Mali becoming a failed state (and it is not jihadists’ fault)
Nearly five years since a Tuareg rebellion and coup d’état, normality has yet to return to Mali, notes Kamissa Camara, the Senior Program Officer for West & Central Africa at… Read more »
Category: National Endowment for Democracy
A Bipartisan Celebration of Democracy
With democracy playing defense against illiberal mutations, resurgent authoritarianism, violent extremism and new forms of populism, it is all the more imperative to promote pluralism and defend democratic standards… Read more »
Burma violence tests Suu Kyi and foreign backers
An escalating conflict in Muslim areas of western Myanmar has emerged as a big test for both Aung San Suu Kyi and international powers who have long lauded her as… Read more »
Remembering Lebanon’s disappeared
Lebanon today mourned the death of Ghazi Aad, founder of the Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile group, The Daily Star reports: Thousands of people went missing during the… Read more »
Democracy ‘still the most effective form of government ever devised’
U.S. President Barack Obama warned today against a rise in nationalism and populism – from both Left and Right – noting that a backlash against globalization had stoked illiberal movements…. Read more »
Libya: time for a reset?
Libya may descend into a “free-fall” if the peace process among its myriad of political actors is not “reset”, a new report warns. An accord between rival factions reached last… Read more »
How populism can strengthen democracy, not imperil it
Populism has long been a contested and ambiguous concept, notes Michael Kazin, who teaches history at Georgetown University: Scholars debate whether it is a creed, a style, a political strategy,… Read more »
Beyond Dysfunction and Devastation: Iraq, the Arab Spring, and Lessons for Today
Kanan Makiya* has been described as the Arab world’s “Solzhenitsyn” for courageously bearing witness to unspeakable cruelty, notes the Foreign Policy Research Institute. His new critically acclaimed novel, The Rope, is… Read more »
Tunisian minister ousted for linking Saudi ideology with extremism
A religious affairs minister has been fired from the government after linking Saudi Arabia’s religious ideology with extremism, Deutsche Welle reports: The minister, Abdeljalil Ben Salem, had been relieved of… Read more »
Populism and protest: is Poland a harbinger?
The 2015 victory of Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) party is an example of the rise of contemporary authoritarian populism, say analysts Joanna Fomina and Jacek Kucharczyk. The PiS’s rise… Read more »