The Obama administration is set to announce a set of penalties against the Syrian government following its brutal crackdown against pro-democracy protesters. But “officials still remain skeptical that they have the leverage to significantly affect the unfolding crisis,” writes Josh Rogin.
The latest initiative follows a series of internal debates about the appropriate [READ MORE]
No, it’s a hybrid regime, according to Javier Corrales and Michael Penfold.
Yes, says Gustavo Coronel, citing Corrales and Penfold’s “Dragon in the Tropics”, to make his case:
There are no negotiations with the opposition, die-hard loyalists of Chavez are in all top positions, civic institutions lack autonomy, there are [READ MORE]
Egyptians are hopeful about prospects for a democratic transition, but their political attitudes combine traditional religious sentiment with modernist aspirations, according to a new Pew opinion poll.
The poll suggests that Western fears that the Muslim Brotherhood will dominate Egyptian politics are unfounded. The Islamist group enjoys favorable ratings from three out of four respondents, but [READ MORE]
The warning came ahead of a two-day-long human rights dialogue with Michael Posner (left), U.S. Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and other U.S. officials.
The Communist [READ MORE]
The attacks of 9/11 prompted a flood of comment and criticism over the U.S. government’s failure to ‘win hearts and minds’ and the need to contest a war of ideas against jihadist Islamists and other anti-democratic foes. Analysts and pro-democracy activists have also complained that authoritarian powers like China appear to be more adapt and committing [READ MORE]
At the core of the reforms announced by Cuba’s President Raul Castro at least week’s Communist Party Congress is “a structural adjustment so harsh it would make even advocates of the ‘shock therapy’ meted out in the former Soviet bloc wince.”
But are the reforms “too little, too limited and too late” or do they represent “a historic moment, [READ MORE]
As Syrian troops invaded the southern city of Dara’a today, unverified video footage showed tanks opening fire on civilian homes.
“They have snipers firing on everybody who is moving,” a witness told The Associated Press by telephone. “They aren’t discriminating. There are snipers on the mosque. They are firing at everybody.”
“They are entering houses. They [READ MORE]
Hundreds of truck drivers in Shanghai have ended a strike which severely disrupted shipping during three days of protests at the world’s busiest container port (left).
While the dispute has been settled, it nevertheless confirms that the potentially “destabilizing impact of rising prices… could spark a wider protest movement,” observers suggest.
Strikers reportedly clashed with police, but unofficial accounts [READ MORE]
President Obama came to office with a pragmatic approach to foreign policy, “determined to break free of the old ideologies and categories,” while skeptical of liberal internationalism and notably more comfortable with realist positions, Ryan Lizza writes in this must-read article from The New Yorker.
“The truth is that my foreign policy is actually a return to the traditional [READ MORE]
“What are the chances of successful democratic transitions in Tunisia and Egypt?” Reflecting on a recent trip to the North African states, Columbia University’s Alfred Stepan compares their cases to the many democratic transitions that he has observed and analyzed across the world.
What are the chances of successful democratic transitions in Tunisia and [READ MORE]
Even the Hermit State is no longer hermetic.
New communications technologies are making Pyongyang’s secretive Communist elite increasingly anxious about the long-distance contagious effect of the Arab awakening:
Radio Free Asia (RFA), broadcast from the United States, has reported that high-ranking officials of the Korean Workers’ Party were informed in February of the situation in Egypt through an intraparty publication circulated exclusively [READ MORE]
It has been described as “the largest small country on the map, microscopic in size but cosmic in influence,” encompassing “the history of the civilized world in a miniature form.”
And that’s why the protests in Syria are considerably more important than the unrest seen [READ MORE]
Dozens of civilian protesters, including an 11-year old boy, were killed by Syrian security forces today as tens of thousands of demonstrators mobilized in the largest and bloodiest of pro-democracy mobilizations yet seen in the country. (Video footage of the protests can be viewed on the blog Syrian Revolution 2011 and Youtube’s [READ MORE]
The acquittal of Mukhtar Mai’s assailants by Pakistan’s Supreme Court appears to confirm the recent observation that democracy “sits uncomfortably with traditional society.”
Her case is not the only one to suggest so:
In 2008, three teenage Baluch girls were shot and buried alive for refusing to marry [READ MORE]
Pakistani democrats and civil society groups expressed outrage and anxiety at the Supreme Court’s acquittal of five men accused of gang-raping a young woman in 2002 on the orders of a tribal council.
The case raises acute concerns about the integrity of state institutions, rule of law and the fragility of a democratic culture in [READ MORE]