Coercive diplomacy aims to boost Russia’s decaying regime
The Russian regime is experimenting with a three-pronged strategy against which the West is struggling to react: “to be against the West; to be inside of the West; to be… Read more »
Category: Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism Goes Global
Over the past decade, illiberal powers have become emboldened and gained influence within the global arena. Leading authoritarian countries―including China, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela―have developed new tools… Read more »
Dictators don’t stabilize the Middle East
A number of American politicians have suggested that the Arab Spring was a disaster and that the region needs strongmen to stabilize it, but while working on Middle East policy at the… Read more »
Still a long road ahead for Cuba’s civil society
A leading human rights group has strongly condemned the harassment of Cuban doctor and journalist Eduardo Herrera Duran (above). In March, Herrera — a surgeon at the Calixto García University… Read more »
Can Ukraine achieve a reform breakthrough?
It is easy to characterize Ukraine’s latest attempt to reform as a repeat of the unrealized potential of the 2004 Orange Revolution, analysts John Lough and Iryna Solonenko write… Read more »
U.N. experts decry Egypt’s civil society crackdown
Egypt is closing down domestic non-governmental organizations and putting travel bans on their staff in order to obstruct scrutiny of human rights issues, three independent U.N. human rights investigators said… Read more »
Nations in Transit: Europe & Eurasia – grim portrait of decline, small reasons for hope
While economic downturns are threatening the stability of the former Soviet Union’s “entrenched dictatorships,” the migration crisis is fueling populism in Eastern Europe, and reforms in the Balkans are in… Read more »
Video shows ‘Putin’s New Praetorians’ training to suppress a Moscow Maidan
On April 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would develop a national guard to fight terrorism and crime, but a recently released video (above) from Open Russia purports to show the guard training to… Read more »
Latin America’s New Turbulence
Aside from Peru’s inconclusive election, a number of other Latin American countries are in the midst of turmoil, according to the latest issue of the National Endowment for Democracy’s Journal… Read more »
Iraq: authoritarian nostalgia or shift from sectarian politics?
Secretary of State John Kerry made an unannounced visit to Baghdad on Friday, promising continuing American military and humanitarian aid in the fight against the Islamic State, and showing… Read more »