Category: Democracy Assistance and Promotion

Georgia’s turn to the West no cause for complacency

     

Democracy has been in retreat across Eurasia in recent years, and in many countries, the lure of Western political models has faded. But Georgia has been an exception, note analysts… Read more »

Vietnam: free imprisoned bloggers

     

Vietnam’s Communist authorities should quash the politically motivated convictions of two bloggers and release them from prison, Human Rights Watch said today: On September 22, 2016, the Higher People’s Court… Read more »

Have leading democracies ‘lost their moral fervor’?

     

Some Americans have concluded that the best thing to do is to pull back from the world and its troubles, say three prominent former officials. Some argue that America’s role… Read more »

Corruption overshadows Ukraine aid package

     

  “You can’t catch a big fish with a small, thin rod” said Volodymyr Groysman, the prime minister of Ukraine, when asked why not a single “big fish” has been… Read more »

Human Rights, Accountability, & Access to Information in North Korea

     

The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) announces a Request for Statements of Interest (RSOI) from organizations interested in submitting Statements of Interest (SOI) for programs that support… Read more »

Repressing civil society a recipe for failure, autocrats told

     

Autocratic regimes which repress civil society and curb human rights are “pursuing policies that will almost certainly fail,” according to Tom Malinowski, Assistant Secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of… Read more »

Jordan election a ‘small step toward democratic reform’

     

Jordan‘s parliament election on Tuesday is being touted as proof that the pro-Western monarchy is moving forward with democratic reforms despite regional turmoil and security threats, AP’s Karin Laub writes:… Read more »

Could intervention have tilted the balance in Syria?

     

Today, five years later, it’s easy to forget that Syria’s revolution started off amid the optimism of the Arab Spring. The first protests against Assad’s dictatorship were peaceful: Demonstrators were… Read more »

Civil Society in Eastern Europe and Eurasia: Thriving, or Just Surviving?

     

Is the trend to restrict civil society, visible in Russia and neighboring countries, getting worse?  In some of the countries of the former communist world, it has become more difficult… Read more »