Category: Ideology

‘Xi Jinping’s Moment’ – Communist Party primacy in all realms of politics and civil society

     

Xi Jinping has emerged as the most decisive, disciplined Chinese leader in a generation, and, given China’s rise in relative strength compared to the West, the most powerful in more… Read more »

China’s aggressive soft power corrosive of democracy, sovereignty

     

  China has officially embraced Joseph Nye’s theory of soft power, using it both as a justification and as a new euphemism for the Chinese government’s expanded and revised overseas… Read more »

Idealism as realism in the Middle East: Re-thinking political Islam?

     

  In the pre-Arab Spring era, the Muslim Brotherhood and the many movements it inspired reached a consensus for how to pursue their aims: bide their time, do their best… Read more »

Will Hamas’s ‘Hezbollah model’ scupper Palestinian reconciliation?

     

Hamas’ supreme leader says his group will not give up its weapons, a vow that is sure to complicate reconciliation talks with the rival Fatah movement, The Washington Post reports:… Read more »

Stepan, Turkey and Islam’s democratic compatibility

     

The emergence of an “upstart populist party” like the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been facilitated in no small part by a widespread fear that Islam and democracy are incompatible,… Read more »

CVE report: non-violent Islamist groups ‘a recruitment pool for jihadists’

     

  Non-violent Islamist groups have acted as a recruitment pool for dozens of jihadists who have gone on to join al-Qaeda, Islamic State and similar extremist groups, according to research… Read more »

Corruption, poor economy, illiberalism threaten Tunisia’s exceptionalism

     

Poor economic conditions and corruption are at the source of intense public dissatisfaction in Tunisia, according to a new poll by the International Republican Institute’s (IRI) Center for Insights in Survey Research:… Read more »

Xi tightening grip on China’s civil society in effort to ‘institutionalize legitimacy’

     

Since becoming Chinese president in 2012, Xi Jinping has been tightening his grip on civil society, the military and competing political cliques. Now, as the Communist party prepares for the five-yearly… Read more »

Defending sovereignty vs. promoting democracy?

     

There was an echo of George W. Bush’s democracy promotion agenda in President Donald Trump’s address to the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly. But unlike Mr. Bush, this… Read more »