Building Global Democracy

The aim of this study is to analyse the reasons for the shortcomings of the EU as an agent of democracy promotion in Algeria. Instead of focusing solely on the EU, the study proposes that it was the interaction between EU-level problems and domestic, poli

In late 2008, the Hugo Chavez administration celebrated 10 years in government. Since his first electoral triumph on Dec. 6, 1998, a new period began characterized by the emergence of progressive and leftist governments in South America. Chavez's rise to

Is the Obama administration putting democracy promotion on the back-burner or simply toning down the previous administration's Freedom Agenda oratory? Is promoting democracy falling victim to calculating realpolitik or simply being "pursued with more mode

CHA-AM, Thailand, Feb 28 (IPS) - South-east Asian governments are examining the possibility of using a seven-year-old regional mechanism, known as the ''Bali Process,'' to find an answer to minority Muslim Rohingyas fleeing ethnic cleansing in military-ru

HARARE, Feb 26 (IPS) - Women's rights activists in Zimbabwe are outraged by the low representation of female politicians in the new unity government. Only four women are part of the 35-member cabinet, laughably short of the equal representation of women i

Today there is a widespread recognition of the erosion of political community on the territorial basis of the nation-state. Instead, alternative framings of "being" political or of engaging in politics have argued for a more radical post-territorial space

The United States emerged from the 1990s as an unrivaled global "unipolar" state. This extraordinary imbalance has triggered global debate. Governments and peoples around the world are struggling to understand to how an American-centered unipolar system o

WASHINGTON, Mar 11 (IPS) - Scores of Middle East and democracy experts released an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday asking him to focus more of his foreign policy efforts at making reforms in the region, including boosting human rights.

Windhoek, Mar 7 (IPS) - The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary Forum has set its sights on becoming a regional parliament with law-making powers. The body was established in 1997 to create a platform for the region's legislators t

Democracy assistance has increasingly featured in the foreign policy discourse of the European Union toward the Mediterranean. This article overviews three of its key aspects. First, it shows how the Mediterranean has become an area for democracy assistan

Democracy and development are deeply intertwined in spite of the difficulty of identifying a direct, causal and quantifiable relationship between them. More importantly, they are increasingly understood today as including each other to a great extent and

For quite some time there has been a collective perception of a moral crisis in post- Mao China. This perception is informed by standards held by members of Chinese society rather than by standards outside of it. In this article, the author attempts to la

This paper presents an overall view of the Philosophy of Tian-xia, a particular form of neo-universalism developed by its author and very much debated in the last years. The system of Tian-xia, or 'all-under-heaven', is a philosophical re-elaboration of a

This essay intends to build an analytical tool for understanding social values. It proceeds by defining the term 'social value', differentiating 'core' and 'non-core' social values and discussing their respective functions in society. Then, it extracts fr

Around the turn of the century, political philosophy became one of the most lively areas of philosophical study in China. An important trend of development is represented by the shift from macro-political philosophy to micro-political philosophy. A carefu

The contemporary Chinese intellectual Kang Xiaoguang has argued that Chinese soft power should be based on Confucian culture, the most influential Chinese political tradition. But which Confucian values should form the core of China's soft power? This pap

This paper addresses the current revival of Confucianism in China. It analyzes its political issues and outcomes, underlines the possible defects in Confucianism as a theory of politics, i.e., as a science and art of government and a public ethics. It loo

This paper deals with the geo-political implications of neo-universalist tendencies in current Chinese political philosophy. It is stated how Chinese philosophy can contribute to overcome a 'clash' theory of intercultural relations. The author underlines

WASHINGTON, Mar 16 (IPS) - The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama should work hard on areas of common interest with Russia in order to build a "partnership, however uneasy," that would serve Washington's interests in key areas, including non-pr

A letter calling for the Obama administration to maintain a commitment to Arab democracy has sparked an energetic and informative debate on promoting democracy in the Arab world. The letter, signed by 140 analysts, practitioners, bloggers, and activists,