Author Archives:
PROFILES IN FREEDOM: BAWK JAR LUM NYOI
When Kachin human rights activist Bawk Jar Lum Nyoi was arrested on July 18th and charged with negligent homicide, most Burma watchers were shocked — even those of us accustomed to seeing friends hassled by Burmese authorities.
CHINA REVERTS TO HARD LINE IN TIBET
Prior to 2008, China seemed to have two Tibet policies: one severely hard-line for central Tibet (the Tibetan Autonomous Region or TAR), and another, slightly less repressive policy in Tibetan areas outside the TAR. After widespread protests swept across Tibet…
MONGOLIA’S CHALLENGE: GEOGRAPHY AND THE “RESOURCE CURSE”
Freedom Square special contributor Kelley Currie explores the booming economy of Mongolia and its effect on the country’s consolidating democratic system.
BURMA’S TRANSITION: PROGRESS, HOPE AND RISK
Special contributor Kelley Currie discusses the challenges facing Burma after several years of partial reforms by the ruling military government. While sectarian and ethnic conflicts plague the country, Currie points to deeper societal issues that pose great challenges to democratization.
AFTER NEDA AND ROWHANI, WILL IRAN REFORM?
In the wake of the surprisingly large victory by centrist candidate Hussein Rowhani in Iran’s recent presidential election, it is a good time to revisit the legacy of the 2009 Green Movement and the woman who embodied it for many – Neda Agha-Soltan. Her brutal death at the hands of a sniper, presumed to be from the regime, became the symbol of the clash between the Iranian theocracy’s grim determination to bend that society to their will, and the more hopeful aspirations of millions of young Iranian women and men to make free choices about both their own lives and the future of their country.