Myths and realities of Iran’s election
Iranians will go to the polls on February 26 to elect members of the 290-seat parliament and the 88-seat Assembly of Experts, notes Council on Foreign Relations analyst Ray Takeyh…. Read more »
Category: Authoritarianism
Vietnam can be challenged on human rights
The Vietnamese government is accused by its critics at home and abroad of systematically shirking its international commitments on human rights, writes Pham Le Vuong Cac, a human rights defender… Read more »
Poll shows Uganda’s democracy has ‘stagnated, regressed’
\ Last Saturday, as Yoweri Museveni was declared president of Uganda for a fifth consecutive term, the military rolled armored cars down the streets of the capital, Kampala, and police surveillance helicopters… Read more »
Amid media crackdown, looming crisis within China’s legal system
China is dramatically increasing its restrictions on foreign media operations in the country. Foreign-owned media or joint ventures in China will not be able to publish online without prior… Read more »
The one change Ukraine really needs
Fighting in eastern Ukraine has picked up sharply in recent weeks, residents along the front line, commanders and European monitors say, The New York Times reports. Ukrainians marked the second… Read more »
Why protests won’t bring about a Russian color revolution
The disconnect between Russia’s population, civil society and the political elites means that popular revolt can only have a limited impact, Anna Arutunyan, author of The Putin Mystique, writes for the… Read more »
Algeria: ‘birth of a new democracy’?
International media outlets substantially covered news on the recently-endorsed constitutional amendments in Algeria, according to Sasha Toperich and Samy Boukaila of the Center for Transatlantic Relations, Johns Hopkins School of… Read more »
As Cuba’s dissident crackdown peaks, Obama trip ‘could be a subversive moment’
Even some supporters of President Barack Obama’s moves to strengthen relations with Cuba are questioning the timing of his planned visit to the Communist island next month, after arrests… Read more »
North Korea’s ‘fear society’: why human rights must come first
North Korea is the world’s most oppressive example of what former Soviet dissident, Natan Sharansky, called a “fear society,” according to Carl Gershman, president of the National Endowment for Democracy. … Read more »
Angola: a road to dialogue or things fall apart?
Angola faces a choice between three likely scenarios, says Rafael Marques de Morais, a leading journalist and democracy advocate: a dysfunctional status quo, with the kleptocratic, nepotistic regime maintained by… Read more »