North Korea’s Solzhenitsyn
It was a dog-eared manuscript, 743 pages bound in string. But for Do Hee-youn, an activist campaigning for human rights in North Korea, it was nothing less than stunning, The… Read more »
Category: National Endowment for Democracy
Premature forum risks botching Mali peace accord
The security situation in northern and central Mali continues to be very difficult, reports suggest: This was illustrated last week by a criminal attack on an international humanitarian organisation in… Read more »
Can crowdfunding bypass civil society crackdowns?
With heightened restrictions on foreign funding, reporting on the Russian government’s repression requires creative social media projects, argues Grigory Okhotin, one of the founding members of OVD-Info in Russia. Given… Read more »
S. M. Lipset & democracy’s fragility
If Seymour Martin Lipset had lived, he would have celebrated his 95th birthday on 18 March. Today, his prolific scholarship remains as timely and influential as when he was an… Read more »
Reality check: life in a Cuban jail
Stephen Purvis loved Cuba and his job as development director with one of several small foreign firms that were setting up as the country sought international partners following the collapse… Read more »
How political populism has taken root
Populism and political extremism has been on the rise for years, especially in Europe, with both left and right wing authoritarians gaining in popularity, according to analysts at Deutsche Bank…. Read more »
After the Miracle: The End of the Asian Century?
East Timor is voting for a new president in an election that will test Asia‘s newest and poorest nation, VOA reports. Meanwhile, Cambodia’s ongoing crackdown against opposition politicians and… Read more »
Time to combat ‘frightening authoritarian populism’
Tony Blair is launching a “new policy platform to refill the wide open space in the middle of politics” aimed at combating a “frightening authoritarian populism” that he says is… Read more »
Kleptocratic Russia’s plot against the West
With Europe’s political stability, social cohesion, economic prosperity and security more threatened today than at any point since the Cold War, Russia is destabilizing the Continent on every front, argues… Read more »
Soft power not enough in the Balkans
The 21st century in the Balkans is starting to look dangerously like the 19th — with one important difference. In the 19th century, Russia and Turkey were big rivals in… Read more »