China: The dove or the dog?
Last Saturday, just hours after Xi Jinping sipped tea with Emmanuel Macron while calling for peace in Ukraine, fighter jets flew across the Taiwan Strait in a display of Chinese… Read more »
Why we should promote democracy – ‘with humility and restraint’
Max Boot (“What the Neocons Got Wrong,” March 10) deserves praise for some serious soul-searching, the Carnegie Endowment’s Thomas Carothers observes. Yet in renouncing his prior belief in military-led regime… Read more »
Stress testing a grand strategy of democratic solidarity
As competition (or even conflict) with Russia and China deepens, the US may see an advantage in returning democracy and human rights promotion to the first tier of policy instruments… Read more »
Defiant Kremlin critic Kara-Murza shows price of speaking up in Putin’s Russia
Vladimir Kara-Murza has emerged as one of Russia’s most respected democratic opposition leaders and voice of conscience. He has been a major advocate for the adoption of Magnitsky-style sanctions in… Read more »
Sword of Damocles hangs over Cuba’s ‘Voices of Change’
In Cuba, elections are neither the means to select governments nor a channel for citizens to communicate their views, CIVICUS reports. Rather, they serve a legitimizing purpose, both domestically and… Read more »
‘Authoritarianism shall perish’: China sentences high-profile dissidents
Two prominent Chinese human rights lawyers have been sentenced to more than a decade in prison, Human Rights Watch said Monday, the latest in a crackdown by the ruling Communist… Read more »
‘Democratic bright spots’ highlight nascent reform
Giving greater attention to instances of democracy’s forward momentum makes sense, say the Carnegie Endowment’s Thomas Carothers and Benjamin Feldman. As the recently released annual assessments by Freedom House and… Read more »
Democracy and its opposites: Can we slow authoritarian backsliding?
Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14 will pose a key question of our time: is it possible to slow authoritarian backsliding and renew democratic progress? notes Gönül Tol, the… Read more »
Venezuela’s autocracy rising: How Maduro survived
In spite of sanctions, international isolation and protests, Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian regime in Venezuela has managed to stay in power and make diplomatic gains, notes analyst Will Freeman. Maduro has… Read more »
Russia still seeks a ‘Chechen solution’ for Ukraine
Moscow’s aim in Ukraine continues to be that of “eliminating anti-Russian elements” and eventually imposing a “Chechen solution” on the country, a former Russian colleague tells Nathalie Tocci, Director of… Read more »