In The News

Democracy in Burma: Does Anybody Really Care?

Amitav Acharya September 1, 2005
Upon its 1967 founding, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) stated its collective goals, wherein members, "through joint efforts and sacrifices, secure for their peoples and for posterity the blessings of peace, freedom, and prosperity." Unfortunately, in Burma – one of the 10 member states – the ruling junta has provided none of the aforementioned "blessings"...

A Tool for Democracy Could Use Some Help

Robert E. Hunter August 19, 2005
In 2000, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright formed the Community of Democracies, an organization dedicated to fostering cooperation among democratic nations and promoting democracy worldwide – starting with 10 nations. Former diplomat Robert Hunter details the challenges for the CD, including perceived competition with the UN and some contradictory membership criteria. Hunter points out...

Don't Let the Rose Revolution Wilt

Philip H. Gordon August 18, 2005
In November 2003, a frustrated population demanded the ouster of a corrupt and autocratic government. Georgia's Rose Revolution created a model for other peaceful regime changes, as later seen in Lebanon and the Ukraine. Despite its relative success, write Philip H. Gordon and Derek Chollet, Georgia's nascent government still lacks several elements essential for a stable democracy –...

Ne laissons pas la ‘Revolution Rose’ se faner

Philip H. Gordon August 18, 2005

America Should Ditch its Tyrant Friends

T.K. Vogel August 16, 2005
"Grand rhetoric about democracy and freedom only resonates when it is supported by actual policy," write commentators T.K. Vogel and Eric A. Witte. In essence, they suggest that the Bush administration foreign policy has failed to adequately "walk the walk" in promoting democracy. While villainizing certain regimes, the US has allied itself with other leaders – for instance,...

Latin America’s Dysfunctional Democracy

Denise Dresser August 3, 2005
Most Latin American nations have democratized over the last ten years in terms of free and fair elections. With falling living standards and stagnating income, however, the region continues to be mired in poverty and democracy remains dysfunctional. Governments have produced skin-deep democracies in which people have a vote, but don’t really have a stake, in which wealth is increasingly...

The Cracks in Europe’s Expanding Empire

Mikhail Gorbachev July 26, 2005
The referendums on the EU constitution in France and the Netherlands shocked the European elites, reflecting a deep chasm dividing the ideologues and the public. The rapid expansion of the EU has caused widespread anger among citizens of the “Old World,” whose are afraid of losing their jobs to the influx of cheap labor from eastern Europe. Speculating that two separate systems in eastern and...