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Two decades of unprecedented political, economic and social transformations in Eastern and Central Europe have produced outcomes that were hardly expected when the region emerged from communist rule. Despite initial pessimism about the prospect of establishing liberal democracy, several countries have developed consolidated democratic systems, functioning market economies and efficient democratic states with extensive welfare policies and relatively low inequality. Similarly, although there were well-founded doubts as to whether East European civil societies would ever be able to recover from decades of communist suppression, vibrant free media and well-organized associational life have emerged there as well. These countries are not […]

The recent collapse of authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and North Africa during the Arab Spring provides a backdrop to reflect on Latin America’s democratic transitions from authoritarian rule during the “Third Wave of Democratization” as well as to review the current health of the region’s democracies. Compared to the paucity of democracies in Latin America at the start of the Third Wave in the mid-1970s, the near-universal presence of democratic regimes today highlights the tremendous democratic progress made in the region over the past three-dozen years. Nevertheless, within this broader regional success exists considerable country-by-country variation in democratic […]

HONG KONG — Trouble is brewing in Hong Kong ahead of the vote on March 25 to choose the city’s next leader. A series of missteps have hobbled the one-time frontrunner in the race for chief executive, raising disturbing questions about whether he knows or simply ignores the laws he would be required to execute, and revealing how removed Hong Kong’s elite are from average people. The situation has put Beijing in a bind and raises the specter of a worst-case scenario involving mainland security forces deployed to restore order in the event of popular unrest following the voting. The […]

As a region that includes some of the world’s most resilient autocracies, Asia has traditionally found democracy to be a difficult subject. Popular conceptions of the region are dominated by the ever-increasing influence of China, the world’s most powerful authoritarian state, and media reports often depict a region of resiliently nondemocratic regimes, ranging from North Korea’s family-based despotism to Myanmar’s repressive military junta. This viewpoint is out of date. Today, more Asians live in genuine democracies than ever before, and Asian regimes are increasingly using their democratic status to raise their profile in the international arena. Indonesia, with a keen […]

For the past few years, the Russian government has made the unprecedented decision to purchase expensive Western military equipment, in part to fill gaps in Russian defense capabilities, but also to use the threat of foreign competition to induce Russia’s military industrial complex to modernize its means of production and contain its costs. The most well-known such purchase was the signing in June 2011 of a $1.7 billion contract to buy two French-built Mistral class amphibious assault ships for the Russian navy, with the option to negotiate the purchase of two additional Mistral class ships that would be manufactured in […]

Friends of US Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, who is accused of killing 16 civilians in Afghanistan, recall “Happy guy, full of life.” World News Videos by NewsLook

Sandwiched between OPEC members Ecuador and Venezuela, Colombia has for decades looked like an Andean misfit because it was not a major oil exporter. But when Venezuela’s foreign minister visited Bogotá in November, he reportedly asked his counterpart, “When is Colombia going to join OPEC?” Quietly, Colombia has become the fourth-largest oil producer in Latin America, after Venezuela, Mexico and Brazil. Today, Colombia produces nearly 1 million barrels of oil per day (bpd), almost double its output in 2005. By 2015, Colombia’s oil minister expects the country to produce 1.5 million bpd. Improved security is the most obvious reason for […]

When Robert Zoellick recently announced that he won’t seek a second term as president of the World Bank, representatives of numerous emerging-market countries issued a flood of statements decrying America’s 66-year lock on the position. Meanwhile, the Chinese went out of their way within the organization to express their firm desire to have a commanding say in who succeeds Zoellick. Insiders are predicting that an American will still win the spot and that the Chinese simply want to exercise a showy veto over the proceedings. That would be too bad, because there are a host of good reasons why Washington […]

BOGOTA — Government and economic think-tank estimates may differ on the potential economic benefits of the recently approved Colombia-United States Free Trade Agreement, but one of the FTA’s goals has already been achieved: It has allowed the United States to reaffirm support for the Colombian government, still waging a nearly 50-year-long civil war against the FARC guerrilla insurgency and a two-decade battle against drug cartels. Clyde Prestowitz, president of the Washington-based Economic Strategy Institute, described the trade agreement as “a geopolitical tool in the guise of an economic deal.” For Tim Stater, an economic counselor at the United States Embassy […]

Riots broke out on the French island of Reunion last month over oil prices and the cost of living. In an email interview, William Miles, a professor of political science at Northeastern University, discussed the political and economic status of France’s overseas departments and territories, known as DOM-TOM. WPR: What is the administrative and political status of France’s overseas departments and territories, and how contested is that both in the DOM-TOM and in France? William Miles: Although both the departments and territories are juridically part of France, there is an important distinction between the two. A French department is the […]

As the U.S. soldier accused of slaughtering 16 civilians in Afghanistan on Sunday makes his way back to the United States, the base where the suspect hails from is coming under scrutiny for its controversial record when it comes to military mental health. The soldier in custody, described as a 38-year-old staff sergeant who had served three tours in Iraq before arriving for his deployment in Afghanistan in December, was previously based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington. He had reportedly suffered from a traumatic brain injury earlier in his career, and his attorney has suggested that a post-traumatic […]

As the massacre of Afghan civilians allegedly by a U.S. soldier continues to reverberate, President Hamid Karzai is demanding NATO forces pull back to major bases and the Taliban has announced it’s breaking off peace talks. World News Videos by NewsLook

U.S. and South Korean soldiers conduct live-firing exercises as part of annual joint military drills, despite threats of retaliation from North Korea. World News Videos by NewsLook

In the immediate aftermath of the 2003 Iraq War, before the Iraqi insurgency had come to define the conflict, one of the Democratic Party’s loudest criticisms of the Bush administration was that it had utterly bungled the diplomatic angle in the run-up to the war: President George W. Bush had been unable to replicate his father’s success in getting the United Nations to pass a catch-all resolution authorizing “all necessary means” to ensure that Iraq was disarmed. Nor had he been able to get a major regional security organization to endorse military action after efforts at the U.N. Security Council […]

Demands on the State Department may be growing but, if last week’s congressional hearings are any indication, the State Department’s coffers will not be. Even longtime champions of robust international affairs funding like Sen. Patrick Leahy have warned the secretary of state that the $54.7 billion diplomatic and development budget requested by the Obama administration — a modest increase over last year — is unlikely to win full funding. Though increased funding for foreign affairs may well make sense, its chances are remote at best. Merely doing more with less may seem like the best approach under conditions of fiscal […]

Spain’s Repsol and China’s Sinopec announced the discovery of a huge oil reserve off the coast of Brazil late last month. In an email interview, Mark Langevin, the director of the consulting firm Brazil Works, discussed Brazil’s offshore oil resources. WPR: What is the size and scope of Brazil’s offshore oil finds, and where do efforts to develop them stand? Mark Langevin: For decades Brazil and its national oil company, Petrobras, struggled to achieve energy security to fuel national development and a stable balance of trade. In 2006 this struggle ended with the discovery of a 4 billion to 8 […]

If you’re looking for a good example of an oxymoron, or at the very least of a counterintuitive situation, nothing works better than the famed “resource curse.” The idea that great natural wealth might in fact contribute to keeping a country poor has captured the public imagination precisely because it helps explain a phenomenon that is one of the great paradoxes of our time: Countries blessed with fabulous riches are often also cursed, perhaps inevitably, with grinding poverty. But the phenomenon with the catchy title deserves a closer, critical look, because recent evidence suggests that the potion for breaking the […]