The indispensable Project on Middle East Democracy is running an interesting series of responses to the question, “As President, What Should Obama Say to the Middle East?”
A recent article suggested that Obama should give his first 100 days speech in Cairo. POMED is soliciting ideas from notables about should be in such a speech. The series, which began with responses last Thursday and on Tuesday, will culminate in a publication and event in January.
Michele Dunne, editor of the Arab Reform Bulletin, suggests that Obama stress the interdependence of four key goals in the region: peace, justice, prosperity, and democracy. “There can only be peace with just resolution of longstanding conflicts and there can only be prosperity with accountable and transparent government, she writes.
Local ownership of home-grown reform is critical, writes Gerald Hyman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Domestic reform is for the people of the Middle East to embrace, not for imposition from abroad,” he states. “Yet without those reforms, international cooperation is insufficient.”
Former MEPI stalwart Scott Carpenter rejects the inevitability of standard trade-offs between realism and idealism, security and reform. Now the Keston Family Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Carpenter believes Obama should state unequivocally:
“Cooperation with your governments on security matters will continue, but I’ll insist security not be a concept reserved exclusively for the state. Human security from the state is as critical. I am committed to dialogue with adversarial governments like Syria and Iran but will not abandon principle or cut deals that abandon those who yearn for freedom.”
Recent Comments