Exposing China’s ‘unseen war for strategic influence’
A Communist Party congress that is poised to anoint Xi Jinping as China’s top leader for another five years will open in Beijing on Oct. 16, officials announced on Tuesday. Party… Read more »
Category: Civil Society
The ‘twin graces’ of confidence and humility vital to advancing democracy
On Feb. 17, Secretary of State Antony Blinken (right) took his seat before the United Nations Security Council and, in strikingly precise terms, offered his version of the immediate future… Read more »
Ukraine: Democratic realism vs Putin appeasers
Some 98% of Ukrainians believe their country will definitely or likely win the war against Russia, according to the latest public opinion survey conducted by the International Republican Institute (IRI). East Ukraine… Read more »
Civil society – Ukraine’s other army
Russian strategy toward Ukraine is designed to demoralize and demotivate, notes Anne Applebaum. But it encounters a potent countervailing force in the form of activists and volonteri in groups like… Read more »
Tunisia’s ‘dream of self-government’ in danger
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday that Tunisia’s “dream of self-government” was in danger, adding to U.S. criticism of the president’s expansion of powers that has already prompted… Read more »
Why organized labor is a democratic catalyst
The labor movement has played a decisively prodemocratic role, not least as a catalyst for democratic transition in such states as Poland, South Africa, Brazil, and Chile, while Tunisia’s UGTT… Read more »
With bare hands – the legacy of Oswaldo Payá
I’ve often wondered, what does it take for a lone individual to stand up to a totalitarian system, and to risk it all for the right to speak and associate… Read more »
Payá’s lesson – ‘Cubans have to change Cuba themselves’
Pulitzer Prize winning author David E. Hoffman has written a “riveting” biography of leading dissident Oswaldo Payá – ‘Cuba’s Vaclav Havel’ – whose Varela Project defied Fidel Castro’s Communist regime,… Read more »
Civil society holds the line in contested times
Democratic institutions and traditions are under increasing attack, but positive changes are still being won, says the 2022 CIVICUS State of Civil Society Report. The military has gained power in… Read more »
Assist emerging ‘bright spots’ to ensure democratic inflection point – USAID’s Power
Democracies must shift from a defensive posture in the face of autocratic resurgence and democratic decline, and seize the opportunity to reverse these trends at a potential “inflection point remembered… Read more »