Category: Analysis

Countering the globalization of jihad

     

Terror attacks in recent months — some claimed by Isis or its adherents — suggest that the Sunni Islamist extremist group and its violent, ultra-conservative ideology are successfully extending their… Read more »

Threat to liberal democracy’s primacy overstated?

     

The fact that the world’s richest country after World War II had a liberal economy and system of government had important implications not only for the creation of an open… Read more »

Bleak prospects for Putinism – and Russian democracy

     

Russian President Vladimir Putin used to seem invincible. Today, he and his regime look enervated, confused, and desperate. Increasingly, both Russian and Western commentators suggest that Russia may be on… Read more »

Myanmar: constitutional change on the agenda?

     

The party of Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi has instructed its lawmakers not to leave the capital, rank-and-file members said, fueling speculation of a legal bid to sidestep a clause… Read more »

Dawning of a new era? Geopolitical and vox populi risks converge

     

Once largely confined to less-transparent emerging market economies, the post-global financial crisis saw the return of political risks to the advanced democracies as well, while challengers to Western liberalism continue… Read more »

Quiet consensus against Palestinian elections

     

It’s rare these days to find anything that Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, the U.S. and Israel agree on. And yet when it comes to elections there is a  choosing their… Read more »

‘Liberal civic nationalism’ triumphs in Taiwan poll

     

“Our democratic system, national identity and international space must be respected,” Tsai Ing-wen [left] said on Jan. 16 in her first remarks as president-elect in Taiwan. Tsai and her Democratic Progressive… Read more »

Argentina’s Macri: taking a lead, making a difference

     

Argentina has gone further than other Latin American states to snub Venezuela’s Chavista establishment over its violations of human rights and democracy, notes analyst Mac Margolis: Recently elected President Mauricio… Read more »

Latin America: no sympathy for Venezuela’s Chavistas

     

When Venezuela’s head of state arrived in Quito, Ecuador, last week for the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States summit, his pitch was almost unrecognizable. Gone were the encomiums… Read more »