Category: Civil Society

Iraq’s ‘wobbly democracy faces most dangerous moment yet’

     

The streets of Baghdad were silent Tuesday after a week of peaceful protests — against corruption, unemployment and lack of basic services — turned deadly. More than 100 people were… Read more »

Great power competition in MENA follows ‘ineffectual’ democracy promotion?

     

Over the last few years, a crisis of legitimacy has beset the liberal international order. In the context of global reassessment, the configuration of regional orders has come into question,… Read more »

Poland’s populist turn: A looming Hungarian scenario

     

Poland’s election on Oct. 13 is the biggest test of the Law & Justice Party’s durability, say Bloomberg analysts Wojciech Moskwa and Rodney Jefferson. It has increased its popularity by… Read more »

Systematic human rights violations ‘an everyday occurrence’ in Cuba

     

A flotilla of shipments from Venezuela gave Cuba some respite this week from crippling fuel shortages in the wake of tougher U.S. sanctions, while Russia’s prime minister pledged during a… Read more »

Syria’s civil society faces ‘a disaster in the making’?

     

The United States has begun withdrawing troops from northern Syria in advance of an expected Turkish military offensive against Kurdish forces in the area, the Washington Post reports. The move… Read more »

Tempered idealism: A saga of democratic disillusion?

     

Will the post–Cold War era in which U.S. foreign policy addressed such high-minded causes as nonproliferation, democracy promotion and humanitarian intervention turn out to have been a mere parenthesis between… Read more »

1989: A reminder of democracy’s fragility and resilience

     

Three decades ago this fall, a political earthquake rocked the barrier that had divided Europe and the city of Berlin for nearly five decades. The so-called Autumn of Nations saw… Read more »

Sects, lies and populists: ‘democratic self-destruction’?

     

Look back a year, and remember how disquieting European politics seemed, as populist strategist Steve Bannon seemed to be on the verge of establishing The Movement, a cross-border alliance of… Read more »

Can Tunisia survive foreign efforts to derail its democracy?

     

Tunisia’s second presidential elections since the Arab Spring symbolize another step in the country’s promising democratic transition, The New Arab reports. The first round took place on September 15, and… Read more »

Cuba’s rebranded dictatorship ‘heading firmly in a more authoritarian direction’

     

  The European Union and Cuba yesterday held their second formal Human Rights Dialogue, under the EU-Cuba Agreement on Political Dialogue and Cooperation. The dialogue is supposed to enhance bilateral engagement… Read more »