obama
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By Michael Allen on February 24, 2010
“We are living through a period of global backsliding of democracy and autocratic assault on vital freedoms,” Yuri Dzhibladze told President Barack Obama last week.
The head of the Moscow-based Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights, a grantee of the National Endowment for Democracy, joined a delegation of human rights defenders from last [read full story]
Posted in Regions | Tagged National Endowment for Democracy, obama |
By Michael Allen on July 9, 2009
Civil society groups will play a vital role in creating a fresh start between U.S. and Russian societies to match the “reset” in inter- governmental relations, President Barack Obama told Russian activists.
Real change “typically comes from the bottom-up,” said the former community organizer. “By mobilizing and organizing and changing people’s hearts and minds, you then [read full story]
Posted in Eastern Europe, Russia | Tagged civil society in Russia, obama, Russia |
By Michael Allen on July 8, 2009
Another must-read – and timely too, as the Obama administration finally nominates Michael H. Posner for Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, in the Department of State.
Check out the new Freedom House special report on the administration’s funding of democracy and human rights.
Making its Mark: An Analysis of the Obama [read full story]
Posted in Democracy assistance, democracy promotion | Tagged Democracy assistance, democracy promotion, obama, obama administration |
By Michael Allen on June 4, 2009
In his much-anticipated speech in Cairo, President Barack Obama dismissed the equation of democracy promotion with the war in Iraq. He affirmed his commitment to “governments that reflect the will of the people” while accepting that “each nation gives life to this principle in its own way, grounded in the traditions of its own people.”
Yet [read full story]
Posted in Democracy assistance, Egypt, Elections, Human rights, Islam/politics, Middle East and North Africa, authoritarianism, democracy promotion, promoting democracy | Tagged democracy promotion, Islamists, muslim brotherhood, obama, Project on Middle East Democracy, promoting democracy |
By Michael Allen on April 8, 2009
President Barack Obama’s one-on-one with Russia’s President Dmitri Medvedev is being hailed as one of the successes of the president’s first major international excursion and confirmation that the U.S. is prepared to press the reset button on US-Russian relations.
But it appears that the sentiment is not fully reciprocal, with the Kremlin apparently more inclined to [read full story]
Posted in Eurasia, NGOs/Civil society, Russia, promoting democracy | Tagged Central Asia, Dmitri Medvedev, Freedom House, National Democratic Institute, obama, Russia, Soros Foundation |
By Michael Allen on March 26, 2009
Reflecting on speculation that the Obama administration may downplay democracy as a foreign policy priority, former House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt and former Rep. Vin Weber (R-Minn.) insist that “the question is not whether but how to promote democracy abroad.”
["S]uch assistance will advance a realistic foreign policy agenda as well as one that is more [read full story]
Posted in Democracy assistance, democracy promotion | Tagged Democracy assistance, democracy promotion, obama |
By Michael Allen on March 9, 2009
Several dozen scholars and experts, including Egyptian dissident Saad Eddin Ibrahim and Malaysia’s former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim -are urging the Obama administration to support democracy in the Arab and Muslim world. An open letter to the president, to be released at a Washington news conference tomorrow, states that the West has “supported repressive [read full story]
Posted in Islam/politics, Middle East and North Africa, promoting democracy | Tagged Arab democracy, Democracy assistance, democracy promotion, obama |
By Michael Allen on March 6, 2009
The Obama administration’s courting of Russia is its “biggest break from Bush administration policies”, Statfor analysts suggest. Russia’s support on containing Iran’s nuclear aspirations and facilitating supply lines to Afghanistan is considered a more compelling strategic imperative than its neighbors’ anxiety over Russian aggression or Georgia’s NATO aspirations.
The United States should resist any ‘grand bargain’ [read full story]
Posted in Democracy assistance, democracy promotion | Tagged Democracy assistance, democracy promotion, obama |
By Michael Allen on March 4, 2009
The new U.S. administration is likely to downplay, but not downgrade democracy as a foreign policy imperative. President Barack Obama is unlikely to be as vocal in highlighting democracy as a leading policy objective, and he has demonstrably pragmatic, realist instincts.
But he also has a conviction that democracy is closely intertwined with economic, security and [read full story]
Posted in Africa, Backlash, China, Democracy assistance, Elections, Human rights, Russia, democracy promotion, promoting democracy | Tagged Democracy assistance, democracy promotion, Elections, obama |
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