The Chavismo Files
Following the recent shift in the Venezuelan National Assembly it is sensible to go back and examine the legacy Hugo Chavez and his acolytes that steered Venezuela to the edge… Read more »
How the West’s normativists misjudged Russia
The expert community both in the West and Russia is retracing the steps that Sovietologists made in the 1980s, when they turned out to be completely unprepared for the disintegration… Read more »
China’s leaders reveal their fears
Once admired by authoritarian governments elsewhere, not to mention some commentators in the West, for its canny balancing of free markets and party control, China’s style of leadership may be… Read more »
Tunisia ‘headed in wrong direction’, poll finds
At least 10 senior leaders quit Tunisia’s ruling party on Wednesday as a wave of resignations in a dispute over the role of the president’s son continued to sap… Read more »
Suu Kyi’s attendance boosts Myanmar peace talks
Aung San Suu Kyi’s last-minute decision to join Myanmar peace talks she had previously criticized could boost the chances of progress with rebel groups who have so far resisted joining… Read more »
Cambodia’s long-ruling PM gears up for distant poll
Cambodia won’t hold a general election for another two years. But look at Prime Minister Hun Sen (left), its long-ruling and mercurial strongman, and you’d think one was imminent, Reuters… Read more »
#Telema: DRC activists stand up to Kabila’s government
Speaking in a new documentary about the growing Telema youth movement and his imprisonment, activist Fred Bauma hopes that peaceful engagement in the democratic process will help spur change in… Read more »
Russia and China seek new ‘client states’?
U.S. President Barack Obama raised eyebrows around the world with a difficult-to-interpret reference to Ukraine in his final annual State of the Union address that lumped the post-Soviet state and… Read more »
Is Poland a failing democracy?
Poland’s new right-wing government faces international demands to roll back radical changes to the country’s institutions, but the odds that it will suffer any serious punishment from Brussels are close to zero, analyst Jan Cienski… Read more »
Turkey: Erdogan’s ‘dangerous dance with radicalism’
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s flirtation with radical Islam in Syria and march from liberal democratic reformer to illiberal populist authoritarian have confused Americans trying to deal with Turkey, which… Read more »