Category: Asia

Promoting modernized Islam to counter jihadist ideology

     

This week’s Brussels train station bombing renews the focus on the attraction and motivating power of jihadist ideology, The New York Times reports. Meanwhile, the attack on Muslim worshippers at… Read more »

UN ‘abandons democracy’ in Asia? Why governance still matters

     

Governance should be “framed in terms of how power is being exercised instead of how it is acquired,” according to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the… Read more »

Liberal democracy not yet dead but crisis likely to persist

     

In his insightful and harrowing new book, Edward Luce, a columnist for The Financial Times, issues a chilling warning, Michiko Kakutani writes for The New York Times: “Western liberal democracy… Read more »

Time to counter China’s ‘soft power’ influence ops

     

The Chinese Communist Party’s covert campaign of influence in Australia, exposed in a series of articles and “Power and Influence,” (above) set off a domestic debate about just how wary… Read more »

Vietnam: No Country for Human Rights Activists

     

Vietnamese bloggers and rights activists are being beaten, threatened, and intimidated with impunity, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today: The Vietnamese government should order an end to… Read more »

The Rise of Ethnonationalism and the Future of Liberal Democracy

     

Ethnonationalism is another of several distinctive challenges to liberal democracy, notes Stewart M. Patrick, Director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. He… Read more »

China’s OBOR raising unease about Pakistan’s fragile democracy

     

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will be questioned on Thursday by investigators probing how his family obtained its vast wealth, the first time a sitting Pakistani premier has appeared before… Read more »

Anti-corruption activists prompt rare bipartisan unity

     

Activists fighting corruption across the world shared their stories on Capitol Hill, where they received recognition from the National Endowment for Democracy and pressed for support to continue their work…. Read more »