Some international NGOs promote universal norms and values while others advance the interests of governments. Is it possible to create space for one kind without the other?
Foreign Agents
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Civil Society
How to Get Serious About Ending the ISIS War
A long-term alternative to war can only be built by popular movements in Iraq and Syria. These movements still matter, and they deserve our solidarity — not our bombs.
Public and Private in Poland
In Poland, the market has replaced Solidarity as a symbol of civil society.
Art and the Arab Awakening
The visual landscape of the Arab World has changed greatly as various forms of creative expression have flourished in the days since the Arab Spring. Graffiti and street art not only played a distinct role in the political dissent of this revolutionary period. Art has also been an ongoing experience for the revolutionary youth that is strengthening civil society and the democratic process.
Fighting Finance from Below
At the onset of the Third World debt crisis in the 1980s, many economic justice activists were afraid to engage on the issue because they felt it was just too complicated. Then, in the 1990s, the hot issue was trade. And again, many people thought, “I’ll never understand the World Trade Organization.” But eventually, in both of these cases, large numbers of people bit the bullet and learned enough to have a voice in these debates. And they built strong movements for debt and trade justice that continue today.
Review: ‘The United Nations and Civil Society’
Institutions of global governance such as the United Nations are often limited to inter-governmental dialogue with little input from the civil society actors they directly affect. However, in her book The United Nations and Civil Society: Legitimating Global Governance – Whose Voice?, Nora McKeon documents the interaction between civil society organizations (CSO) and the United Nations over the last two decades. Developments between the two actors, she argues, point to meaningful civil society inclusion within the global political system.
Review: ‘What’s That? A Human Hell’
U Win Tin is a close associate and advisor of Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and is also known as the chief strategist of the opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). Over his lifetime, he spent 19 years in Rangoon’s Insein Prison, most of it in solitary confinement.
Review: ‘Bridging Partition’
Over one million people would die before the partition of India and Pakistan was over in 1947, when one country suddenly became two. The governments in Delhi and Islamabad quickly set about recasting national identities that would strengthen each individual regime. Central to these newly formed identities was a strong loathing for the other side, developed through closed borders, years of warfare, and a systematic approach by both governments to create fear. The people, once united, became enemies.
Review: ‘Small Change: Why Business Won’t Save the World’
Michael Edwards spent years working for such organizations as Oxfam International, Save the Children, and the World Bank. Before writing Small Change: Why Business Won’t Save the World, he directed the Ford Foundation’s Governance and Civil Society program. With this knowledge and expertise, Edwards challenges the notion that “philanthrocapitalism,” or market-driven philanthropy, can have deep and transformative value to society.
‘Decoding the New Taliban: Insights from the Afghan Field’
In early February, President Obama submitted his defense budget, asking for an additional $33 billion for the expansion of the war in Afghanistan on top of a record-breaking $744 billion for the Department of Defense. His request follows the decision to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, in the belief that greater military might is needed to defeat the Taliban and win the war. However, understanding the strength of the Taliban and its supporters could provide needed insight on how to overcome the Taliban using other tools than just the military.