by Giorgio Cafiero Throughout 2017, Bahrain’s six-year-old crisis has sharpened. Political space is narrowing as the authorities in Manama have upheld the dissolution of al-Wefaq Islamic Society (the country’s dominant Shi’ite opposition society) and kept its leader, Ali Salman, in… Continue Reading
by Tatyana Ivanova In the face of demonstrations throughout the country that raise comparisons to the Ukrainian Euromaidan protests of 2014, Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko has ordered his security forces to “pick out” the organizers of protest actions “like raisins from… Continue Reading
by Alfred W. McCoy In 2016, something extraordinary happened in the politics of diverse countries around the world. With surprising speed and simultaneity, a new generation of populist leaders emerged from the margins of nominally democratic nations to win power. … Continue Reading
by Emile Nakhleh The New York Times reported last Thursday that the US State Department has decided to lift human rights as a condition for the sale of F-16 fighter jets and other weapons to Bahrain, a small, Sunni, family-ruled… Continue Reading
by Paul R. Pillar The Trump administration has decided to remove any conditions regarding human rights from sales of F-16 fighter aircraft and other arms to Bahrain. The rationale for doing so is the idea that hard power considerations ought… Continue Reading