Democracy Lab Weekly Brief, July 20, 2015

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Anna Nemtsova looks at the challenges facing former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili as he embarks on his new career as a Ukrainian politician.

Eric Reidy warns that Tunisia’s persistent illiteracy problem threatens to undermine the country’s new democracy.

Mohamed Eljarh scrutinizes the new Libyan peace deal brokered by the United Nations.

Sarah Kendzior reports on a Facebook group where ordinary Uzbeks are challenging their country’s authoritarian regime.

Oliver Kaplan analyzes the latest peace deal between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrilla group.

Jed Ober explains why American-style primaries — tedious though they may be — are healthy for democracies.

And Christian Caryl shows what Rwanda’s treatment of a prominent journalist reveals about the government’s attitude to freedom of the press. 

And now for this week’s recommended reads:

The International Crisis Group’s Paul Quinn-Judge reports on internal feuding and growing anarchy in the pro-Russian separatist enclaves in eastern Ukraine. Maksym Khylko, writing for the Atlantic Council’s New Atlanticist blog, argues that the West is wrong to push Kiev to decentralize power to local governments.

The BBC airs a rare interview with Burma’s top general, who warns that the military won’t step back from power until the government reaches a peace deal with ethnic rebels.

The Money, Politics and Transparency project — an initiative of Global Integrity, the Sunlight Foundation, and the Electoral Integrity Project — has just released a new series of case studies focusing on campaign finance practices and reforms around the world.

Anti-corruption group Global Witness investigates Australia’s complicity in money laundering schemes originating in neighboring Papua New Guinea.

Maria Stephan and Erin Mazursky, writing for FP, make the case that the United States needs to be more active in supporting people power movements around the world.

In the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog, Brian Phillips cautions that killing or imprisoning kingpin leaders of criminal groups (like Mexico’s El Chapo) can actually increase violence.

The Washington Post’s William Booth and Sufian Taha tell the story of a hit Egyptian-produced TV show that shows Jews in a sympathetic light.

In a New York Times video report, Adam Ellick and Nicholas Kristof report on Sudan’s ethnic cleansing campaign in the Nuba Mountains, calling it “the worst atrocity you’ve never heard of.” (The video is graphic.)

In the photo, members of Burma’s military march during a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of Armed Forces Day in Naypyidaw on March 27, 2015.
Photo credit: Ye Aung Thu/AFP/Getty Images