If President Musharraf is ousted, it will be another example of Pakistan's underlying stability

Christopher Hitchens has come round to Tom Paine's view that things would have been far better if the French revolution had been more like the American

Engagement alone will not solve the crisis. The west must invest in Iranian civil society and support dissidents

The west should consider sanctions, but it should also focus on exploiting the divisions among Iran's ruling elite and empowering Iranian society

Who governs France? Not parliament, trampled on by the street and the president

In 1998, 30 years after the student uprisings that politicised a generation, Germany's "1968ers" entered government. Expectations were high but the red-green coalition's achievements have been limited. Their liberalising effect on Germany in the decades before 1998 will be the…

Most post-Soviet states, like Ukraine, decided not to shoot their citizens. Not Uzbekistan

Iraq should look to Israel for a model that combines democracy and religious belief

The John Humphrys of Hong Kong has fled, complaining of intimidation. Those left behind are pushing against Beijing's block on democracy

China's incoherent dissidents will not cause the collapse of the system

Western attacks on Burma's pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, merely assist the military regime

The world's most famous prisoner has little to show for ten years of struggle. Is the Burmese opposition crumbling?