Category: Civil Society

Corruption could ‘send Ukraine back to Russia’?

     

  The European Union today announced plans to give Ukraine some 50 million euros (55 million dollars) to fight corruption. EU Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes… Read more »

Egypt’s dubious security harvest

     

  One of the main motivations behind Egypt’s 2013 military coup was to counter potential violence and terrorism. Yet one of its main upshots is a surge in violence and… Read more »

ISIS ‘metastasizing’ – losing territory and social media presence

     

  The Islamic State group lost 12% of the territory it holds in Iraq and Syria – an area the size of Ireland – in the first half of 2016,… Read more »

JCPOA failed to open up economic and political space within Iran

     

Activist Iyad el-Baghdadi had initially hoped that the Iran nuclear deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), would give Iran’s entrepreneurs, reformists, and civil society at large more breathing space:… Read more »

Real danger to the world isn’t Brexit – it’s the rise of illiberalism

     

Two weeks after Britain’s EU referendum, Europe has defied predictions that the UK’s vote to leave would inspire a surge in copycat breakaway movements, with establishment parties enjoying gains and populists… Read more »

Transitional Sri Lanka: Workers in Post-Civil War Jaffna

     

Sri Lanka continues to recover from a long and brutal civil war (1983–2009) between the ruling Buddhist Sinhalese and the primarily Hindu Tamil minority. During the conflict, which penetrated all… Read more »

New Forms of Democratic Citizenship in MENA

     

The Arab Spring opened a window of opportunity to revise democracy support in a direction that better reflects local interpretations of citizenship and rights, but external actors have yet to… Read more »

Democracies join authoritarians in rejecting civil society space

     

The United Nations Human Rights Council has passed a resolution for the “promotion, protection, and enjoyment of human rights on the internet” which condemns any country that intentionally disrupts the internet access of its… Read more »

‘A crime against humanity’ – Venezuela on the edge

     

It’s been almost two years now since the renowned Harvard economist Ricardo Hausmann caused a stir in his native Venezuela by posing an uncomfortable question, Bloomberg reports: Why does a… Read more »

Islamists threaten ‘fractious path’ of Pakistan’s democratic transition

     

Weeks of scathing criticism has apparently prompted a provincial government in Pakistan to review a grant of $3 million it has recently allocated for a controversial Islamic seminary, which some… Read more »