The Bush administration launched several initiatives to “encourage reform, democratization, and political openness” in the Middle East, notes Oussama Safa, general director of the Beirut-based Lebanese Center for Policy Studies in Beirut, a grantee of the National Endowment for Democracy. Citing the Middle East Partnership Initiative, the Democracy Assistance Dialogue, the Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative, and the Foundation for the Future, he argues that while “most of these tools were designed with grand democracy goals in mind, their effectiveness has waned and they now should be redefined to take into account new priorities in the region”:
Reform declarations issued by conferences in Alexandria, Sanaa, and Doha, among others, should be revived and governments in the region should be urged to keep their commitments to them. Concomitantly, the new US administration should encourage the dissemination across the region, where appropriate, of successful homegrown experiences of democracy and openness in countries such as Turkey, Morocco, and Kuwait that reconcile religious values and local cultures with demands for reforms.
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