Mali’s youth left out of progress?
The West African nation of Mali has undergone an extraordinary transformation since 2012. Events have included a military coup, a foreign military operation to battle Islamist insurgents in the north… Read more »
Russia – poster child for electoral authoritarianism
Russia is the poster child for a type of governance termed electoral, or competitive, authoritarianism, analysts Erik C. Nisbet and Elizabeth Stoycheff write for The Washington Post: These autocratic governments… Read more »
Tunisia – lost in transition?
Tunisia has been a rare and extraordinary exception to the nearly universal culture of impunity across the Arab world, notes George Washington University’s Marc Lynch. Tunisians made transitional justice—the judicial… Read more »
South Sudan conflict calls for firm intervention
A peace plan for South Sudan that was intended to end three years of fighting in the world’s newest nation has failed largely because it “depends on the cooperation of… Read more »
South Africa lurching between democracy and despotism
Jacob Zuma presides over a political paradox, argues Richard Calland, associate professor in public law at the University of Cape Town. The nation he leads is at long last becoming… Read more »
Time to act on Azerbaijan
Earlier this year, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan looked like he was softening his authoritarian grip on his country, note David J. Kramer and Richard Kauzlarich. But since President Obama’s… Read more »
Illiberal international seeks ‘cultural counter-revolution’
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, have proclaimed a counter-revolution aimed at turning the European Union into an… Read more »
Gay Cuban journalist dismissed, as Farinas hunger strike continues
A gay Cuban journalist and activist says he was fired from a government-run radio station because he worked with independent media, The Washington Blade reports: Maykel González Vivero (left) hosted… Read more »
USAID must save Afrobarometer, say former Africa Bureau officials
One of Africa’s most important democracy advocacy organizations is in trouble because of a sharp decrease in donor funding, according to several former Assistant Secretaries in the State Department’s Bureau… Read more »
MidEast governments’ hostility to foreign analysts prompts protest
Middle Eastern governments and media are demonstrating increasing hostility to foreign researchers and journalists, according to an open letter signed by a group of distinguished scholars, academics, journalists, and… Read more »