EVENTS
October 29, 2009, 12:15 p.m. “Revitalizing U.S. Democracy Assistance: The Challenge of the U.S. Agency for International Development.”
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) invites you to a discussion featuring Thomas Carothers, vice president of studies at CEIP; James Boomgard, president and CEO of DAI; Lorne Craner, president of the International Republican Institute; James Michel, counselor at the U.S. Agency for International Development; and David Abramowitz, chief counsel at the House Foreign Affairs Committee. CEIP, 1779 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. RSVP: David Kampf, 202-939-2233
October 29, 2009, 2:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. “Rule of Law in China”
In a June meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, President Hu Jintao expressed his belief that “the rule of law should let the people be the masters of the country.” In reality, however, the situation on the ground for rights lawyers in China has been bleak. The recently released 2009 annual report by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) found that “conditions for China’s human rights lawyers worsened this year” marked by “the harassment and intimidation” at the hands of government officials.
Panel: Douglas Grob, co-chairman’s senior staff member, CECC; Zhang Kai, Yijian Law Firm; Dai Jinbo, Institute of Holy Mountain Cultural Studies; Jiang Tianyong, Beijing Global Law Firm. Contact Elizabeth Hoffman (Rep. Wolf) or Hans Hogrefe (Rep. McGovern) at (202) 225-3599. Venue; 210 Rayburn HO, Capitol Hill, Washington DC.
October 30, 2009, at 2 p.m. “Special Report on Tibet”
The Commission’s special report provides expanded coverage and in-depth analysis of key recent developments and trends in Tibet and builds on the Commission’s 2009 Annual Report. The Chinese government has announced that by 2020 it will have completed the redesign of Lhasa and crisscrossed the Tibetan plateau with new railways, including a high-speed electric railway linking densely populated areas of China with Lhasa. Chinese officials are strengthening efforts to separate Tibetan Buddhists from the Dalai Lama, and look forward to supervising the selection of a person they intend to recognize as his successor one day. Steven Marshall, Senior Advisor, will brief on the report’s findings and analysis in Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 628, Capitol Hill, Washington DC.
November 02, 2009, 1:30pm- 5:45pm. “The European Union’s Eastern Partnership, Energy Security and U.S.-EU Cooperation”
As the nations of Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the South Caucasus seek to strengthen their relationships with the European Union, the EU shares an interest in enhancing security, good governance and free markets on its eastern frontiers. As part of that effort, the EU established the Eastern Partnership with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. On November 2, the Center on United States and Europe and the Energy Security Initiative at Brookings will co-host a conference on the European Union’s Eastern Partnership with the Embassy of Poland, the Delegation of the European Commission, the Embassy of Sweden and the Heinrich Boll Foundation. The Frontiers of Europe conference will discuss the Eastern Partnership’s potential—and the challenges it will face—in achieving its stated goals of promoting democratic values and good governance; strengthening energy security; and fostering stability and economic development. Featured speakers include Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt; Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski; Benita Ferrero-Waldner, European commissioner for external relations and European neighborhood policy; and Richard Morningstar, U.S. special envoy for Eurasian Energy.
Falk Auditorium, The Brookings Institution, 1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC.
Map Contact: events@brookings.edu
Tuesday, November 3, 2009. Violence and Impunity: Life in a Russian Newsroom The Commission on Security & Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) and
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) invite you to a gathering of top independent Russian journalists and a former senior government official to discuss:Violence and Impunity: Life in a Russian Newsroom, featuring Dmitry Muratov, Editor of Novaya Gazeta, whose commitment to investigating high level government corruption and human rights violations has led to the deaths of four of its journalists, including Anna Politkovskaya; Maxim Trudolyubov, Op-Ed Editor of Vedomosti, a Russian business daily published jointly by the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal; Grigory Shvedov
Chief Editor of the highly regarded online newspaper, The Caucasian Knot, which covers the North Caucasus; Vladimir Milov, former senior Russian government official and founder of the Russian Solidarity democratic opposition movement with Boris Nemtsov and Garry Kasparov
For nearly a decade, Russia’s once-vibrant independent media has lost ground to an increasingly authoritarian state. Many of Russia’s most promising journalists suffer routine harassment, or worse. The murders of Igor Domnikov, Anna Politkovskaya and Anastasia Baburina underscore what has become an environment of fear and intimidation. This muzzling of the press is a clear violation of Russia’s international commitments. The inability of the media to play its important role in Russia is a threat to democracy with negative implications for U.S.-Russia relations. This briefing will offer a rare chance to hear from top independent Russian journalists and a former senior Russian government official on Russia’s backsliding on press freedoms in recent years.
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. 1539 Longworth House Office Building, Capitol Hill, Washington, DC. RSVP: dc-response@rferl.org or (202) 828-7211RSVP: dc-response@rferl.org or (202) 828-7211
November 4th, 6:00 pm. 6th Annual Lipset Lecture: Democracy and Diversity: Dealing with Deep Divides. Nathan Glazer, Harvard University Professor of Education and Sociology, Emeritus, will deliver the sixth annual Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture on Democracy in the World on November 4th, 6:00 pm, at the Embassy of Canada in Washington, DC. Professor Glazer’s topic will be Democracy and Diversity: Dealing with Deep Divides. His talk will examine closely divisions that exist in the United States, Canada and India.
The Lipset Lecture, sponsored jointly by the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the Munk Center for International Affairs at the University of Toronto, provides an annual opportunity for influential audiences of both the United States and Canada to hear and discuss a declaration on democracy by a prominent intellectual. Dr. Glazer delivered the Canadian Lipset Lecture on September 24 at the University of Toronto.
Full details here, or those unable to attend, the lecture is published each year in NED’s Journal of Democracy.
November 4, 2009 “The United States and Central Europe: Converging or Diverging Strategic Interests?” co-hosted by CSIS and Warsaw-based Polish Institute of International Affairs. The event will take place in the B1 conference level of CSIS (1800 K Street, NW) on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Speakers include: Radek Sikorski, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Poland; Tomas Pojar, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Czech Republic; Kurt Volker, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs; Heather Conley, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. RSVP to Bbocka@csis.org.
November 4, 2009, 11:00am-12:00pm Wrong Way on Iran: Representative Mark Kirk Outlines a New Strategy for Human Rights and Democracy Promotion in Iran
Thirty years to the day after the taking of the U.S. hostages in Iran, in the wake of their controversial June 2009 presidential election, the regime’s ensuing crackdown against peaceful demonstrators, and recent news of U.S. funding cuts for Iran democracy programs, Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) will offer his views on how the U.S. should approach Iran on the issues of human rights and democracy.
Rep. Kirk is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and serves on its Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, which is responsible for determining annual U.S. foreign assistance funding. Serving his fifth term in the House of Representatives, Rep. Kirk is the co-chair of the bipartisan Iran Working Group, sponsor of bipartisan legislation condemning Iran’s human rights violations and chief architect of the plan to restrict gasoline to Iran in response to its violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Rep. Kirk, who holds the rank of Commander, continues to serve as a Navy Reserve intelligence officer and has served during conflicts with Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti, and Bosnia. He recently became the first member of Congress to serve in an imminent danger zone since 1942 when he deployed as a reservist to Afghanistan in December 2008.
Location: U.S. Institute of Peace, 2nd floor, 1200 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20036 Directions R.S.V.P. Now Please contact Allison Sturma at 202-429-4725 or asturma@usip.org with any general questions about this event or your registration.
November 5, 2009. Reconciliation and Insurgency: Political Strategies in the Afghan War. Featured panelists: Gilles Dorronsoro, Visiting Scholar, South Asia Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Michael Semple, Fellow, Carr Center on Human Rights, Harvard University. Moderated by: Caroline Wadhams, Senior National Security Policy Analyst, Center for American Progress.
As the Obama administration assesses U.S. goals and interests in Afghanistan, intelligence estimates now place the Taliban insurgency’s strength at 25,000, a 25 percent increase over the past year. Despite the escalating violence, senior officials in the military, the White House, and in Congress have suggested that possibilities exist to negotiate with at least some Afghan insurgents. The diverse range of motivations that feed into the insurgency and the experience in Iraq has convinced many policymakers that some Taliban fighters could be persuaded to switch sides in the war in Afghanistan. The Afghan government and the U.S. military have also begun programs to reintegrate former insurgents through monthly stipends and job opportunities.
Despite overtures by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to the insurgency and high-level Saudi-brokered reconciliation efforts, little progress has been made. Gilles Dorronsoro and Michael Semple will analyze the insurgency in Afghanistan, share their perspectives on the costs and opportunities offered by negotiation efforts, and preview the impact of the election run-off on political power dynamics in Afghanistan.
2:00pm – 3:30pm Center for American Progress, 1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor, Washington, DC 20005 Map & Directions Nearest Metro: Blue/Orange Line to McPherson Square or Red Line to Metro Center RSVP to attend this event
November 6, 2009, 02:00 PM – 03:30 PM CET. “Democracy and Human Rights Promotion Under Obama: The Complexities of Reengagement” Brussels, Belgium
One of the challenges President Barack Obama faces is reformulating U.S. policy on democracy and human rights promotion. He and his foreign policy team have so far moved only cautiously in this arena. Their efforts to dissociate the United States from some of the more damaging elements of the Bush legacy, such as their announced intention to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, have been positive. Yet the new president’s efforts to reengage with countries such as Russia, Iran, and Cuba seem to conflict with a human rights and democracy agenda.
President Obama also faces what some are calling a ’democratic recession,’ a trend that may be exacerbated by the global economic crisis. In this complex setting, how can President Obama leverage his positive global appeal to develop an effective new framework for the promotion of democracy and human rights? Carnegie’s Thomas Carothers and Riina Kionka, Personal Representative of the SG/HR on Human Rights at the Council of the European Union, will analyze the Obama administration’s emerging approach to democracy and human rights and its implications for European policy actors. Full details here.
| November 3. Forum on Democracy in Latin America with former Presidents of Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama and Peru. The Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) will co-host a press conference breakfast and panel discussion around the launch of a report entitled “Social Agenda for Democracy in Latin America for the Next Twenty Years” on Tuesday, November 3. Speakers and authors include: Alejandro Toledo, former president of Peru, SAIS scholar and president of the Global Center for Development and Democracy; Nicolas Ardito Barletta, former president of Panama; Vinicio Cerezo, former President of Guatemala; Vicente Fox, former president of Mexico; Ricardo Maduro, former president of Honduras; Carlos Mesa, former president of Bolivia.
The “Social Agenda for Democracy” was produced by a group of 20 former heads of state from Latin America in collaboration with development experts. The authors will present the document to the sitting heads of state participating in the 2009 Ibero-American Summit in Portugal later this year. For an executive summary of the report, click here. The November 3 press conference, which is open to the media only, will take place in the Murrow Room of the National Press Club at 529 14th Street, N.W., 13th Floor, from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. The November 3 invitation-only panel discussion is also open to the media and will take place in the Falk Auditorium of the Brookings Institution at 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. These events are co-sponsored by SAIS, the Global Center for Development and Democracy, the Brookings Institution, National Endowment for Democracy, Inter-American Dialogue, Andean Development Corporation, Stanford University, Taiwan Foundation for Democracy and Inter-American Development Bank. Media who want attend either or both of these events should contact Sonja Matanovic in the SAIS Office of Communications at 202.663.5644 or smatanovic@jhu.edu. Questions or comments about the report should be directed to Avi Tuschman at the Global Center for Development and Democracy at 650.387.6742 or atuschman@cgdd.net. November 3rd, 2009. “Symposium on religion and democracy in foreign policy of the Obama administration”, hosted by Georgetown University’s Berkley Center. The day-long event will consist of four panels, each of which will examine the question of religion and democracy in U.S. foreign policy from a different perspective. The panels will address the role of religious actors in U.S. democracy programs and policies; the “twin tolerations” and democratic stability in highly religious societies; emerging trends in the data concerning the relationships between religion and democracy; and the relationship between Islam and democracy in key Muslim countries. Speakers include Columbia University’s Alfred Stepan and Jean Bethke Elshtain, of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, and a board member of the National Endowment for Democracy. Timothy Samuel Shah, Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs, Boston University The Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) at the National Endowment for Democracy cordially invites you on Thursday, November 5, 2009, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. for a roundtable discussion of how understanding the environment in four categories of nations—authoritarian, democratizing, war-torn, and post-conflict—can inform the practice of media development. The maxim “one size does not fit all” applies to all development interventions, and it should likewise apply to media assistance efforts. Policymakers and media practitioners must fashion media interventions that take into consideration the distinctive social and political structures of a country and its level of economic development. This roundtable is an opportunity to discuss how to best design media assistance to fit diverse country contexts, using these four categories as a framework. Krishna Kumar, a senior social scientist at the State Department’s Office of the Director of Foreign Assistance and the author of “Promoting Independent Media” wrote the background paper for the discussion. He will initiate discussion by highlighting issues in his paper, One Size Does Not Fit All, which was published by CIMA. Gerald Hyman, a senior adviser at Center for Strategic and International Studies and the president of its Hills Program on Governance and a member of the CIMA Advisory Council, will comment on the paper. We plan to gather a small group of academics, policymakers, and media practitioners to share their insights on the prospects of media development assistance in different contexts. The meeting will be from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 5, at the National Endowment for Democracy (1025 F Street NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC). Please RSVP to Dana Binnendijk at danab@ned.org or 202-378-9590 by Monday, November 2, 2009. December 3rd. Manuel Rosales on “Challenges to Democracy in Latin America” 12:00 – 2:00 PM Center for Latin American Studies. Betsy and Walter Stern Conference Center, Hudson Institute, 1015 15th St, NW, 6th Floor, Washington, DC 20005 |
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