“More than three years into his term, it’s possible to assess where the promotion of democracy and freedom ranks in President Obama’s foreign policy: not high,” writes the Washington Post’s Fred Hiatt.
Eager to distance itself from the Bush administration’s “Freedom Agenda,” the Obama administration initially downplayed the “D-word” and stressed dignity more than democracy, he notes.
The [READ MORE]
The US State Department today urged Bahrain’s government to adopt a “humanitarian solution” to the case of jailed democracy activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says called on the regime to consider transferring Abdulhadi al-Khawaja who is on a two-month hunger strike to Denmark for medical treatment.
Police used water cannons and tear gas against protesters [READ MORE]
The US and Brazil today affirmed a shared “commitment to promote democracy, respect for human rights, cultural awareness, and social and economic inclusion,” in a joint statement from presidents Dilma Rousseff and Barack Obama (right).
While some observers believe Brazil is likely to retain the skepticism towards democracy [READ MORE]
Western engagement and economic incentives are failing to halt or slow down Ukraine’s democratic backsliding, reports suggest, while a prominent democracy watchdog today expressed concern over the health of jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko (left).
The opposition leader’s imprisonment has been a central concern for the European Union and [READ MORE]
Is Cuba’s Catholic Church acting as an agency for gradual reform, or is it providing political cover for the Communist regime in exchange for the promotion of its own institutional interests?
In response to a Vatican request, the government recognized Good Friday as an official holiday for the first time [READ MORE]
The Kremlin has ramped up its attacks on the US ambassador to Moscow and to a proposed civil society fund for non-governmental organizations in Russia.
Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov this week claimed that US democracy assistance to Russian NGOs “is reaching a scale that is turning into a problem for our relations.”
But US officials had been [READ MORE]
Burma wants the United States and European Union to keep their “promise” to lift economic sanctions after Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in a series of by-elections.
“The Electoral process has [now] been successfully conducted, this will be mainly concentrated on by the West and [now it] will be the turn [READ MORE]
A prominent independent journalist and an official of a US-based pro-democracy group were brutally beaten on the outskirts of Moscow today.
“Novaya Gazeta reporter Elena Milashina (left) says she and a female friend were attacked by two men who took her money and the friend’s laptop,” the Moscow Times reports. “She [READ MORE]
The international hacking group Anonymous has reportedly disabled several Chinese government websites to protest a regime crackdown on social media.
“Dear Chinese government, you are not infallible, today websites are hacked, tomorrow it will be your vile regime that will fall,” the English-language message (right) read. “What you are doing today to your [READ MORE]
Burma’s civilian-led, military-backed government was taken aback by the scale of the National League for Democracy’s landslide victory in the weekend’s parliamentary by-elections (above), a president adviser acknowledged.
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s triumph is prompting debate over whether lifting sanctions will incentivize and accelerate the country’s tentative democratization process or provide a disproportionate reward for relatively anemic and [READ MORE]
“The time has come to stop blaming the west for the colonialism and imperialism of the past,” notes a new analysis of the Arab awakening, which also has interesting insights about reconciling Islam, democracy, secularism, and pluralism in the modern world.
But accusations that western democracy assistance amounts to “attempts at manipulation and control” of Arab societies, confirm that Tariq Ramadan, [READ MORE]
“An anti-corruption crusader has won a landslide victory in a mayoral election in a major Russian city, dealing a painful blow to the powerful pro-Kremlin party and energizing the beleaguered opposition,” AP reports:
Yevgeny Urlashov (left) won 70 percent of Sunday’s vote in Yaroslavl, a city of about 590,000 some [READ MORE]
The backlash against pro-democracy groups is gathering pace, following the recent closure of NGO offices in the Gulf and the crackdown in Egypt. In the latest instance of authoritarian learning, Kremlin-sponsored groups in Russia are calling for new curbs on foreign funding of NGOs, Kevin Rothrock writes.
Back in February 2012, Vladimir Putin published the fourth [READ MORE]
Burma’s opposition has swept virtually all of the seats contested in Sunday’s by-elections, “a startling result that showed strong support for the opposition even among government employees and soldiers.”
The National League for Democracy party took at least 43 of 45 seats up for grabs in a major defeat for the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, an outcome [READ MORE]
“Possibly emboldened by Washington’s recent decision to approve military aid to Egypt without conditions on improving human rights,” National Journal reports, the United Arab Emirates has shut down the Dubai office of the National Democratic Institute.
UAE authorities yesterday closed the Abu Dhabi offices of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, a think [READ MORE]