Cubama: what President Obama should say about Cuba
Cuba has released four dissidents and put them on a plane to the U.S. just days before President Barack Obama’s historic trip to the island as part of the rapprochement with President… Read more »
Category: Economic Reform
Renewed confrontation in Georgia?
European Union membership “is a historical choice” for Georgia, according to Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze (above). “We are not a country which just decides to join blocs,” he told… Read more »
Can Europe’s last dictatorship avoid a meltdown?
Belarus has seen very little political change since gaining its independence in 1990, in spite of a warming in relations with the European Union (EU), which has recently ended visa bans and… Read more »
Autocracies Failed and Unfailed: strategies for ‘good enough governance’
Successful democratization attempts depend mostly on the interests of local elites, Stanford University’s Stephen D. Krasner argues in Autocracies Failed and Unfailed: Limited Strategies for State Building, the third of the Atlantic… Read more »
Why illiberal democracies?
The rise of illiberal democracy in Central Europe is at least partly due to incomplete or inadequate democratic transitions from Communist rule, Le Monde’s Sylvie Kaufmann writes for The New… Read more »
Democracy That Delivers
Programs to counter violent extremism and building the economic institutions of democracy in North Africa are just two of the topics featured on a new podcast launched by the Center… Read more »
Religious politics signal ‘Rough Times for Democratic Change’
Democracy and models of social market economy are facing an unprecedented challenge worldwide, while the influence of religion on political institutions and legal systems is on the rise, says… Read more »
Iran poll balances ‘external loosening’ with ‘internal stiffening’
Iranians headed to the polls Friday in elections made easy for conservatives after sweeping bans that left many pro-reform candidates off the ballots, adding further political pressures on Hassan Rouhani,… Read more »
Reform, security and public order in the Middle East
The security situation facing the Middle East is grave and appears to be trending toward greater violence and instability, says a new report. The states of the region have tended… Read more »
As Cuba’s dissident crackdown peaks, Obama trip ‘could be a subversive moment’
Even some supporters of President Barack Obama’s moves to strengthen relations with Cuba are questioning the timing of his planned visit to the Communist island next month, after arrests… Read more »