Domestic Politics Archive

In a recent interview with Al Jazeera, Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo offered opinions on everything from the state of democracy in his country to child marriage and Donald Trump. But of all the topics covered in the 25-minute segment, it was his responses to a series of questions on LGBT rights that seemed to attract the most attention, at least domestically. Ghana’s criminal code outlaws same-sex sexual acts, grouping them under a category of offenses referred to as “unnatural carnal knowledge.” When asked by the interviewer, Jane Dutton, why the law remained on the books, Akufo-Addo said he did not […]

Last week, a judge in Argentina sent a jolt across the country by ordering the arrest of former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner on charges of treason. It was an indictment so powerful that the shock waves must have been felt all the way to Tehran and Beirut. If the government of Iran and the leadership of Hezbollah are not watching events in Buenos Aires very closely, they really should. The case in Argentina has the power not only to bring an ignominious end to the careers of prominent Argentinian figures, but it is sure to put an unwelcome spotlight […]

Hungary’s controversial prime minister, Viktor Orban, is facing down international criticism and restoring a commanding position at home as the campaign gears up for next year’s general elections, which are due to be held by May. The pugnacious populist has also managed to capture some of the regional and global zeitgeist in the era of U.S. President Donald Trump, making common cause with hard-line nationalists around him and seizing on the aftermath of the 2015 migrant and refugee crisis. However strong he appears, though, Orban’s power in Hungary is in no small part thanks to a divided and discredited opposition. […]

Mali is set to hold presidential elections in July 2018. Pre-campaign maneuvering recently accelerated, with candidates declaring and likely candidates readying themselves to run. Although President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita enjoys the structural advantages of incumbency, events since last summer suggest he may be vulnerable next year. Keita, known in Mali as IBK, will likely seek re-election after winning his first term in 2013. He is a veteran politician, having served as prime minister in the 1990s and president of the National Assembly in the mid-2000s. Like much of Mali’s political class, he has been on the political scene since the […]

MEXICO CITY—Were Enrique Pena Nieto eligible for re-election in Mexico’s 2018 presidential race, most analysts believe he would be soundly beaten. Pena Nieto is plagued by corruption scandals, rising crime rates and, above all, the sense that he represents the very worst of the country’s oldest political party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI; his six-year-term, which ends next December, has exposed many of the fault lines that continue to undermine Mexico’s potential. Add U.S. President Donald Trump’s bullying tactics on trade and border security, and the resurgence of veteran leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in the polls, and until […]

In late November, after a building fire killed 19 migrant workers in a shantytown on the southern outskirts of Beijing, the city government began forcibly evicting thousands of migrants before razing entire neighborhoods to the ground. The evictions have sparked an outcry from within China and raised questions about the country’s urbanization policies. In an email interview, Mark Frazier, a professor of politics and academic director of the India China Institute at The New School in New York, explains what is driving the evictions and how they fit into China’s broader urbanization policies. WPR: Why is the Beijing city government […]

In this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein, managing editor, Frederick Deknatel, and associate editor, Omar H. Rahman, discuss U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and what it means for the Middle East. For the Report, Andrew Green talks with Peter Dörrie about a pilot program in Kenya that is testing the long-term impact of a universal basic income. If you like what you hear on Trend Lines, as well as what you’ve seen on WPR, please think about supporting our work by subscribing. We’re currently offering a 25 percent […]

Hondurans went to the polls nearly two weeks ago to elect a new president and a new 128-seat congress, as well as the mayors of 298 municipalities and 20 representatives in the Central American Parliament. They’re still waiting for the winners to be declared. Now, after days of protests, charges of fraud and results that appeared to swing back and forth, the country’s electoral tribunal says there will be a partial recount of 4,753 ballot boxes, equal to roughly 25 percent of polling places. That’s significant, as it means the authorities are actually opening the ballot boxes, which they never […]

Five years ago, on a hazy summer afternoon in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, a security guard at the presidential palace led me around its mosque, which had been the site of a 2011 assassination attempt against then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh during the height of the Arab Spring protests. The shoes of the men who were killed in the bombing—a who’s who of Yemen’s ruling party—were still piled outside the mosque’s entrance. Saleh was very lucky that day. He had been standing near the mosque’s doorway, away from the center of the room that had taken the brunt of the explosion, the […]

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka—For an outsider trying to unravel the complexities of Sri Lanka’s postwar challenges, the country presents countless tangled and unexpected threads. Among the surprises is that the most unlikely of countries, a nation half a world away—one that on the surface has very little in common with Sri Lanka—is playing an important role in guiding Sri Lanka forward. Colombia, the South American nation that just a year ago signed a peace agreement with rebels to end its own lengthy war, is lending its knowledge and expertise to help Sri Lanka tread a path toward peace and stability. The […]

On Dec. 4, Rahul Gandhi, the scion of India’s dynastic Gandhi-Nehru family, submitted forms to take over the leadership of the Indian National Congress party from his mother, Sonia Gandhi. Later this month, he is set to become the sixth member of his family to head the party. Since suffering a defeat in the 2014 elections to the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, Congress’ popularity has fallen to the lowest point in its long and storied history. In an email interview, Sumit Ganguly, a professor of political science and Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations at Indiana University, Bloomington, […]

On Nov. 27, after weeks of unrest in and around Islamabad, Pakistan’s government signed an agreement with Islamist protesters giving in to their demands for the resignation of the country’s embattled law minister, Zahid Hamid. The government’s concession to the protesters, and the need for the military leadership to mediate the affair, has raised serious questions about the state of Pakistan’s democracy and the power of Islamist groups. In an email interview, Shehzad Qazi, a nonresident fellow at the Center for Global Policy, explains what was driving the turmoil and what the outcome says about Pakistan’s struggling political system. WPR: […]

A village in Kenya is the only one in Africa known to be receiving a monthly universal basic income, or UBI, stipend. The experiment is intended to encourage countries with high poverty levels to rethink their approach to social welfare, but not everyone is convinced the UBI trial will yield the answers researchers seek. Makanga is a village like many others in rural Kenya. Farmsteads with walls made of clay and roofs of corrugated iron sit on plots separated by bush. Dusty footpaths cross fields that bear signs of the latest drought to hit East Africa—the effects of which are […]

Argentines watched in shock last month as former Vice President Amado Boudou was arrested and put in pre-trial detention on corruption charges. It was the latest in a string of arrests of former officials from ex-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s administration, causing many to question whether the former president, who faces indictments in several criminal cases, could be next. But although a section of Argentina’s population was elated at the media spectacle of the disheveled, barefoot vice president in handcuffs, the arrest caused journalists and politicians from across the political spectrum to question whether the judiciary is starting to abuse […]

On Nov. 26, vandals attacked a Muslim cultural center and mosque in the Polish capital of Warsaw, smashing a dozen of its windows. Far from being an isolated incident, the attack came amid growing anti-Muslim sentiment in Poland, where the government has refused to admit refugees and asylum-seekers and far-right extremism appears to be on the rise. In an email interview, Kasia Narkowicz, a researcher of Islamophobia at the University of York in the United Kingdom, discusses anti-Muslim sentiment in Poland, what is behind it and what civil society groups are doing to oppose it. WPR: What is driving anti-Muslim […]

BERLIN—Two months after Germany’s federal elections, the country is on the brink of an unexpected political crisis. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democrats, or CDU, and their sister party, the Christian Socialists, or CSU, ran first in the vote, but they finished without an outright majority. Since election night, they have been casting about for coalition partners—a process that has proven surprisingly more difficult than political pundits anticipated. The alternatives, if Merkel can’t form a coalition, are either for the CDU/CSU alliance to rule as a fragile minority government or, more likely, for new elections to take place. The latter […]

Is Germany about to retreat from the world? Berlin has become an essential advocate for liberal internationalism in recent years. But it may turn inward again. Germany has long been a payer rather than a player at the United Nations and other multilateral institutions. While disbursing large quantities in foreign aid, and cautiously experimenting with stabilization missions in the Balkans and Afghanistan, Berlin generally avoided taking a real leadership role in global affairs. The priority for Berlin was always Europe, and that remains the case. But as Germany has become more powerful within the European Union, it has discovered that […]