Category: Civil Society

Cubazuela: A strategic occupation with global implications

     

Hundreds of representatives from governments, agencies and charity groups are gathering in Brussels for a “solidarity conference” to drum up support for millions of Venezuelans who have fled the political… Read more »

Explaining the global protest wave

     

Sixty-three people died over the weekend in a crackdown by security forces against ongoing anti-government protests [HT: CFR], according to the semi-official Iraq High Commission for Human Rights. Iraq is… Read more »

Why ceding ground to dictators doesn’t work

     

The world quickly becomes unsafe in the absence of U.S. power and will. Ceding ground to dictators is destined to work about as well today as it did when it… Read more »

The other ‘God That Failed’? The triumph and tragedy of 1989

     

“Always prepared!” For decades, it was a catchphrase of the Pioneers, an outdoorsy youth group that was a hallmark of communist indoctrination efforts targeting schoolchildren throughout the U.S.S.R. and its… Read more »

After 20 years, Nigeria’s ‘old men’s club’ of democracy shows resilience, needs reform

     

Nigeria’s politics remains an “old men’s club,” former US diplomat Linda Thomas-Greenfield told this week’s forum (above) organised by the National Endowment for Democracy in partnership with the Ford Foundation… Read more »

Democracies ill-equipped to counter info warfare in ‘Age of Durable Disorder’

     

A coordinated cyberespionage campaign using phishing to harvest passwords from mobile phones and computers has targeted U.N. relief agencies, the International Red Cross and other non-governmental organizations groups for the… Read more »

What drives democratization? Success of mass protests depends on who is protesting

     

Many observers fear that democracy is currently at risk, some blaming the less-educated  working classes, supposedly more inclined to support authoritarian populist politicians and parties, for the democratic backlash. Political analysts… Read more »

How to re-ignite democracy: Recovering the promise of 1989

     

  After communism fell, the promises of western liberalism to transform central and eastern Europe were never fully realized – and now we are seeing the backlash, argue Ivan Krastev and Stephen… Read more »

Liberal democracy ‘alien to human nature’? Intense battle for political minds and souls

     

A dramatic debate between US strategist Stephen Bannon and French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy* at the Athens Democracy Forum, illustrated the intensity of the battle for political minds and souls, The… Read more »

Armenia’s authentic democratic breakthrough faces central dilemma

     

Nikol Pashinyan’s government, which came to power as a result of Armenia’s Velvet Revolution, has the best chance in the state’s newly independent history of bringing about a sustainable democratic… Read more »