Category: Civil Society

Ukraine on friction point between Russian authoritarianism & West’s democracy

     

Ukraine has overwhelmingly voted for fundamental change and is now led by people who are committed to making their country a modern democracy committed to liberty and the rule of… Read more »

‘Maximalist campaigns’: How nonviolent uprisings succeed

     

  Democracies are dying at the hands of elected authoritarian populists who neuter or take over the institutions meant to constrain them, notes Stanford’s Larry Diamond. Yet mass prodemocracy protests… Read more »

‘Historically unique threat to democratic discourse’: Autocrats waging ‘digital war’

     

A digital ecosystem that can “defend and promote democracy” is needed to counter autocrats’ digital warfare, a top EU official said Thursday. Russia and China* are waging a “digital war”… Read more »

‘Democracy: From Theory to Practice’: Assessing decay, breakdown and renewal

     

The autocratic resurgence was a factor in prompting USAID to declare 2020 as the Year of Democracy and launch a campaign called #Democracy Is… in order “to highlight the interlocking… Read more »

Democracy embattled: How to make renewal happen?

     

A growing number of think tanks uses the World Economic Forum’s conference in Davos as an opportunity to release headline grabbing studies, analyst Mike O’Sullivan writes for Forbes. Of the… Read more »

‘Powder keg’ or ‘pressure cooker’? Iran’s unprecedented legitimacy crisis

     

Iran’s president warned Monday of threats to the Islamic Republic’s “democracy and national sovereignty,” after a body dominated by his ultra-conservative rivals disqualified thousands of candidates, weeks before elections, AFP… Read more »

30 years after Mongolia’s transition: Has democracy delivered?

     

To protect its sovereignty and independence, Mongolia has walked a geopolitical tightrope tethered by a “good neighbor” policy with Russia and China and a “third neighbor” policy with the United… Read more »

‘Signposts of Struggle’: Iran’s protest movement endures

     

Human rights sources have reported that detained Iranian protesters are under severe torture in the notorious Fashafuyeh Prison in Tehran by IRGC intelligence agents. The detainees have been subjected to… Read more »

‘Political Reinvention’: How a democratic counteroffensive can win

     

  We’re living at a transformational moment in history. The survival of open societies is endangered, according to George Soros, founder and chair of the Open Society Foundations. “As I… Read more »