Word: authoritarianism
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...Although it is envisaged as a crucial step toward creating stability, the transfer of political authority could also become a source of new instability. That may be unavoidable in a situation where, having eliminated the authoritarian regime in Baghdad, the U.S. is now presiding over an unruly contest for power among ethnically-oriented political forces looking to rewrite Iraq's basic political arithmetic that has been dominated by the Sunni minority ever since the British first cobbled together three Ottoman provinces to create Iraq. Even as they wage a full-blown counterinsurgency war against the Sunni insurgents, U.S. officials...
...Creating a non-violent, democratic channel for the expression of Islamist political sentiment may be the key to the long-term transformation of the region away from a political dynamic of authoritarian autocracy vs. extremism and terror. Democracy, however, requires a leap of faith not only on the part of Arab autocrats, but also by the powers that be in Washington. Because as much as a wave of democracy would sweep away the mullahs in Tehran and the neo-Stalinists in Damascus and the deranged dictator in Tripoli who swears he holds no power and is simply...
...modernity and of unbending resistance to the excesses of Maoism, Madame Chiang and her husband were highly regarded in the U.S., and she was even featured three times on the cover of TIME magazine. (See right.) At home, however, some regarded her as arrogant and an apologist for the authoritarian ways of the KMT regime. After her husband's death in 1975, she moved to the U.S. and a life outside of the political spotlight...
...ensuing three decades, "One China," and the inexorable shift towards opening the Chinese economy to the West following the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, began to change the terms of the relationship between Beijing, Taipei and Washington. Where Chiang had once represented the authoritarian strongman presiding over a booming capitalist economy offering low-cost manufactured goods to the U.S. market and raising the living standards of its people, today that role has been usurped on the mainland by the Chinese Communist Party. The tension across the Taiwan Strait remains high, but its terms have changed. Today, Beijing's claim...
...might prove fleeting. China watchers forecast similar changes before the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protests and the 1999 NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade?only to see China turn inward again. Even during the heralded manned space mission, there was a reminder that the central government remains authoritarian and insecure. China refused to air the liftoff live, lest state TV broadcast a midair disaster. But, for now, the rest of the world seems willing to share in the internationalist spirit that inspired astronaut Yang to hold up that little blue flag...