The Adriatic Institute sent us some uplifting news this morning. The Croatian people have elected a president known as Mr. Clean, who ran on the platform of cleaning up the rampant corruption within Croatia’s government. The topic of corruption has been at the heart of the Adriatic Institute’s efforts from the beginning, and it is [...]

Last week Ed Cropley, African Investment Correspondent for REUTERS listed five risks to watch for in Africa.  Not surprisingly, threat of violence and corruption in Kenyan elections made the list.  Last year’s post-election violence has not yet been brought to justice, and there is strong evidence that tribal and ethnic groups are arming themselves for [...]

Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader resigned over the weekend, shocking the Balkan country and the European Union.  Since being elected in 2003, Sanader and his cronies have, according to Jeffrey Kuhner of the Washington Times, “Dismantled democratic institutions…controlled much of the media…intimidated or murdered opposition journalists…and turned Croatia into a gangster state.” Atlas’s friends at [...]

There is a meme working its way around the world of China-watching that says Chinese people have resigned to the fact that domestic politics aren’t going to change anytime soon, but hey, that’s OK because the ruling party is going to make us rich. This is the supposed unspoken “deal” that you’ll invariably read about [...]

We’ve written about the Adriatic Institute’s battle against Croatian corruption in the past. It now seems that the institute has caught the ear of the International media. BBC News  spoke to Natasha Srodc in this piece, discussing the threats of violence and organized crime in the country.
In addition, this article, A Balkan state in balk, [...]

The recent indictment of the governor of Illinois seeking to sell the senate seat vacated by the president-elect was only surprising in its brazenness. In the last fifty years, five governors of Illinois have been indicted. Chicago/Cook County was empty prairie in 1840 and fifty years later had one million people, mostly immigrants from southern [...]

In October we introduced you to Monica Macovei, former minister of Justice in Romania. Ms. Macovei has made it her priority to fight corruption in the Balkans, first in Romania, and now in Macedonia. She is also in touch with the incoming minister of Justice in Lithuania, Remigijus Simasius, formerly with the Lithuanian Free [...]

The Adriatic Institute shared a story with us about protests which took place this past weekend in Croatia. Using the online social site, Facebook, thousands of Croatia’s youth organized rallies in the cities of Zagreb, Rijeka and Split. The young people rallied against the arrest of a young man who created a Facebook group, speaking [...]

A couple weeks ago, we reported on the car bombing that killed two investigative journalists, Ivo Pukanic and Niko Franjic, in Zagreb, Croatia. Stay updated on the fall-out via this Washington Times commentary by Jeffrey Kuhner. He quotes our friends at the Adriatic Institute:
According to the Adriatic Institute (AI), Croatia’s finest independent think tank, government [...]

Just the other day we discussed Monica Macovei’s work fighting corruption in Romania and Macedonia. Yesterday the Adriatic Institute had to take up that mantle yet again, A car bomb in Zagreb killed two investigative journalists, Ivo Pukanic and Niko Franjic. Mr Pukanic was the publisher of the Croatian political magazine, Nacional.
Below, read Natasha and [...]