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Unrepentant Blair Ties Iraq To Democracy's Wider Cause
"It is worth staying the course to bring democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan," British premier Tony Blair told his Labour party's annual conference, "because then people the world over will see that this is not and has never been some new war of religion; but the oldest struggle humankind knows, between liberty or oppression, tolerance or hate; between government by terror or by the rule of law."

Conference delegates rejected a motion calling for the early withdrawal of British troops from Iraq and overwhelming passed a statement urging the continued "support of the efforts of the emerging civil society in Iraq."

Blair scathingly rebutted claims that Iraqi insurgents were legitimate "freedom fighters" resisting foreign occupation and firmly linked Iraq to the wider cause of promoting democracy and freedom against Islamic fundamentalism. "They are not protesting about the rights of women -- what, the same people who stopped Afghan girls going to school, made women wear the Burkha and beat them in the streets of Kabul, who now assassinate women just for daring to register to vote in Afghanistan's first ever democratic ballot, though four million have done so?," Blair asked rhetorically. Terrorists, he said, "are not provoked by our actions; but by our existence."

"They are in Iraq for the very reason we should be. They have chosen this battleground because they know success for us in Iraq is not success for America or Britain or even Iraq itself but for the values and way of life that democracy represents," he told the conference. "That's why they are there. That is why we should be there and, whatever disagreements we have had, should unite in our determination to stand by the Iraqi people until the job is done."

An Appeal for NATO Troops in Iraq
A group of Italian leaders associated with the magazine, Il Foglio, has undertaken an initiative to enlist the government of Italy and public support worldwide for a NATO mission to provide troops in Iraq to establish security for next January's national election. The initiative has attracted widespread support in Europe and in the US. For a text of the statement and a list of the signers, click here.

Euro-Atlantic Protests Over Putin's Clampdown: But Debate On Russia Continues
Prominent citizens of the Euro-Atlantic community of democracies have expressed concern that the terrorist massacre at School Number 1 in Beslan is being used to undermine democracy in Russia. The signatories -- a politically diverse group of politicians, intellectuals and civil society representatives - insist that the West's democratic leaders should recognize that current strategy towards Russia is failing, and must rethink how the West engages Russia.

"Russia's democratic institutions have always been weak and fragile," they concede in their Open Letter to the Heads of State and Government of the European Union and NATO, published in the Moscow Times. But, they contend, President Vladimir Putin has "made them even weaker" by undermining federal checks and balances, ending the freedom and independence of the press, arbitrarily imprisoning political rivals, harassing NGO leaders, and weakening Russia's political parties.

The signatories suggest the West must be "unambiguously on the side of democratic forces in Russia" and warn that at a "critical time in history when the West is pushing for democratic change..., including in the broader Middle East, it is imperative that we do not look the other way in assessing Moscow's behavior or create a double standard for democracy."

The views expressed in this letter are widely shared in Europe. "We are seeing a step backwards in Russian democracy," said Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Union's incoming foreign affairs commissioner, addressing a confirmation hearing at the European Parliament on Tuesday this week. The Council of Europe's human rights envoy, who visited Beslan last week, has also criticized Mr Putin's reforms. "It is important to say that in Russia, as in all of Europe, the fight against terrorism cannot serve as a pretext to do whatever one wants," Alvaro Gil-Robles said recently.

Putin's moves have stirred widespread debate on the state of democracy in Russia and the appropriate response of the West. Some analysts take less dire views than those of the signers of the open letter. For example, Los Angeles Times columnist Jacob Heilbrunn believes it would be a mistake to write off Russia. "Its experiment with democracy isn't over. It's barely begun," he argues. Russia should be judged like other emerging economies, not by the standards of advanced democracies. Various elections have taken place in Russia since 1991, Heilbrunn comments, with higher voter turnout than in the USA. Most elections have been vigorously fought, with numerous parties gaining seats in Parliament. With regard to the latest curbs on local democracy, making regional governors appointive rather than elective merely formalizes what many already regarded as their de facto subordination to Moscow. "To accuse Putin of abandoning Russian democracy is tantamount to saying that a plane that never got off the ground crashed," Heilbrunn asserts.. "Far from being an extremist, Putin is a moderate in an increasingly radicalized Russia."

"Western condemnations of the country's institutions are grossly overblown," commentators Andrei Shleifer and Daniel Treisman argued recently in the US-based Foreign Affairs journal "By any objective comparative standard," they suggest, "Russia's politics have been among the most democratic in the region."

Other commentators are more anxious and pessimistic. "Putin is imposing dictatorship the old-fashioned way in the manner of a Ferdinand Marcos, an Anastasio Somoza or a Park Chung Hee," says Robert Kagan, the Washington-based neo-conservative commentator. The US should take "tangible actions in the economic and political spheres" to express US disapproval of the latest clampdown, he insists. The US government has a special responsibility, says Michael McFaul, a visiting fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy, senior fellow of the Hoover Institution, and associate professor of political science at Stanford University. Nor have Western NGOs escaped harassment, he notes. The regime has expelled the US Peace Corps, closed the Chechnya office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, declared persona non grata the Moscow field representative of the AFL-CIO, US labor federation and raided the offices of the Open Society Institute.

"Our government must at least stand with those inside Russia still fighting to keep democracy alive," McFaul insists. "The first step in showing solidarity with Russia's democrats is simply to speak the truth about Putin's regime." "Many of these same people who listened to John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan on Radio Free Europe are looking to the United States again for inspiration," he says. "This is no time to forget them."

Egypt's Ruling Party Fends Off Demands For Change
Egypt's ruling ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) conference ended last week with President Hosni Mubarak's supporters embracing the rhetoric of reform. The conference yielded little in specific measures that would institutionalize reform. "One-party rule is over,'' the president's son Gamal Mubarak grandly announced to reporters, and President Mubarak himself promised in his closing speech to "spread the culture of democracy."

Hopes were raised by conference rhetoric invoking "New Thought and Reform Priorities" but in practice the NDP showed little inclination to loosen its 26-year-old grip on single-party rule. Reforms reportedly under consideration included proportional representation for elections, ending criminal sanctions for violations of the press law, and giving full legislative powers to the Shura Council, the advisory upper house of Parliament.

The rhetoric of the conference reflected the language of recent Arab reform initiatives such as the Alexandria Declaration. A Rights of Citizenship and Democratisation document prepared by the NDP offered some promising suggestions on political reform, including commitments to human rights and the rule of law, and aspirations to promote wider participation in political life by giving greater responsibility and autonomy to civil society organizations.

The NDP conference studiously avoided addressing the key issues being pressed by Egypt's democrats, among them a constitutional amendment that will prevent President Mubarak from taking a fifth five-year term in 12 months' time, and the demand for an end to the emergency laws enacted after Anwar Sadat's assassination in 1981 which allow for indefinite detentions without trial. Paradoxically, the proposed Rights of Citizenship and Democratisation document even promoted new restrictions on democracy, such as a requirement that parties regularly inform the authorities of their funding sources. For one opposition figure, the event confirmed that the NDP "was not prepared to relax its power monopoly" and would only consider "cosmetic changes" to ease external pressure.

Some of Egypt's opposition parties proposed an alternative reform document to the ruling NDP's platform. But the fragmented opposition's proposals were in turn criticized for approaching democratic reform "as if it is a Christmas gift, a charity handed out by the government to its opponents" when the regime's critics "have no power whatsoever to make themselves heard; nor ... any clear perception of why the opposition has been so weakened.... [and are] totally incapable of inspiring the Egyptian public."

This dialogue about reform engenders cynicism among some Egyptian democrats. "The political system has ossified,'' says Mona Makram-Ebeid, a former member of parliament and secretary- general of the Ghad Party, a new liberal political group that has been denied legal status. The Ghad Party projects itself as the heir to the brief period of secular liberalism Egypt enjoyed under the Wafd party from 1920 until the rise of Nasser's authoritarian Pan-Arabism. Makram-Ebeid believes the government is starting to recognize that suffocating political life works to the advantage of the Islamist opposition. The Islamists retain an ability to organize and mobilize through the mosques and their related welfare networks, while secular and liberal groupings are denied the political oxygen and opportunities afforded by basic liberties.

Gamal, President Mubarak's telegenic son, is chairman of the NDP's Policies Committee, and widely seen as the architect of the NDP's reform initiative. He is also a staunch proponent of "governance" reform over democratization. This makes him the political champion of the Egyptian technocrats, often criticized by liberal democrats for being more concerned with economic growth and eliminating corruption than in opening up the political system. While some commentators view talk of governance reform as an excuse to postpone or dilute genuine change, others suggest that it offers a viable if longer-term route to liberalization and democratization. But there are also those who argue that only through democracy will the transparency and accountability emerge that are the foundations of good governance.

This year's NDP conference clearly prioritized the economy over politics, Cairo University politics professor Amr Hamzawi complains. "We witnessed a legitimization of the discourse which excludes political liberalisation on the pretext that Egyptians are mainly concerned with the economic situation rather than their political rights, and this does not hold a grain of truth."

But, in "laying the foundations for a participatory economy that respects the rights of citizens and workers, Egypt will take a major step towards democratic governance," argues Taher Helmy, president of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Cairo and a member of the National Democratic Party's Policies Committee. In an implicit critique both of the technocratic elite and of isolated liberal democrats whose polemics and manifestoes find little resonance with the masses, Helmy proposes an ambitious plan for "social and economic success through empowerment of the average citizen."

Typifying the approach of those technocrats for whom socio-economic change is a precondition of political liberalization, Helmy's perspectives are informed by Hernando De Soto's Institute for Liberty and Democracy. He proposes a program of economic liberalization, tax reform and decentralization as a necessary precursor to fundamental political change. "One of the challenges that Egypt is facing with regards to reform is the fact that those most affected -- average Egyptians -- have not been directly addressed by the process, or at least do not feel so," he claims. Reform should not be "just a matter of economic or procedural checks and balances," Helmy asserts. "Only by touching lives in beneficial ways will the government achieve the groundswell of support necessary to proceed with even deeper reform, including political reform."

Egypt's Human Rights Activists Campaign to End State of Emergency
Under the slogan "We Deserve Freedom," Egypt's Human Rights Association for the Assistance of Prisoners (HRAAP) starts a two-year campaign to end the country's 23-year state of emergency on October 13. The campaign will be launched with a memorial lecture on the impact of the state of emergency by Dr. Mohamed Al Sayed Sa'ed of the Al Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies. The current state of emergency expires in 2006, when its renewal will be considered. Human rights activists hope to create sufficient opposition and momentum to make the political costs of renewal prohibitive.

Dim Prospects for Palestinian Reform, Poll Suggests
Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat's Fatah will emerge as the leading political bloc after forthcoming municipal elections in the areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but Islamist candidates will gain ground, according to a recent poll by Bir Zeit university. Some 34 percent of the 1200 voters sampled in the survey intend to vote for Fatah and 32 percent for Hamas or Islamic Jihad, according to the survey funded by the International Republican Institute.

Apathy is minimal in highly politicized Palestinian society, so the results suggest a high degree of alienation, if not hostility towards the available options, on the part of about a third of the electorate. Some 39 percent of respondents do not support any of the political factions, suggesting that many will hold their noses as they cast their ballots.

Palestinian President Yassir Arafat announced last month that he intends to hold presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections soon. But no schedule for presidential or parliamentary elections has been announced. The local elections will give Palestinians the first chance to vote since the 1996 general election, which was boycotted by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

While the elections are limited to municipal levels, some 73 percent of poll respondents support holding presidential elections, and 82 percent want fresh legislative elections. Less than half - only 46 percent -- would support Arafat in a presidential election. Arafat has come under pressure from internal and external sources to yield more power.

Asked why Arafat has been unwilling to grant more authority to current Palestinian Authority prime minister Ahmad Qurei, former PA prime minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) told the Jordanian daily Al-Rai newspaper "He [Arafat] probably believes that if they were to take these powers away from him, then they would get rid of him." Abbas has also conceded that "the Intifada in its entirety was a mistake and it should not have continued." Jordanian Prime Minister Faisal al-Fayez recently suggested that the overbearing PLO leader Arafat should devolve greater responsibility to prime minister Qurei in an effort to enhance the strategic position of the Palestinians in the run-up to the US presidential election.

But would-be reformers who recently challenged the Fatah hierarchy do not fare well in the Bir Zeit poll. The second most popular Palestinian figure after Arafat, with 12 percent support, is former West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barguthi, founder of the self-styled Al-Aqsa Brigades, who is currently serving five life sentences in Israel for terrorist activity. There is little support for Fatah-linked reformists such as Gaza-based strongman Muhammed Dahlan (1.6 percent), Sa'eb Erekat (1.2 percent) and Ahmad Qurei (1 percent) or for relatively liberal and democratic Palestinian politicians like Haydar Abdul Shafi (6 percent), Mustafa Bargouthi (1.7 percent) or Hanan Ashrawi (1.4 percent).

While some commentators have expressed the hope that, through the promised elections, "a new, youthful generation of leaders will emerge from this process," others warn that the PA has no constitution providing fixed electoral rules, which allows Arafat to invoke security or other concerns to cancel the elections. Such conditions do not encourage rivals to take the risks of coming forward.

NEWS

EU Green Light to Turkish Accession Talks: Pending Democratic Consistency
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed confidence today, Thursday October 7, that Turkey would meet the stringent conditions imposed by a European Union report on his country's bid to join the EU.

The European Commission, the EU's executive branch, this week recommended accession talks with Turkey, accepting that the country met the required political criteria. Yet the commission cautioned that negotiations did not guarantee membership.

The commission commended Turkey's democratization process as fulfilling the basic political norms required for candidate nations to begin accession talks. But it warned that talks could be suspended "in the case of a serious and persistent breach of the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the rule of law on which the Union is founded."

The leaders of individual EU member states take the final decision on December 17. But, under pressure from public opinion averse to Turkish membership, they remain divided on the question of Turkey's long-term status as a fully-fledged member of the union.

The question of Turkish membership remains highly contentious. Many politicians and a significant swath of public opinion believe accession by a largely Islamic country based on the Asian sub-continent rather than the European land mass to be culturally threatening and politically inappropriate. Others contend that it is precisely because Turkey is Muslim and Asian that its membership should be welcomed. "Europe also consists of people of no faith, and we all need to be able to live together," says former student radical Daniel Cohn--Bendit, now a European parliamentarian for the German Green Party. He believes Turkish membership would "increase the strategic importance [of the EU] in an increasingly dangerous world."

NGOs Call for UN Democracy Caucus
A coalition of nongovernmental organizations has called for a permanent democracy caucus at the United Nations. Foreign ministers from a substantial group of countries met during the recent UN General Assembly under the umbrella of the Community of Democracies. US Secretary of State Colin Powell called the meeting "an historic new grouping where nations from around the world that are committed to democracy came together."

In a letter to the foreign ministers of the 10-member convening group of the Community of Democracies, the NGOs called on the world's democracies to organize themselves into a permanent working coalition at the United Nations. The Community of Democracies, created in June 2000, convenes over 100 democratically elected governments. It aims to enhance cooperation among them in global and regional institutions, coordinate efforts to enhance respect for human rights and democracy, and support fragile emerging democracies.

The letter cited disturbing developments within the UN that may have been prevented by a democracy caucus. Such incidents included renewed pressure against human rights organizations with UN accreditation and the reelection to the UN Commission on Human Rights of Sudan, a country cited by UN officials as promoting attacks on civilians in Darfur.

Democracy Aid Antidote to Terrorism: Dobriansky
A UN Democracy Caucus is "an essential component of broader efforts to reform the UN, bolster the influence of democratic voices within international institutions and diminish the influence of non-democratic states," said US Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky, strongly endorsing the Community of Democracies initiative.

More generally, Dobriansky explicitly links democracy promotion to anti-terrorist strategy, arguing forcefully that democracy "facilitates the establishment of legitimate and law-based political systems in states that may become sponsors or havens for terrorists [and] creates peaceful channels to reconcile grievances that can otherwise fuel bloody and destabilizing conflicts within nations." Furthermore, she notes, democracy "instills hope, replacing the sense of powerlessness and despair that sometimes transforms ordinary people into willing terrorist recruits."

US foreign assistance programs will use democracy assistance as guideposts, Dobriansky insists. "Traditional development assistance cannot deliver sustained progress if recipient governments show little commitment to improving citizens' lives," she says. Such assistance "is often unproductive, if not counterproductive, by helping leaders to continue business as usual."

Such people-centered and democratic considerations will govern the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and the US government's support for the Forum for the Future as a platform for ongoing dialogue on reform among G8 partners and countries of the Middle East, explains Dobriansky. The first session of the G8-initiated Democracy Assistance Dialogue, will be organized later this year by co-sponsors Turkey, Yemen and Italy.

EU Streamlines Foreign Assistance Funding
Fewer instruments will be used to provide EU external assistance from 2007, the European Commission confirmed in a September 29 communication, signaling reforms to create "a simpler, more efficient framework" for delivering foreign assistance. Following severe criticism of opaque and bureaucratic regulations, the Commission conceded that efficient management of EU programmes had become "increasingly difficult" given the prevailing complex set of instruments.

EU assistance is currently delivered through a range of regional initiatives, such as CARDS (Western Balkans), TACIS (Eastern Europe and Central Asia), MEDA (Mediterranean), and thematic instruments such as the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights. In the Mediterranean and Middle East alone, co-operation and assistance are managed through 13 regulations each of which have significant differences in programming and implementation procedures.

Under the envisaged simplification, four new instruments will emerge:

The Pre-Accession instrument will cover EU candidate countries (Turkey and Croatia) and potential candidate countries of the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Serbia and Montenegro
The European Neighbourhood and Partnership instrument will cover third countries participating in the European Neighbourhood Policy, namely countries of the South and Eastern Mediterranean, as well as Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, plus the countries of the Southern Caucasus.
The Development Co-operation and Economic Co-operation instrument will cover all countries, territories and regions not eligible for assistance under either of the above.
The Instrument for Stability will tackle crises and instability in third countries and address trans-border issues, including nuclear safety and non-proliferation, trafficking, organised crime and terrorism.

Myanmar Junta Attends ASEM Summit as EU Threatens Sanctions
The biennial Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit of heads of government convenes this week in Hanoi without Myanmar Prime Minister Khin Nyunt after European protests against the Yangon (formerly Rangoon) regime's violations of human rights, and the continued house arrest of the country's democratic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Instead, a junior minister will represent the military regime at the ASEM enlargement ceremony in the Vietnamese capital. The regime is attending ASEM for the first time along with fellow new Asia members Laos and Cambodia as the EU is adding its 10 new members to the group.

Some European leaders had threatened to boycott the meeting if Myanmar (formerly Burma) attended at all, but were undermined by other EU member states wary of jeopardizing potential commercial benefits. The EU insists it will tighten sanctions against the regime at the next European Union foreign ministers meeting on October 11 if the Yangon junta has not released Aung San Suu Kyi and met other demands.

French President Jacques Chirac will not attend a welcoming ceremony for the Myanmar delegates since French officials are concerned that attendance might imply that the President welcomes a regime complicit in human rights abuses. Chirac, one of the European leaders opposed to economic sanctions on the junta, is close to the French oil company TOTAL which operates in Burma.

Chirac will be joined at the summit by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Pointedly, Britain's Tony Blair will not attend. Having led opposition to Myanmar's participation, Blair is sending his deputy instead.

Indonesian Election Sends Universal Democracy Message, says German President
German Federal President Horst Koehler hailed Indonesia's first-ever direct presidential election as proof that democracy is not alien to Islam, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported this week. "Democracy is a worldwide form of government which is not bound to certain cultural or social systems," said Koehler, congratulating former general Susilo Bamban Yudhoyono on his victory. Indonesia is the biggest Islamic country in the world: some 87 percent of its 238 million inhabitants are Muslim.

Democracy Assistance Caucus to Emerge in European Parliament?
The Hague Statement on Enhancing the European Profile in Democracy Assistance was presented to the European Parliament in Brussels on September 22. The presentation was attended by Roel von Meijenfeldt of the Netherlands-based Institute for Multi-Party Democracy (IMD) was joined by David French of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, Kerstin Roeske of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and the IMD's Marieke van Doorn.

Meetings in the European Parliament resulted in an initiative to consider forming a caucus of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) interested in taking the democracy assistance agenda forward. The delegation met with the European Commission and Council to present the Hague statement and discuss options for implementing its recommendations. The steering committee which supervised the European conference will meet in early October to discuss the way forward with the outcome of the conference.

EU Sanctions on Belarus
The European Union has placed sanctions on Belarusian officials following the disappearance of three opposition leaders and one journalist. The measures follow the failure of the authorities in Minsk to investigate the disappearances of former interior minister Yuri Zakharenko, former prime minister Viktor Gonchar, former head of the electoral commission Anatoly Krasovski and journalist Dimitri Zavadski. The EU is placing travel bans on "those high officials who are considered primarily responsible for failing to initiate such an investigation and prosecution of the alleged crimes." The US is also planning to take action against those concerned.

RESOURCES

Palestinian reform, Iraq's National Conference, and issues surrounding implementation of Morocco's New Personal Status Law feature in the latest issue of the Arab Reform Bulletin published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

OPPORTUNITIES

National Endowment for Democracy
Fellowship Opportunities
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) invites applications to its Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows program. Established in 2001 to enable activists, scholars, and journalists from around the world to deepen their understanding of democracy and enhance their ability to promote democratic change, the fellowship program is based at NED's International Forum for Democratic Studies in Washington, D.C. Established in 2001, the Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program enables democracy activists, practitioners, scholars, and journalists from around the world to deepen their understanding of democracy and enhance their ability to promote democratic change. Fellows are in residence at the International Forum for Democratic Studies, the research arm of the Endowment, in Washington, D.C., and receive a stipend, health insurance, and travel assistance.

The program offers two tracks: A practitioner track (typically three to five months) to improve strategies and techniques for building democracy abroad and to exchange ideas and experiences with counterparts in the United States; and a scholarly track (typically five to ten months) to conduct original research for publication. Projects may focus on the political, social, economic, legal, and cultural aspects of democratic development and include a range of methodologies and approaches.

The Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program is intended primarily to support practitioners and scholars from new and aspiring democracies. Distinguished scholars from the United States and other established democracies are also eligible to apply. Practitioners are expected to have substantial experience working to promote democracy. Scholars are expected to have a doctorate, or academic equivalent, at the time of application. The program is not designed to support students working toward a degree. A working knowledge of English is an important prerequisite for participation in the program. The fellowship year begins October 1 and runs through July 31, with major entry dates in October and March. All fellows receive a monthly stipend, health insurance, travel assistance, and research support through the Forum's Democracy Resource Center and Internship Program. For further details and instructions on how to apply, please download the "Information and Application Forms" booklet or visit the NED website and follow the link to Fellowship Programs. Please note that all application materials must be type-written and in English. Deadline: Applications for fellowships in 2005-2006 must be received no later than November 1, 2004. Notification of the competition outcome is in April 2005. For questions or for more information, please contact: Program Assistant, Fellowship Programs, National Endowment for Democracy, 1101 15th Street NW, Suite 800, Washington, D.C. 20005 Tel.: (202) 293-0300 Fax: (202) 293-0258 E-mail: fellowships@ned.org.

National Endowment for Democracy
Senior Grants Administrator, Core Institutes and Asia Program
The National Endowment for Democracy, a private, nonprofit, grant-making organization in downtown D.C., seeks a Senior Grants Administrator to manage subgrants to its four core institutes: the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the International Republican Institute, the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, and the Center for International Private Enterprise, which represent the two major American political parties, the labor movement, and the business community, respectively. The Senior Grants Administrator will also be responsible for the management of a portfolio of subgrants supporting political and civil society development in Asia.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to, start to finish subgrants management, supervision of one Grants Administrator, assisting the Director, Grants Management with negotiation and administration of grants to the Endowment; participating in the review of current grants management policies, procedures and document templates, including recommending and drafting new and/or revised policies, procedures and templates as necessary. Requirements for the position include the following:

A Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (business, public administration, contracts management, etc.);
At least six years of experience in grants/contracts management operations, including proposal review, grant negotiation, award, compliance monitoring, administration and closeout;
Thorough knowledge of US Government grants regulations and best grants management practices;
Familiarity with international activities/issues relevant to NED's operating environment;
Supervisory experience strongly preferred;
Attention to detail, ability to multi-task and to work with minimal supervision;
Strong team player, preferably in a multicultural environment;
Strong oral and written communication skills;
Proficiency in Microsoft Word and Excel; knowledge of MicroEdge or other relational database strongly preferred; and
Qualified to work in the US.

Competitive salary, excellent benefits, EOE. To apply, email a detailed cover letter and resume by October 8, 2004 to: annamarie@ned.org (strongly preferred) or send documents to: Director, Grants Management, National Endowment for Democracy, 1101 15th Street, NW, Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20005, fax 202-223-6042. No calls please.

University of Leeds, UK
Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship in Governance and Democracy
This is a 5-year personal Research Fellowship leading to a permanent academic position. Applications are invited from candidates with postdoctoral (or equivalent) experience with an established track record of achievement employed on high quality research projects covering any aspect of democracy and democratization and/or multi-level governance in developing and transition countries. Informal enquiries to Dr Gordon Crawford Tel: + 44 113 343 4439 Fax: + 44 113 343 4400 e-mail: g.crawford@leeds.ac.uk. For further information and details of how to apply visit here and click on 'jobs'; email: af@leeds.ac.uk; tel +44 113 343 4146; or write to Human Resources (Academic Fellowships), University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. Quote reference number: 064231. Application forms are available here.

Development Alternatives, Inc.
Decentralization Policy Reform (Long-term) - Romania
Development Alternatives Inc. is seeking candidates in the fields of fiscal decentralization, education decentralization, decentralization of public utilities, or decentralization of social services to provide overall coordination and management of DAI's Policy Reform Unit for the Romania Reform and Sustainable Partnerships Project. Interested candidates should send a resume and cover letter by October 15, 2004 to: Development Alternatives, Inc. 7250 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 200 Bethesda, MD 20814 Attn.: Ms. Dee Tecson or fax the information: (301) 718-7968 or e-mail: Romania@dai.com. Further details: Suan Hanson Phone: 301-657-5685 Email: suan_hanson@dai.com.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR)
Micro-projects on Democracy and Human Rights: Eritrea, Tajikistan, Angola, Ukraine, Haiti and Rwanda
The European Commission is seeking proposals for Human Rights Micro-projects in the above countries. The full guidelines are available here

Algeria, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Mexico, Serbia and Montenegro.
EIDHR also seeks proposals for small projects under €100,000 Euro (US$129, 590) for grassroots NGOs in Algeria, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Mexico, Serbia and Montenegro. Priorities include democratization; good governance and the rule of law. For information on proposal guidelines, and deadlines, go here.

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Nathan Hale Foreign Policy think tank seeks democracy-related submissions for its working papers series. The Institute proceeds "with a broad definition of foreign policy-contributions need not, but may, offer suggestions for national policy, and pieces are equally welcome which advance understanding of the institutional, political, social or ideological development in countries of current U.S. foreign policy interest. Papers need not represent finished pieces of research, but should offer new analytic or research findings." The Institute's democratisation programme is an area of particular emphasis, and welcomes all proposals on related research topics.

For further information about the Institute's working paper series, or to discuss a possible topic for inclusion in the series, please contact the director of studies, Robert Kokta, at robert.kokta@foreignpolicysociety.org. Further details here.

EVENTS

October 15, 2004 10:00am-12:00, Washington, DC, Mayflower Hotel, 1127 Conn. Ave, NW
What Role Should Religion Play in Shaping U.S. Foreign Policy?
Can religious convictions promote a more moral foreign policy? Do they lead to fanaticism, or do they encourage a new realism about the forces shaping the choices that confront the United States? E.J. Dionne, Jr., Washington Post; Father Bryan Hehir, President, Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life, Harvard University; Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post; Walter Russell Mead, Henry Kissinger Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations; Louise Richardson, Executive Dean, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University; Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Professor of Peace and Development, University of Maryland. Further details click here.

October 25-26, Prato, Italy
Conference on 'Integrated Governance: Linking up Government, Business and Civil Society.'
Further details: Monash Governance Research Unit (MGRU), Monash University, PO Box 197, Caulfield East, 3145, Victoria, Australia, tel: +61 3 99 03 20 67, fax: +61 3 99 03 27 18 e-mail: governance@buseco.monash.edu.au or click here.

October 26 3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
China's "Third Revolution": A Gateway toward Democracy?
Suzanne P. Ogden, professor, Department of Political Science, Northeastern University; Barrett L. McCormick, associate professor, Department of Political Science, Marquette University; Anne Thurston, associate professor, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University and fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center. Commentator: Louisa Coan Greve, Senior Program Officer, National Endowment for Democracy.

November 7-10, Pecs, Hungary
'The Role of Universities in Promoting Democratic Citizenship,' 15th Annual Conference of the Alliance of Universities for Democracy
Further details: Svitlana Shmelova, PhD, Director, Office of International Affairs, Dnipropetrovsk State Financial and Economic Institute, 12 Arzanov Street, Dnipropetrovsk, 49083, Ukraine, tel/fax: +380 56 370 37 94 e-mail: depwr@a-teleport.com, or click here.

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Democracy Digest welcomes cooperation from organizations and individuals in building circulation and in obtaining articles, speeches, web site addresses, organizational statements and other materials that may be of interest to readers. Our effort has just begun. Organizations that have so far agreed to cooperate include: Aspen Institute Berlin; the Center for Study of Islam and Democracy; Council for a Community of Democracies; FAES Fundacion (Spain); the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly(Turkey); the Institute for Political Studies at the Catholic University of Portugal; No Peace Without Justice (Italy); People in Need Foundation (Czech Republic); Polish Helsinki Foundation on Human Rights, Droits et Democratie (Canada).

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The Transatlantic Democracy Network involves North Americans and Europeans in dialogue about cooperation to support those working for democracy elsewhere in the world, especially in the Greater Middle East. The Network is associated with the World Movement for Democracy, and maintained by a secretariat at Freedom House.

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Democracy Digest is published weekly by The Transatlantic Democracy Network, a cooperative effort of the World Movement for Democracy (which provides "Information") and Freedom House (which edits "Issues").