Harnessing EU Potential for Democracy Assistance
The European Union needs a more “upfront and strategic” approach to democracy and human rights support to take advantage of the historic momentum generated by recent events, argues a new report from leading European democracy promoters. “Approaches to democracy and human rights, security and development can and should be conceived as an interdependent and seamless whole,” the report suggests, in the light of the 9/11 attacks, recent breakthroughs in the former Soviet bloc and the Millennium Development Goals' highlighting of the development-governance link.

The EU has a stronger record in promoting human rights than democracy, the report notes, in effect neglecting the need to nurture the “pluralistic institutional structures” which underpin core rights. The EU should become “more explicit and visible” in promoting democracy, decentralize democracy assistance initiatives and develop qualitative benchmarks allowing the EU to reward good performers. The “dysfunctional dividing line” between EU institutions and civil society organizations should give way to a European Forum for Partnership in Democracy and Human Rights, to encourage complementarity between democracy support initiatives, act as a repository of expertise, and generate dialogue and sharing of knowledge.

The report was commissioned by the European Parliament, produced under the auspices of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy and co-authored by Richard Youngs, coordinator of the democratization program at FRIDE, the Madrid-based think tank.

Democratic Activists Targeted in China. . .
Chen Guangcheng, a blind social activist who exposed official abuses under China's single-child policy was beaten by local officials last week, while lawyers trying to mediate with local government were attacked by unidentified thugs.

Meanwhile, Chinese authorities shut down a popular online forum that highlighted a campaign by villagers in the southern province of Guangdong to remove their elected chief amid corruption allegations. The dispute, in the village of Tanshi, is widely regarded as a test of local authorities' commitment to village democracy and the rule of law. Other democrats were badly beaten last weekend.

The closure of the Yannan forum, is a major blow, says Beijing-based rights activist Hou Wenzhuo. “It really was one of the last resources left to us—one of the last bastions of justice and social conscience for academics and rights activists alike,” she said. “A forum like that is really very rare in China. This really is a very big attack by the government on rights campaigners.”

Hou was evicted from her Beijing apartment last week as part of official efforts to prevent her giving assistance to citizens with grievances against the communist authorities. Hou, 36, said she received an order to vacate the premises of her Empowerment and Rights Institute. These events reflect Beijing's anxiety at the growing number of protests, especially in poverty-stricken rural areas, with farmers and peasants mobilizing against pollution, incompetent or corrupt government, and seizures of land for development. "Legal entitlement of farm land is not clearly defined in China,” says Hou Wenzhuo. “It looks like it belongs to the farmers, but if the government wants to take it away, it's very easy," she recently told the BBC. "Farmers are told to give up their personal interests and individual rights to serve the state. The interests of the farmers are totally ignored." But rural protesters are now transcending geographic and social boundaries, and linking farmers to campaigners, lawyers and other urban democrats, she notes.

Beijing is concerned to prevent dissident intellectuals linking up with a mass base, says Merle Goldman, the author of From Comrade to Citizen: The Struggle for Political Rights in China. Potentially, this would be "a greater and far more serious challenge to the party" than the dissent of establishment intellectuals during the Mao Zedong era (1949–1976) and the 1980s. Over 80 percent of China's villages -- almost half the country's population -- vote for village heads and village councils. Goldman suggests that grass-roots, village-based initiatives could eventually prompt a transition akin to Taiwan and Korea where authoritarian pluralism gave way to democracy “through pressure from below that the top leadership eventually was unable to ignore.”

Some fear that the confrontation in Taishi will give more conservative leaders a pretext to frustrate efforts to expand current experiments with township elections. But grass-roots activists are talking up the democracy movement’s prospects. "There is growing coordination among activists," says Hou Wenzhou. "There is growing awareness of rights among the public and there is growing resentment of the government."

. . . as Cyber-Dissidents Organize
The communist authorities are particularly concerned at the use of the internet to make links and spread news of discontent. Cyber-journalist Shi Tao was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison for sending an email about news censorship to a foreign website. Police traced the email back to the sender with the active collaboration of internet company Yahoo which turned the information over to the authorities even though it was stored outside police jurisdiction in Hong Kong.

Some believe the Chinese censors are fighting a losing battle. "The deeper problem here is that the Chinese Communist Party itself is morally bankrupt and intellectually exhausted," argues Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project and editor-in-chief of the China Digital Times. More regulations will not make official propaganda any more attractive or credible to Chinese "netizens," he says. "Undercover commentators, self-censorship by Web site hosts, and occasional harsh police action against political activists will not help China's leaders gain legitimacy and trust either," argues Xiao. "Those in the West that helped trying to suppress speech may come to regret their decisions.”

The congressionally chartered US-China Economic and Security Review Commission has called for an Office of Global Internet Freedom within the US Government to help circumvent state controls on the web in authoritarian and dictatorial regimes. “American technology should be used to crack open, not cement, the authority of the Communist party,” says Max Boot of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. The US should increase the resources of the Chinese service of the Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, and other organizations that “aim to penetrate the Bamboo Curtain," he argues.

Like Communism, Radical Islamism Threatens Freedom, says President Bush
The world is facing “a radical ideology with unalterable objectives to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world," President George W. Bush declared last week. In a speech before the National Endowment for Democracy, he said Islamist terrorists have made Iraq their main front in a war against civilized society.

"The militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region and establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia," he said. Whether one calls it Islamic radicalism, militant jihadism or Islamo-fascism, it is an ideology that “exploits Islam to serve a violent political vision: the establishment, by terrorism and subversion and insurgency, of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom.”

The US Administration has been reluctant to couch the current struggle in such explicitly ideological terms although others have been more forthright. Germany's outgoing foreign minister Joschka Fischer raised eyebrows in Europe last year by demanding more vigorous action against “destructive jihadist terrorism with its totalitarian ideology.” Left-liberal writers like Paul Berman and Christopher Hitchens have also been upfront in stressing radical Islam's ideological affinities with 20th century communism and fascism. Iranian exile Ladan Boroumand last week reminded a Washington gathering of social democrats of the totalitarian proclivities of Islamist regimes.

“Is there enough impartial honesty as can be seen in this book to understand that the world is better off without Saddam Hussein?” asks Bernard Kouchner, in a preface to Chris Kutschera's The Black Book of Saddam Hussein, which details the two million Muslims killed under his rule. “I believe so, even if history is amnesiac,” concludes Kouchner, a likely socialist candidate for the French presidency.

With the Administration under attack from both the right and the left over the imbroglio in Iraq, and obituaries for the Bush Doctrine already appearing well before the end of his second term in office, President Bush insisted in his speech that the US would not cut and run from Iraq, repeating the mistakes of Mogadishu in 1993 and Beirut in 1983. He attacked authoritarian regimes that aid and abet Islamic radicals, "allies of convenience like Syria and Iran that share the goal of hurting America and moderate Muslim governments and use terrorist propaganda to blame their own failures on the West and America and on the Jews."

Confronting Islamist ideology is the “great challenge of our new century,” Bush said, resembling the struggle against totalitarianism in the 20th century. Like communism, Islamic radicalism is elitist, “led by a self-appointed vanguard that presumes to speak for the Muslim masses”; dismissive of freedom and democracy, “claiming that men and women who live in liberty are weak and decadent”; and, like communism, Islamic radicalism's contradictions doom it to failure. “By fearing freedom, by distrusting human creativity and punishing change and limiting the contributions of half the population, this ideology undermines the very qualities that make human progress possible and human society successful,” Bush said.

Bush took a swipe at Arab news media for inciting hatred and anti-Semitism, promoting conspiracy theories and for talking of an "American war on Islam" while ignoring American actions to protect Muslims in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Somalia, Kosovo, Kuwait and Iraq.

Regional Legislators Support Call for UN to Act on Burma
Southeast Asian parliamentarians this week added their support to demands that the United Nations convene a group of leading countries to pressure Burma's military junta into accepting democratic reform. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, was unable to generate change in Burma without outside help, argued the legislators, representing the 100-strong ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus. They believe the United States, the European Union, Japan, China, India, Russia and ASEAN should jointly devise standards of democratic change and pressure the military to implement them.

Pressure to act is growing after a recent report commissioned by former Czech President Vaclav Havel and Nobel peace prize winner Bishop Desmond Tutu called on the UN Security Council to take up the situation in Burma. The 70-page report, entitled "Threat to the Peace - A Call for the UN Security Council to Act in Burma," was prepared by global legal firm DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary.

“Burma has now become a problem for the region and international community,” Havel and Tutu argue. The report details the deteriorating situation in Burma under the rule of the country's military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), concluding that as "a threat to the peace" Security Council action against Burma is authorized. Avoiding calls for sanctions, which would alienate key regional and global players, the report nevertheless calls for Security Council intervention as a “necessary international and multilateral vehicle to restore the peace, promote national reconciliation, and facilitate a return to democratic rule."

The US and the EU have yet to respond officially to the call for concerted action even though a non-sanctioned, multilateral offensive against one of the world's most-reviled regimes would likely garner widespread international support and place the junta's defenders such as China and Russia on the spot.

Authoritarian Streak Costs Chávez Support at Home . . .
Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has seen his approval ratings fall below 50 percent after standing at over 70 percent earlier this year, despite rising oil revenues and massive spending on social programs. Yet Chávez felt confident enough to boast recently that his regime has a 'strong oil card' to play in its relations with US and European powers concerned at his government's authoritarian tendencies.

Buttressed by high oil prices, Chávez has the further advantage of facing a divided opposition notably ineffective in mobilizing against his Bolivarian revolution. "The country is facing the terrible possibility of … an authoritarian democracy, of the elimination of liberty, of copying the Cuban model,” fears Ricardo Sucre Heredia, a political science professor at Venezuela's Central University. But Teodoro Petkoff, a former 1960's guerrilla leader, suggests that Chávez is more sophisticated. "Chávez has two pedals," he says. "One is formal democracy and the other is authoritarianism, and he steps on one or the other as circumstances dictate. At every election, the results are close to being evenly divided [for and against him], and he knows how to read and weigh those results correctly. ….. But if Chávez sees that the 40 percent that is against him is growing weaker, he will step again on the authoritarian pedal."

. . .and Feeds Critics Abroad
Even left-liberal commentators in the West, many of whom have been easily seduced by Chavez's radical rhetoric or attracted by the prospects of another romantic revolution, have expressed concern. “Like Fidel Castro, [Chávez ] depends on generating a confrontational environment in which he can claim, as he so often does, that his Bolivarian Revolution is under threat, and must resort to extreme measures to survive,” writes Alma Guillermoprieto. Noting the regime's prosecution of independent election monitors Sumate, she argues that “it is a safe bet that Chávez would do everything in his power to intimidate and destroy any public figure who came to pose a real threat to his rule: the Asamblea Nacional—the legislative body under chavista control—has already made it next to impossible for a new opposition party to survive financially.”

In a recent interview with the Washington Post, Chávez conspicuously avoided answering a question on Sumate's persecution, as did one of his leading supporters when pressed in Europe recently to justify the Caracas regime's persecution of independent NGOs.

Trade unions have grown anxious at state interference in union affairs. A government campaign (“Mission Cruz Viegas”) aims to force workers into the jurisdiction of the pro-regime “Bolivarian” UNT federation. As the AFL-CIO's Stan Gacek notes, Chávez publicly instructed his labor minister “to organize workers” into the UNT for the express purpose of turning the rival independent CTV union “into cosmic dust.”

In a robust critique (scroll down) of the regime's apologists, Gacek rebuts allegations that independent unions and NGOs were involved in the abortive anti-chavista coup in 2002. “The coup was exclusively a military action, and it took place unbeknownst to the civil society organizations planning entirely legal and legitimate opposition actions (including a referendum on the Government) at exactly the same time.”

Nurturing Muslim Democracy?
The United States and European Union have been too afraid of Islamic militancy to push hard for reform in the Arab world, a recent forum on Muslim Democracy heard. Yet a transatlantic initiative to promote democratization in the region is a strategic imperative, democracy expert Larry Diamond told the conference, co-sponsored by the National Endowment for Democracy and the Middle East Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

The conference heard Malaysia's former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim insist that independent, accountable institutions - free media, an independent judiciary, a vibrant civil society and the rule of law - were the key indicators of Muslim democracy. He criticized Western governments and intellectuals for indulging authoritarian rulers' violations of democratic norms in the name of anti-communism or, more recently, the war on terror.

His experience in prison alongside incarcerated Islamists from the Muslim Brotherhood convinced leading Egyptian liberal Saad Eddin Ibrahim that many of them are genuinely committed to democracy. In embracing civil rather than secular democracy, the Brotherhood could emerge as an equivalent to Europe's Christian Democrats. The success of Islamist parties like Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its Moroccan namesake provided compelling examples for young activists that Muslim Democrats could succeed. The West should promote a “Helsinki-style” program to encourage democratization in the region.

But Islamists' rhetorical embrace of democracy must always be matched against their practice, cautioned Diamond whose experience in Iraq confirmed that such democratic commitments were often tactical or opportunist and belied by intolerant and violent actions against women and political opponents. “Institutions of horizontal accountability”, including independent judiciaries, electoral commissions and rule of law were required to check potential Islamist abuses of power, he argued.

Islamists often resemble West European communists in the 1970's -- internally conflicted and wedded to outdated revolutionary rhetoric but necessarily pragmatic, according to academic specialist Vali Nasr. Like their earlier leftist counterparts, the prospect of political power requires that Islamists make alliances and experience of repeated elections in countries like Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh, suggests that such pacts have had a moderating effect. Of vital significance, “red lines” of acceptable democratic norms and behavior disciplined Islamists and authoritarians alike and forced parties to enter the democratic process, where they are forced to move towards the center. In the process, Islamist parties became Muslim Democrats, and secular parties acquire an Islamic tinge. A full webcast of the event is available here.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Democratic Antidote to China's Populist Nationalism
The development of democracy facilitates good international relations, not least when a non-democratic government “fans the flames” of nationalism, says a leading Japanese diplomat. In a barely concealed attack on communist China's recent mobilization of violent anti-Japanese populist protests, Mitsuru Kitano, public affairs minister in Japan's US embassy, stresses the importance of promoting democracy in order to foster mutual trust and prevent conflict escalation. “The public review characteristic of democratic systems highlights the dangers and exerts a calming influence,” he notes. “Such checks and balances on the actions of government are absent in non-democratic systems.

Development Needs Democracy
The Canadian government should base its foreign aid provision on an explicit recognition that Western democracy provides the best models for developing countries, argues a new report from the Institute for Research on Public Policy. The study of Canada's Overseas Democracy Assistance, "Hard Choices, Good Causes,” suggests compelling reasons for insisting on democratic criteria for foreign aid, including the “strong empirical record of democratic countries not engaging in military conflict with one another” and evidence that democratic values improve governance.

The criteria for choosing development partners should include reference to countries' democratic potential rather than their poverty levels since problems such as civil conflict and corruption also impede development. “Rampant corruption and poor governance in authoritarian regimes frustrated Canadian aid efforts in the 1970s and 1980s, spurring an interest in improving governance and citizens' control over public policy,” argues Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom, the report's author.

Experts Discuss Media Development
Media experts from 100 countries met in Amman, Jordan October 1 – 3 to explore the relationship between independent media and economic and political development. The main objective of the Global Forum for Media Development is to demonstrate the linkages between media and development, including media's role in fostering political reform, with a focus on countries recently experiencing transitions, such as Georgia, Ecuador, Ukraine and Lebanon. A donors-only conference will take place in London this week to consider recommendations arising from the Amman meeting.

The GFMD 2005 conference is organized by 18 organizations dedicated to free media development, including Arab Press Freedom Watch, the International Federation of Journalists, and the Internews Network. Forum funders included the Canadian International Development Agency, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the UK Department for International Development.

West Needs a Union of Democracies -- Glucksmann
Western democracies are deluded in thinking that the forces of modernity renders them immune from existential threats, says leading French philosopher Andre Glucksmann. Prosperity, tolerance, science, and technological advances will not defeat "forces out there that are evil, that will try to acquire absolute power if not challenged," he warns, advocating a "union of democracies."

"The mythology of American superiority is used to make the US responsible for everything and to make it guilty for everything," he told Der Spiegel, Germany's left-wing weekly. "The world has been multipolar for quite a while, the US cannot dictate everything," he suggests, noting that "Putin is more imperial than the US, and modern China resembles ancient Egypt of the Pharaohs -- modern technology married with the modern equivalent of mass slave labor."

RESOURCES

Cyber Dissidents Handbook
Reporters Without Borders has published a booklet for bloggers and cyber dissidents. The Handbook for Bloggers explains how to get started, terminology, and how to select a blogging tool and web-host. Check it out here.

Helping Castro?
Both the EU and the US aspire to promote democratic change in Cuba. Yet despite pursuing different strategies, they actually contribute to a paralysis that characterizes the current situation on the island, argues Susanne Gratius in a paper for FRIDE, the Madrid-based think tank.  (Working Paper, #14, October 2005). After analysing US and EU positions, Gratius assesses the limits and possibilities of devising a common transatlantic agenda (Spanish version only).

Liberal Democrats in the Middle East
Is there a viable demand and constituency for democracy in the Arab world? The history of democratic and liberal reform in the Middle East is examined in a new book which illustrates how such movements have been frustrated by clerical hostility, state oppression, and archaic cultural attitudes - until now.  Professor Barry Rubin, a leading commentator from the region, profiles activists and intellectuals working to promote liberalism and democracy. In The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East, he analyzes their chances of success. (The book will be discussed further in a future issue of Democracy Digest.)

Confronting Corruption in the Arab World
Arab civil society and democratic activists who have long complained that corruption severely hinders social and democratic development in the region now have a new tool for promoting transparency. "Confronting Corruption," a 300-page resource book from Transparency International, was recently launched in Beirut.

“Corruption is spreading in the Arab region because the political and administrative authorities are not subject to clear laws and do not undergo accountability in addition to the ignorance or fear of the citizen," said Kamal Mesbahi, TI's representative in Morocco. Free copies are available at the office of the Lebanese Transparency Association (call 01/ 293045) or the report can be downloaded here.  

Post-Conflict Role of Business
Business associations play a crucial role in economic development, argues Mark McCord of the Center for International Private Enterprise. But in post-conflict countries they have a heightened responsibility to facilitate the transition from war to reconstruction. A new CIPE report, Assessing the Development of Business Associations in Transitional and Post-Conflict Countries, argues that without a standard formula for initiating and sustaining transition, circumstances beyond the private sector's control force associations to develop a “new paradigm of association management”. The report and other articles are available here.

Democratiya
Democratiya is a free bi-monthly online review covering war, peace, humanitarian intervention, democratisation, and global civil society. Publishers may send books for review to Alan Johnson, Editor, Democratiya, Department of Social and Psychological Sciences, Edge Hill College of Higher Education, Ormskirk, Lancashire, L39 4QP. Correspondence can be sent to the same address or to Alandemocratiya@aol.com. 

OPPORTUNITIES

Westminster Foundation
Director of Programs.
Salary: up to c.£52,000 (€76,500/US$91,700). Location: Central London. This newly created appointment is central to the strategy for expanding WFD's work in response to the growing recognition of the vital role of international political assistance in addressing current global issues. It will bring together the management of existing program teams with responsibility for developing and leading the delivery of programs across three priority regions: Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa. We seek a highly effective professional with extensive program management experience in the international/political fields, preferably including field management experience. Familiarity with both the UK political landscape and the role of international political assistance will be vital. So will the drive and ability to make an impact through communicating a vision, leading and managing others and negotiating with stakeholders. If you are looking for a new challenge in a fast growing field then please go here for full details and information on how to apply. For additional information about this post please contact Smita Rai on +(0)20 7953 1190. Closing date: Friday 28 October 2005. First interviews will take place in the week commencing 14 November 2005.

Westminster Foundation
Team Leader – Middle East & North Africa
Salary: up to c.£38,000 (€56,000/US$67,000). Location: Central London. This exciting new post is being created to lead the development and implementation of WFD's program in the Middle East and North Africa. The WFD board recently approved a policy framework for the region focusing mainly on parliamentary reform as a response to increasing opportunities to contribute to political reform across the Arab world. The Team Leader will be responsible for designing, managing and evaluating political development programs in the region, analyzing project proposals and taking the lead on policy advice relating to WFD's priority countries and programs. The successful candidate will bring a detailed knowledge of political reform issues in the MENA region, as well as a sound understanding of the UK political system. Demonstrable experience in program management in a related field and the credibility and confidence to act as an ambassador for WFD in the region will be vital. Fluency in Arabic, French and English is essential. If you are looking for a new challenge in a fast growing field then please go here for full details and information on how to apply. For additional information about this post please contact Smita Rai on +(0)20 7953 1190. Closing date: Friday 28 October 2005. First interviews will take place in the week commencing 14 November 2005.

National Democratic Institute
Procurement Manager, Operations - Washington, D.C.
The Procurement Manager is a new position within NDI's Operations department, responsible for ensuring understanding of and compliance with NDI policies and procedures as well as donor regulations related to the procurement of goods and services. The Procurement Manager will serve as the primary point of contact for procurement at NDI, working closely with field- and DC-based program and administrative staff. Interested applicants can apply now here using the on-line resume tool. Please cite the exact position title in the cover letter. No phone calls please. Email: hr@ndi.org Apply by: November 30, 2005.

Freedom House
Program Officer, Middle East Programs -- Washington, DC
Freedom House seeks a Program Officer for its Middle East programs. Tasks include: backstopping overseas projects, promoting and reporting on Freedom House's Middle East projects, responding to RFAs, interacting with RIGHTS Consortium members, and assisting the Senior Program Manager in research, program design and implementation. The appropriate candidate should have experience with international human rights and rule of law issues; USAID funding sources and program management; strong research and writing skills; ability to read, write and speak English. Ability to read, write, and speak Arabic required; ability to speak, read, and write French desired. Experience with North Africa and the Middle East is a must. Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience required; post-graduate degree preferred. Position is based in Washington, DC. Projects are located in new democracies and developing countries. Please submit resume, cover letter, and salary history to: Megan Schmidt, Human Resources Manager humanresources@freedomhouse.org Please note that this position is contingent upon funding.

Freedom House
Senior Operations and Program Coordinator - Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Freedom House seeks a Senior Operations and Program Coordinator to be based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Under the direction of the Project Director for the Uzbekistan projects, the Senior Operations and Program Coordinator will provide back up and support to the Project Director in program implementation operations and administration for all programs managed and administered from the Uzbekistan offices. The Senior Operations and Program Coordinator will assist the Project Director in making decisions for organizational leadership, program implementation for the small grants project and NGO registration project, financial management, office management, and staff training. The appropriate candidate should have experience managing democracy programs funded by USAID and private foundations and ability to read, write and speak English fluently. Bachelors degree required, Masters level preferred. Please submit resume, cover letter, and salary history to: Megan Schmidt, Human Resources Manager humanresources@freedomhouse.org.

Turkey's New Geopolitical Environment: Sabanci Essay Competition
The Brookings Institution and Sabanci University have launched the Sakip Sabanci International Research Award. The topic for the 2006 Sakip Sabanci Award is "Turkey's New Geopolitical Environment: Policy Challenges and Opportunities for Engagement." The competition calls for original, essay-length studies that address the key issues relating to the changes in Turkey's neighborhood and how Turkey might respond to these changes. Studies focusing on any one or several of the following themes are welcome: Turkey's relations with the European Union, Russia, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Middle Eastern neighbors, and Central Asia, as well as Turkey's potential role in transatlantic relations and democratization in the broader Middle East.

The Sakip Sabanci International Research Award includes $20,000 for the first prize, $10,000 for the second, and $5,000 for the third. An independent, international jury, whose members will be announced in autumn 2005, will select the prize winners. The Award is jointly administered by the Brookings Institution and the Trustees of Sabanci University, Istanbul. All entries must be new and original works, not published previously in any form; essays must be approximately 5000-6000 words; essays must be submitted--in English only--by means of e-mail in the form of an attached Word document to the following two e-mail addresses simultaneously: acause!brookings.edu and sabanciaward@sabanciuniv.edu

Funding for Democracy and Human Rights Microprojects -- Albania, Bangladesh and Eritrea
The European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) programme of the European Union is seeking proposals for initiatives aimed to promote and protect human rights and democracy in Albania, Bangladesh and Eritrea. Full details here.

Open Society Institute Fellowships
OSI's U.S. Justice Fund is accepting applications for two of its programs: the Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowships and the Soros Justice Media Fellowships. These new programs will fund outstanding lawyers, advocates, grassroots organizers, activist academics, journalists, and filmmakers interested in implementing innovative projects that address one or more of the fund's criminal justice priorities. The Advocacy Fellowships have two distinct tracks. Track I supports new and emerging advocates with two to five years of advocacy experience. Track II supports seasoned leaders with a minimum of ten years experience in their fields and five years of advocacy experience. The Media Fellowships support mid-career and veteran print journalists, filmmakers, and individuals with unique voices proposing written projects. The deadline for applications is October 14, 2005.  Go here for full details.

Desktop Training Program in Central Asia
The Polish Czech-Slovak Solidarity Foundation has announced the next round of its desktop publishing training program for NGOs and independent newspapers in Central Asia designed to foster the development of pluralism and civil society in the region. The two-week program, conducted in Warsaw, will train 20 representatives from independent organizations located in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. In addition, eleven of the selected organizations will receive computer equipment.  To request further details, contact: fundacia@spczs.engo.pf  or  spczs@szpitalna.ngo.pl

EVENTS

October 12, Beslan, Chechnya and the Search for Stability in the Caucasus.
Speakers include: Anna Politikovskaya (Novaya Gazeta), Aslan Doukayev (RFE/RL), Glen E. Howard (American Committee for Peace in Chechnya), Jennifer Windsor (Freedom House). Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1779 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, 9:30 am-2:30 pm. Space is limited.  Please RSVP to acpc@peaceinchechnya.org or (202) 364-2466 by October 11.

October 12, Debate: Respect for Human Rights is Essential to Economic Development
Phil Bloomer, Oxfam; Shujie Yao, Chinese Economic Association, LSE, Houghton St, London, 6:15 pm. Tel: 020 7955 6043.

October 13, The Future of Kosovo: Transatlantic Policy toward the Balkans.
Can diplomacy at last bring peace and stability to the Balkans, or do negotiations over Kosovo risk reigniting the wars of 1990s? What is the geopolitical future of the Balkans, and how will the European Union's internal debate over expansion affect the integration of Kosovo and Serbia into the transatlantic world? Participants include Janusz Bugajski, director of the Eastern Europe Project at CSIS; John Norris, chief of staff of the International Crisis Group's Washington office and author of Collision Course: NATO, Russia and Kosovo (Praeger, 2005); Helga Flores-Trejo, executive director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation's Washington office; Radek Sikorski, executive director of the New Atlantic Initiative; and AEI research fellow Vance Serchuk. 12–2:00 pm, AEI, 1150 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC,12:00-2:00 pm. Please register online here.

October 15, The place of Islam in non-Islamic societies
Tariq Ramadan, writer and activist. LSE, Houghton St, London WC2, 6:30 pm. Phone: 020 8980 6263, details here.

October 17, Is the Arab World Ready for Democracy?
"Yes" -- Reuel Gerecht, American Enterprise Institute. "Maybe, but I doubt it" -- Claude Weinber, Heinrich Böll Foundation. Aspen Institute Berlin. If you are interested in attending, please email aibinfo@aspenberlin.org

October 18, José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission. Inauguration of the EU Center of Excellence.
President Barroso will discuss the role of the European Union in the world. President Barroso's address celebrates the designation of the American Consortium on EU Studies (ACES), a partnership between Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, George Washington, George Mason and American Universities, as the EU Center of Excellence Washington DC. The Center has received a European Commission award of more than $350,000 to support programming, research, media and outreach activities. SAIS, 1740 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, 5:0o pm. RSVP to Jeanette Murphy at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at 202-663-5730 or by email at transatlanticRSVP@jhu.edu. If you e-mail please put RSVP October 18 in the subject line.

October 18, Economist debate: Latin America has Regular Elections but Lacks Citizens' Democracies.
Victor Bulmer-Thomas, Chatham House; Guillermo O'Donnell, University of Notre Dame; Michael Reid, the Economist. Chatham House, St James's Square, London, 6:45 pm. Phone: 020 7314 3668.

October 19, Second Annual Lipset Lecture, Identitly, Immigration and Liberal Democracy.
Speakers: Francis Fukuyama, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. Neil Nevitte, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto. Venue: University of Toronto Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3. Main Sponsor: Centre for International Studies. Co-Sponsored by: Donner Canadian Foundation. Contact Info: Tina Lagopoulos at e-mail: cis.general@utoronto.ca.

October 20, Foreign Policy: A View from Congress
Senator Sam Brownback, (R - Kansas), Chairman of the Helsinki Commission; Robert Guttman, Editor-in-Chief, TransAtlantic Magazine, and Lionel Barber, U.S. Managing Editor, Financial Times. Johns Hopkins SAIS, 1717 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC, 8:15 a.m.-9:30am. Space is limited. Please RSVP to Jeanette Murphy at the Center for Transatlantic Relations by telephone at 202-663-5730 or by email at transatlanticRSVP@jhu.edu put RSVP October 20 in the subject line.

October 24, Engaging Islamists: The Evolving Policy Debate
Once taboo, official engagement of Islamists is now a facet of US efforts to promote democracy in the Middle East. Yet it remains controversial. Proponents of engagement argue that no democracy promotion policy can succeed without including Islamist parties. Opponents respond that engagement could strengthen illiberal forces and even legitimize groups that espouse or use violence. Four leading experts on the challenges of democratization in the Islamic world will explore this complex debate: Daniel Brumberg, Special Advisor, USIP; Associate Professor of Government, Georgetown University; Amr Hamzawy, Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Abdeslam Maghraoui, Director, Muslim World Initiative, USIP; Mona Yacoubian, Special Advisor, USIP. Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington DC, 3:00-5:00 pm. Please RSVP: mep@wilsoncenter.org or fax (202) 691-4184.

October 25, The International Human Rights Agenda.
Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (2003), Iranian lawyer and human rights activist. Aspen Institute Berlin. If you are interested in attending, please email aibinfo@aspenberlin.org.

October 26, Burma: Looking Forward.
Sponsored by the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, Church World Service, and the National Endowment for Democracy. 8:30 am-5:00 pm, The Brookings Institution, 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC. Burma's internal problems and their international consequences are well known. Burma: Looking Forward will examine the current situation in Burma and explore possible policy responses by the international community. Activists, government officials, researchers and NGO representatives will discuss the myriad health, humanitarian, and human rights issues facing Burma such as HIV/AIDS, narcotics, internally displaced persons and refugees, human trafficking, and land rights. Speakers include Thaung Htun, National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma; Paula Dobriansky, Undersecretary of State for International Affairs, Department of State; Charm Tong, Shan Women's Action Network. Space is limited. Please RSVP acceptances only to Wilson Lee, NED Assistant Program Officer for Asia, at e-mail: wilsonl@ned.org, by October 21.

November 3, Can the Whole World Become Democratic?
Larry Diamond, co-director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies, founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy, and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. McGraw-Hill Auditorium,1221 Ave of the Americas, New York, The New York Democracy Forum, a joint venture of the NED and the Foreign Policy Association. Full details here.

December 1, The Future of Muslim Democracy
Anwar Ibrahim, former Malaysian deputy premier, currently a visiting professor at Georgetown University. The New York Democracy Forum, a joint venture of the NED and the Foreign Policy Association. Full details here

December 10, French Secularism and Islam
Conference with Olivier Roy, Senior Research Fellow, CNRS, chaired by Khadija Mohsen-Finan, Research Fellow, North African/Middle Eastern Unit, French Institute of International Relations, Paris. Further details here.

January 20-21, 2006, Commemorating the Constitution, 1906-2006 State Building & Global Responses to Iranian Constitutionalism.
The University of Oxford and the University of Pennsylvania are co-sponsoring a conference to be held at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.  Panelists are invited to submit abstracts of approximately 250 words assessing the process of nation formation, the development of a civic culture, or the international ramifications of this broad-based constitutional movement in the Middle East.  More info: here.