Category: International Republican Institute

Assessing Zimbabwe’s elections: another GNU in the making?

     

Amid indications that the first round of voting in Zimbabwe’s July 30 ‘harmonized’ elections may not produce a clear winner, some civil society groups started putting together building blocks for… Read more »

Consolidating democracy after Malaysia’s election tsunami

     

Following his stunning electoral upset over Prime Minister Najib Razak, Malaysia’s 92-year-old prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad is steadfast on the need for reform and said his earlier tenure in no… Read more »

Zimbabwe elections could lack credibility, civil society warns

     

The European Union will oversee elections held in Zimbabwe this summer, the first time it has done so since 2002, CNBC reports: Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa is attempting to build… Read more »

Violent Extremism in Indonesia: Vulnerabilities and Sources of Resilience

     

The recent suicide bombings in Surabaya, Indonesia highlight the country’s continued struggle with radicalism and terrorism. Claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), these attacks typify… Read more »

Populism replacing sectarianism as defining force in Iraqi politics?

     

  In all the turmoil of the Middle East, the most significant development of the year thus far may be the democratic election Iraq held on Saturday. It was competitive,… Read more »

Trouble brewing in the Balkans

     

It has been more than two decades since I worked with Richard Holbrooke and our team to negotiate an end to the war in Bosnia. NATO deployed and then acted… Read more »

Specious narrative equates political warfare with democracy assistance

     

A specious narrative has come back into circulation: that Moscow’s campaign of political warfare is no different from U.S.-supported democracy assistance, note Daniel Twining and Kenneth Wollack, president of the International… Read more »

Russia looks to Balkans as a battlefield in ‘political war’ with the West

     

With migration, Russian aggressiveness and Brexit, the European Union is taking the western Balkans seriously again, the New York Times reports: The bloc’s strategy for the Western Balkans, published in February,… Read more »

Democratization of information empowers hostile states and non-state actors

     

A major foundation will commit $10 million over the next two years toward addressing the challenges that digital disinformation poses for democracy. Focusing primarily on the role of social media, the… Read more »

Ukraine’s citizens optimistic, but concerned over corruption

     

Ukraine’s citizens are showing more economic optimism, but remain concerned over corruption, according to a nationwide poll by the International Republican Institute’s (IRI) Center for Insights in Survey Research: Twenty-three… Read more »