The U.S. military doesn’t exactly have a perfect record when it comes to promoting democracy. Too often national interests – security, oil – have been given primacy over democratic values and human rights. The legacy of the Bush administrations has severely tainted the phrase democracy promotion and lead to a justified suspicion about promoting democracy by military force. However, the idea that the U.S. military should play a leading role in promoting democracy is far from…

I thought I would share this optimistic blog post on the effect of the 'global people power revolution' in 2011 by Srdja Popovic - Executive director at Centre for Applied Nonviolent Actions and Strategies.

"Even as critics discuss and argue over the success or failure of these protests, I nevertheless see a paradigm shift. People have been awakened and are understanding power and obedience not in monolithic terms – where the head of state has top-down control that should…

This question is hard to answer. Because the news we receive about the situation in Afghanistan is thoroughly limited by the difficulties of portraying life outside the zones controlled by ISAF and the Afghan authorities. Western journalists’ ability to report on the situation on the ground in the areas where the fighting takes place is very limited, and when they do enter these areas their reporting is depended upon the ISAF forces which guarantee…

Since February 2011 Bahrain has been the scene of ongoing protests. Protesters are calling for greater freedom and democracy, respect for human rights and the removal of the country’s self-imposed monarchy. So far the regime has responded with harsh crackdowns, imprisonments, and systematic torture. The regime proclaims that it is implementing reforms, but so far this has not happened. It even employs a number of western PR-companies to shape the international public opinion of the…