Since the collapse of Communism, the Council of Europe has “become the first way station for former Soviet bloc nations aspiring to join a web of Western alliances,” writes Judy Dempsey, editor in chief of Carnegie’s Strategic Europe:

As a …

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 …

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 …

A hardline Islamist group normally aligned with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood today joined the opposition in calling for a national unity government as part of a plan to end the violence that has left more than 60 dead the past dead …

“In another apparent tit for tat provoked by the Magnitsky Act, Russia said Wednesday that it was withdrawing from an agreement that provided help from the United States in fighting narcotics and human trafficking and enhancing the rule of law,” …

A Ukrainian court has sentenced former police chief Olexiy Pukach to life imprisonment for murdering journalist Georgy Gongadze (left) in 2000, “a crime which rocked the country,” the BBC reports:

Pukach confessed but said he had acted on the …

Russia today announced further curbs on civil society groups, as a leading analyst recommends “information warfare” as the most effective response to the Kremlin’s growing authoritarianism at home and abroad.  

“Russia’s Justice Ministry is proposing legislation to extend rules …

Egypt’s defense minister has warned that continuing political conflict could lead to “the collapse of the state.”

“In an apparent rebuke to Mohamed Morsi, the Islamist president, and his liberal and leftist opponents,…General Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, who is also …

Compared with the other emerging powers in the so-called BRIC group (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), China has under-participated in global governance. The low supply of China’s contributions results from the limited interest of the Chinese authorities and limited capacity …

Last week’s mass protests in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, led by cleric-politician Tahir-ul-Qadri, were disciplined, well-organized and strategic, yet they failed because they “hit a brick wall made of Pakistan’s mainstream, democratic parties,” says a leading commentator.

“These parties, including …