“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 …

As Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Egypt for the first visit by an Iranian leader in more than thirty years, the Coptic Christian pope “sharply criticized” the ruling Muslim Brotherhood in an interview with The Associated Press, saying the new …

“The age of Islamism and democracy has just arrived,” says a leading analyst, even if “the interplay may be long, arduous and ugly.”

Islamist groups have been the principal beneficiaries of the pro-democracy revolts of the Arab Awakening, taking power …

While elections and democratic transitions are significant to a country’s advancement, some events have the potential to make not only a regional impact, but a global impact as well, notes IFES, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems:

Iran’s …

Newly emerging popular movements for reform were the driving force behind the Middle East’s major gains in democratic rights last year, according to Freedom in the World 2013, Freedom House’s annual report. But other regions experienced setbacks due to …

“The democrats of the Arab Spring did not embrace revolution to advance liberalism,” says a prominent observer. The secular youth who started the region’s protests are one of the losers of the revolts, while the intellectual elite and the …

Gulf conservative states’ insistence that domestic reform movements are Iranian proxies striving to destabilize rather than democratize is debunked in a new analysis from a leading Washington think-tank.

“Shia movements in the Gulf …are still  driven more by local concerns …

For Iran, 2013 could be one of the most challenging years—both at home and in relations with the outside world—since the 1979 revolution, writes Alireza Nader. But it’s the economy that is now the Islamic Republic’s Achilles Heel.

The Islamic …

The uprisings across the Arab world have not only empowered illiberal actors, but may also undermine vital security interests, writes a prominent analyst.

“The uprisings of the last two years have represented a significant challenge to authoritarian rule in …

Most Twitter users try to ignore messages from robot accounts. But maybe we should be putting bots to work for a more noble cause—democracy, writes the University of Washington’s Philip N. Howard

“One estimate holds that 75 percent …