A Multipronged Counter-ISIL Strategy
The U.S. counter-ISIL strategy must recognize the long-term nature of the global violent jihadi threat, according to a new RAND analysis. Diplomatic and military actions should focus on reducing the… Read more »
Category: Governance
Low trust downgrades U.S. to ‘flawed democracy’ status, says EIU
The U.S. has been downgraded from a full democracy to a flawed democracy by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The group’s Democracy Index considers “60 indicators across five broad categories:… Read more »
Why defending democracy is no vice
Despite recent setbacks, there remain compelling moral and self-interested reasons to support democracy and human rights around the world, argues Michael McFaul, director of Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for… Read more »
Paradox of Progress: increased risk of conflict calls democracy into question
Economic and technological advances have enhanced human wealth and possibilities, but that same progress is disrupting the state-centered global order and creating potential pitfalls, according to Global Trends: Paradox of… Read more »
Iran’s ‘mythical moderate’: Rafsanjani blended economic liberalism, political authoritarianism
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (above, left) , who has died aged 82, was one of the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran; a shrewd politician who many Iranians saw as… Read more »
Civil society countering Ukraine’s ‘corrupt counter-revolution’
In Ukraine, revolution and reform has given way to reaction, with vested interests entrenching themselves even further, notes Sergii Leshchenko, a Ukrainian journalist and a member of the Verkhovna Rada. Today,… Read more »
What’s the state of China’s dissidents and non-state actors ?
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences researcher Yu Jianrong, a rural sociologist known for his social commentary and vocal advocacy for political reform, recently adopted the tone found in central Party edicts… Read more »
China’s ‘Great Leap Backward’
A bipartisan strategic assessment underlies a widely-shared assumption about the likely direction of China’s development, notes a leading analyst. This was not the simplistic faith that if China became richer,… Read more »
Governance, stability are interdependent in Arab world, says report
The optimism experienced at popular prodemocracy mobilization in 2011 has turned to dismay and worry at the metastasizing violence that characterizes today’s Middle East and North Africa, according to Real… Read more »
Inclusive, rights-respecting governance in Libya?
Interested in promoting inclusive and rights-respecting governance in Libya? The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) is seeking proposals with the objective of preventing… Read more »