Politics & Society

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Snapshot,
Maria Lipman and Nikolay Petrov

The current protests in Moscow are too weak to radically change the country's politics by themselves. Nevertheless, they will continue to erode Putin's legitimacy. Even if he wins the March 4 election, he will not enjoy the same monopoly on power that he used to.

Snapshot,
Samuel Gregg

The Vatican has recently made pointed calls for global financial reform, but the Church's teaching is grappling to accommodate the growing divergence between the immediate economic expectations of Catholics in developed European nations and those living in emerging economies.

Snapshot,
Hayder al-Khoei

Iraq is not suffering sectarian strife as much as what could be called intra-sectarian conflict, in which rivals from both the country’s Shiite- and Sunni-dominated parties reposition themselves amid the political fray.

Essay,
Fouad Ajami

Terrible rulers, sullen populations, a terrorist fringe -- the Arabs' exceptionalism was becoming not just a human disaster but a moral one. Then, a frustrated Tunisian fruit vendor summoned his fellows to a new history, and millions heeded his call. The third Arab awakening came in the nick of time, and it may still usher in freedom.

Snapshot,
George Fulton

The ruling Pakistan People's Party's days in office are numbered. But it will not likely fall to a coup, given the stalemate between the military, the judiciary, and the civilians. Instead, the most likely outcome is that the government will call early general elections, which will bring a new batch of civilians to the fore.

Snapshot,
Michael Weiss

More and more outsiders are calling for a humanitarian intervention in Syria to stop Bashar al-Assad's killing sprees. But for this to work, Syria's various opposition groups will have to first coalesce into a single, unified political and military force.

Comment, Jan/Feb 2012
Gideon Rose

Today’s troubles are real, but not ideological: they relate more to policies than to principles. The postwar order of mutually supporting liberal democracies with mixed economies solved the central challenge of modernity, reconciling democracy and capitalism. The task now is getting the system back into shape.

Comment, Jan/Feb 2012
Francis Fukuyama

Stagnating wages and growing inequality will soon threaten the stability of con­temporary liberal democracies and dethrone democratic ideology as it is now understood. What is needed is a new populist ideology that offers a realistic path to healthy middle-class societies and robust democracies.

Review Essay, Jan/Feb 2012
Shlomo Avineri

Intelligent observers of Europe in the 1930s thought its future belonged to communism or fascism and would have ridiculed the notion that decades later the entire continent would be democratic. New books by Jan-Werner Müller and Eric Hobsbawm illuminate the changing fortunes of the continent’s great ideologies.

Postscript,
Jennifer Lind

The suddenness of Kim Jong Il’s death has sparked fears of instability on the Korean peninsula and beyond. Fearing a messy collapse, Beijing and Washington are trying to promote a smooth transition. But rooting for stability means rooting for the continuation of arguably the most despicable government on earth.

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