Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

Should liberals promote liberal democracy?

The new U.S Administration will inherit an intimidating array of foreign policy challenges, not least the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the threat of a nuclear Iran, a stagnant Middle East peace process, and addressing Russia’s resurgent authoritarianism. As in every other administration, there are likely to be internal differences on strategy and policy..

Freedom House report highlights authoritarian offensive

The “color revolutions” ushered in democratic transitions, but also prompted a pronounced backlash against freedom of association worldwide, according to a new report from Freedom House. Governments are taking calculated action to restrict nongovernmental organizations, human rights groups and independent trade unions, notes Freedom of Association Under Threat: The New Authoritarians’ Offensive Against Civil Society...

Supporting Arab democrats - for sustainable security

While the “tyranny of other priorities“, including Iraq and Afghanistan, will provide more pressing foreign policy challenges for the new U.S. administration, the issue of Arab democracy is unlikely to fade away. The latest reminder of the region’s acute democratic deficit came with this week’s “constitutional coup” in Algeria that saw parliament rubber-stamp constitutional amendments that abolish presidential term limits, ensuring President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s passage to a third te..

Reviving democratic internationalism?

Some analysts, drawing on fformer U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower advice - “If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it” - advocate a Global Grand Bargain covering several dimension of foreign policy. On development, for example, they suggest that the U.S. could expect poor countries to make a stronger commitment to a more democratic agenda and human rights emergencies in exchange for a more forceful U.S. commitment to the Millennium Development Goals, and more funding for food, ener..

Obama’s freedom agenda?

Barack Obama’s new Administration should adopt a more modest approach to promoting democracy, one that realizes that nurturing democratic institutions is an “extremely long-term process that, ultimately, is the responsibility of the peoples and leaders of the countries that it’s attempting to assist.”..

Egypt: ‘clinically dead’ regime fumbles reform, harasses cyber-activists

Egypt’s ruling National Democratic Party concluded its annual conference today with most commentators agreeing that it had failed to meet the meeting’s declared purpose of offering ‘New Thoughts for Egypt’s Future’...

What Arab democrats want is…

What do Arab democrats want from the next U.S. President? The next Administration should address Arab youth’s demographic predominance, support local democrats’ home-grown efforts, and tailor country-specific democratization efforts to reflect the region’s diversity and ensure that democracy delivers socio-economic benefits in ordinary people’s lives...

Democracy assistance - what works?

Academic analyst Arthur Goldsmith questions some of the premises of “undifferentiated democracy promotion”, highlighting the security risks of partial democracies and the limitations of external actors as agents of change. Rather than making the world safe for partial democracy, he argues, democracy assistance should be customized to suit countries’ particular circumstances:..

Economic crisis could turn democracy’s stagnation into retreat, report warns

Democracy’s forward march has halted, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index 2008. The third wave of democratization has given way to stagnation and regression. The EIU cautions that if the global financial crisis generates a protracted recession, “the recent halt in democratization could turn into a retreat”, as fragile non-consolidated democracies deteriorate...

Demanding Arab democracy

The demand for democracy in the greater Middle East may currently be weak. But, notes analyst Mark Katz, “If and when the demand for democratization does grow in the Middle East, American support will also be crucial for transforming it into actual democracy.”..