Twilight of the Putin Era?
While the Kremlin’s new national security strategy is not devoid of foreign policy goals, it is actually heavily focused on Russia itself, notes Olga Oliker. In this context, it’s notable… Read more »
Category: Authoritarianism
Down the Rabbit Hole: the UNHRC’s Universal Review Process
As part of a National Endowment for Democracy project addressing the voting records and activities of the United Nations Human Right Council (UNHRC), Chris Sabatini and Amy Williams examine the recommendations… Read more »
When rhetoric collided with reality in the Middle East
President Obama came to office far more focused on showing the world that the Bush era was over than on any coherent strategy of his own for advancing human… Read more »
Two options for how Putin’s regime may end
What happens these days in Russia is explicable and in a great degree even predictable – but that to understand, one must forget about traditional norms and logic as they… Read more »
Friends, Foes, and Future Partnerships in a Turbulent World
To achieve its strategic goals, the United States relies heavily on its allies and coalition partners—the “outer defenses” of America’s security system, notes RAND analyst Hans Binnendijk. It needs partners… Read more »
Liberal democracies ill-equipped to deal with autocrats’ ‘hybrid warfare’
The latest version of Russia’s National Security Strategy is the most specifically anti-Western one to date, Leonid Bershidsky writes for Bloomberg: NATO and the European Union are accused of being… Read more »
China’s labor rights movement gaining momentum
Chinese authorities recently detained seven labor activists in the southern province of Guangdong, alleging that they were “inciting workers to go on strike,” and “disturbing public order,” among other… Read more »
Venezuela ‘braced for bitter political showdown’
Venezuela is braced for a bitter political showdown as the opposition takes control of parliament, pitting the socialist government of President Nicolás Maduro against a coalition of lawmakers who aim… Read more »
Cuban dissidents freed in rapprochement back in custody
President Obama may go to Cuba this year if its government bolsters its human rights record and opens its doors more fully to American business in the coming weeks, a… Read more »
Restless Russia: Kremlin Bracing for Spring of Discontent?
Predicting a coming Russian revolution has been a favorite hobby of Russia watchers for years now. But since President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014, the doomsaying has… Read more »