Category: Analysis

Corruption overshadows Ukraine aid package

     

  “You can’t catch a big fish with a small, thin rod” said Volodymyr Groysman, the prime minister of Ukraine, when asked why not a single “big fish” has been… Read more »

Fragile states need strategic, systemic, selective, and sustained response

     

  Fragile states may seem like a distant and abstract concern, but they are not, according to William J. Burns, Michèle A. Flournoy, and Nancy E. Lindborg. They are at… Read more »

Jordan election a ‘small step toward democratic reform’

     

Jordan‘s parliament election on Tuesday is being touted as proof that the pro-Western monarchy is moving forward with democratic reforms despite regional turmoil and security threats, AP’s Karin Laub writes:… Read more »

Could intervention have tilted the balance in Syria?

     

Today, five years later, it’s easy to forget that Syria’s revolution started off amid the optimism of the Arab Spring. The first protests against Assad’s dictatorship were peaceful: Demonstrators were… Read more »

Civil Society in Eastern Europe and Eurasia: Thriving, or Just Surviving?

     

Is the trend to restrict civil society, visible in Russia and neighboring countries, getting worse?  In some of the countries of the former communist world, it has become more difficult… Read more »

Inside Google’s AI-powered war on trolls

     

Mass harassment online has proved so effective that it’s emerging as a weapon of repressive governments, notes analyst Andy Greenberg. In late 2014, Finnish journalist Jessikka Aro reported on Russia’s… Read more »