Surrounded by rivals amid a collapsing economy, the Turkish president is facing the longest odds of his life. 

There’s something farcical—but entirely rational—about the way authoritarians such as Egypt’s Sisi invoke legal justifications for repression.

Monday’s coup in Sudan represents an attempt by forces who were never interested reform or democracy to derail the country’s transition and protect their own interests at the expense of the rest of the country. While General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan claims that “the Armed Forces will continue completing the democratic transition,” his actions and those of the military leadership reveal the undeniable reality—they will forcefully resist any attempt to finish the work of the revolution, reform the security services, and establish real lines of accountability between the people and their leaders.