, Arab Spring, Authoritarianism, Bahrain, Civil Society, Democracy Assistance, Democracy Promotion, Democratic transitions, Dictatorships, Dissidents, Egypt, Elections, freedom of association, Freedom of expression, Human rights, Iraq, Islam and Politics, Islamist groups, Labor/labor unions, Libya, Middle East and North Africa, Muslim Brotherhood, National Endowment for Democracy, NGOs and Civil Society, Opposition movements, Press Freedom, Protests, Tunisia
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Moving Beyond Rhetoric: U.S. Policy in the Middle East
The Obama administration should be more assertive steps to in?uence the outcome of Arab Spring transitions, engage more broadly than government-to-government relations with a diverse set of actors, and employ leverage and incentives to affect the behavior of key actors, …
January 30, 2013
in Authoritarianism, Dissidents, freedom of association, Freedom of expression, Human rights, Labor/labor unions, Latin America and the Caribbean, Opposition movements, populism, Rule of Law, Venezuela
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‘Hybrid autocrat’ Chávez leaves Venezuela in ‘twilight zone’
Hugo Chavez was a ‘Great Leader’? Er, no, he wasn’t, says a former admirer.
The fading Venezuelan president “was neither a tyrant nor a democratic liberator but a hybrid, an elected autocrat, and the nuances of that category often …