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By Michael Allen on March 15, 2010
President Barack Obama’s visit to Indonesia is both personal and political, writes the Brookings Institution’s Lex Rieffel. One of the trip’s objectives is to raise the global profile of the world’s most important and least known country, including its “impressive transition from 30 years of authoritarian rule………… to become arguably the most democratic country in [read full story]
Posted in Asia, Elections, Featured, Indonesia, Islam and democracy, Islam/politics, NGOs/Civil society, accountability, democracy, democratization | Tagged authoritarian rule, collusion and nepotism, compatibility of democracy and Islam, compatibility of democracy and sharia, democracy conference in Jakarta, democratic transition, Democratic Transition and Consolidation, equating democracy with liberalism, Human rights, Indonesia and democracy, Islam and democracy, KKN: corruption, pluralism, secularism, shari'a |
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 February 4, 2010
Russia provides a challenging “test case” for the Obama administration’s approach to promoting democracy while engaging authoritarian regimes, a Washington meeting heard this week.
While President Dmitry Medvedev was ostensibly committed to modernization, Russia needs “broader institutional changes, including rule of law”, said Michael Posner, Assistant Secretary of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. [read full story]
Posted in Backlash, Eurasia, Human rights, NGOs/Civil society, National Endowment for Democracy, Russia, authoritarianism, democracy support, dissidents, rule of law | Tagged .S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission’s Civil Society Working Group, and Labor, anna politkovskaya, Assistant Secretary of State Bureau of Democracy, civil society dialog, constraints on NGOs, European Court of Human Rights, Human rights, Karinna Moskalenko, Ludmila Alexeeva, Michael Posner, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Natasha Estemirova, National Endowment for Democracy, promoting democracy, restrictions on civil society, Sergei Kovalev |
By Michael Allen on August 27, 2009
Now is the “worst time” for Obama administration to pursue a policy of engagement with the Islamic Republic, says one of Iran’s most influential analysts. Engaging the regime would not only “grant legitimacy to a regime confronting a very deep crisis of legitimacy”, but also “alienate a democratically-inclined and growing opposition movement, which expects moral [read full story]
Posted in Human rights, Iran, Middle East and North Africa, Must Read, National Endowment for Democracy, foreign policy, protests | Tagged authoritarian electoral theocracy, democratic revolutions, engagement, Hossein Bashiriyeh, Human rights, National Endowment for Democracy, Reagan-Fascell Fellowships |
By Michael Allen on July 17, 2009
The international community should abandon the irresistible illusion of Afghan democracy and adopt a more moderate, minimalist approach to stabilizing Afghanistan, argues Rory Stewart. Lacking the necessary knowledge, power and legitimacy to craft a sustainable democracy, the most feasible aspiration is a state that looks like its neighbors, he suggests.
Stabilization though an Iraq-style surge is [read full story]
Posted in Afghanistan, Democracy assistance, Human rights, Islam/politics, Middle East and North Africa, NGOs/Civil society, democracy promotion | Tagged Afghan democracy, Afghanistan, Christopher Hitchens, Human rights, Rory Stewart, state-building, sustainable democracy |
By Michael Allen on July 17, 2009
Opposition supporters used the occasion of a sermon by Ayatalollah Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to mobilize large street protests in Tehran today. In a predictably cagy speech, the former president called for the release of political prisoners but he failed to condemn the government’s crackdown and his equivocation drew criticism from the crowd.
A circular distributed among [read full story]
Posted in Backlash, Democracy assistance, Elections, Iran, Islam/politics, Labour/labor unions, Middle East and North Africa, NGOs/Civil society, Women, authoritarianism, dissidents, promoting democracy | Tagged civil society, Freedom House, Human rights, iran, sanctions |
By Michael Allen on June 4, 2009
While welcoming Obama’s Cairo speech for potentially sparking a renewal of Arab democratic discourse, activists like publisher and human rights activist Hisham Kassem are concerned less with what Obama says than what he does.
In this respect, concerns were voiced at today’s Capitol Hill meeting discussing how new authoritarians are undermining democracy when conservative and liberal [read full story]
Posted in Democracy assistance, Egypt, Human rights, Islam/politics, Middle East and North Africa, NGOs/Civil society, authoritarianism, democracy promotion, promoting democracy | Tagged civil society, Egypt, Freedom Agenda, Hisham Kassem, Human rights, new authoritarians, Obama's Cairo speech, promoting democracy, Undermining Democracy |
By Michael Allen on May 28, 2009
Kim Jong-Il combines Stalinist dictatorship with narcissistic personality
North Korea’s nuclear test and missile launchings have been widely condemned throughout the international community. Even by the regime’s friends in China.
But Greg Sheridan makes the case that Beijing was only going through the motions. He notes that no Chinese diplomat joined US, Japanese and South Korean [read full story]
Posted in Asia, Human rights, foreign policy, north korea | Tagged Human rights, north korea, Realism |
By Michael Allen on May 21, 2009
Prominent Syrian writer and dissident Michel Kilo has been released after three years in prison, a human rights group reports. “Michel Kilo was freed (Tuesday) evening,” said Abdel Karim Rihawi, president of the Syrian League for the Defense of Human Rights.
Kilo was one of several democracy activists proescuted for signing a petition calling for recognition [read full story]
Posted in Human rights, Middle East and North Africa, authoritarianism, dissidents | Tagged Beirut-Damascus Declaration, Damascus Declaration, dissident, Human rights, liberalization, Michel Kilo, syria |
By Michael Allen on May 21, 2009
Russia’s crisis is worse than the rest of the world’s, writes Anders Åslund, due to inadequate reforms, extraordinary corruption and dependence on commodity exports. Although Dmitri Medvedev and his “ambitious technocrats” are ostensibly in charge, they have been unable to implement the necessary reforms as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin remains the de facto dominant power.
The [read full story]
Posted in Backlash, Eastern Europe, Human rights, NGOs/Civil society, Russia, authoritarianism, corruption, economic crisis | Tagged authoritarianism, civil society, corruption, democracy, Human rights, NGOs, Russia, tandemocracy, Vladimir Putin |
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