Category: Democratization

What the West can do to contain Russia’s aggression, disinformation

     

Even before the December 2011 protests — and his own reelection as president in March 2012 — Vladimir Putin had begun signaling the return of a more authoritarian and aggressive… Read more »

A new social contract in aftermath of North Africa’s Arab Spring?

     

In the search for a new social contract that establishes wider consensus-based political legitimacy, North African elites must be willing to simultaneously undertake openings and reforms in the political arena… Read more »

Does culture affect foreign policy – and democratization?

     

  Western ideas—which many in the West believe are universal—collide with the ideals of Middle Eastern societies in ways that aren’t always obvious, argues Steven Cook, a Fellow for Middle… Read more »

No avoiding Mideast’s underlying issues of governance, corruption and repression

     

The next U.S. administration will inherit problems associated with the Middle East that are vastly more challenging than any in a generation as the old order has given way to… Read more »

What chance for democracy in the Middle East?

     

There are many lessons to take from the Iraq debacle, notes Gerard Russell, who served as an assistant to Iraq’s first elected prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, in 2005. The postwar… Read more »

The future of Arab reform: beyond autocrats and Islamists

     

The argument for democratic reform in the Middle East seems harder to make today, despite the evidence for it being clearer, than it was when the Arab Spring sprung, argues… Read more »

Asia’s democracies must shed inhibitions and aid Myanmar’s transition

     

While Indonesia, India, and Japan share a positive outlook on Myanmar’s democratic transition, they are all hesitant to proactively promote democracy, says a new paper from Carnegie’s Rising Democracies Network…. Read more »

What’s behind the worldwide decline of democracy?

     

The history of democracy globally is strewn with examples of extremists and demagogues manipulating prejudice, insecurity, and fear in a bid for power, argues Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at… Read more »

Beyond the Euromaidan: Will the West ever stand up to Putin?

     

Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to expand the invasion of Ukraine in January, according to independent Russian military analyst Pavel Felgengauer. Such a development would retard Ukraine’s fitful reform… Read more »