Category: Democracy Assistance and Promotion

Russia’s info warfare stoking tensions, sowing discord – not advancing coherent ideology

     

Russia has recently been accused of stoking tensions in the Balkans by waging ‘information warfare’ in the region, notes Jarosław Wiśniewski. Even if these allegations are true, the West should… Read more »

Advancing democracy the antidote to populist wave – Condoleezza Rice

     

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is alarmed by the political wave of rising populism, nativism, protectionism and isolationism, calling them “the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,”  Global Politico reports…. Read more »

Blasphemy politics killing Pakistan’s pluralism

     

Mashal Khan was never afraid to speak his mind. The 23-year-old journalism student was known for questioning his peers and speaking out against injustice and corruption, the Guardian reports: But… Read more »

Populist turn exposed brittle consensus on liberal democracy

     

Reaction to the French presidential election result demonstrates just how low our standards have sunk. Anything short of outright triumph by the enemies of liberal democracy is now interpreted as… Read more »

Inside Chechnya’s ‘anti-gay pogrom’

     

Using classic KGB tactics, Chechen security officers are targeting and torturing gay men, the New York Times reports: Novaya Gazeta, an opposition newspaper, first reported the pogrom, saying that at least 100… Read more »

Advancing human rights – with data

     

The International Human Rights Funders Group and Foundation Center recently published Advancing Human Rights: Update on Global Foundation Grantmaking, a report analyzing the who, what, where, and how of human rights philanthropy, notes Merrill Sovner,… Read more »

Does democracy matter? Call for renewed conviction

     

Today’s publication of a new book on democracy support occurs as we approach the 35th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s Westminster Address – the founding text for the democracy assistance effort,… Read more »

Poll shows radical Islamization challenging Indonesia’s democracy

     

The Christian governor of Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, lost a bitterly contested race on Wednesday that was widely seen as a test of religious and ethnic tolerance in the world’s… Read more »

What the beginning of the end of democracy looks like

     

The United States has been the modern world’s most influential country and has promoted democracy passively by serving as a model and actively through its diplomatic efforts, aid, and even military and covert action… Read more »

Democratic backsliding: the perils of polarization

     

If democratic backsliding were to occur in the United States, it would not take the form of a coup d’état; there would be no declaration of martial law or imposition of single-party rule,… Read more »