Some commentators are categorical: in France's Le Figaro, Pascal Bruckner declares that “in the process of saving democracy, democracy has been destroyed...." (But he goes on to argue “we must never let America act alone.... More than ever, Iraq proves that a transatlantic partnership is needed....”)

Many in the Arab press saw the abuse of prisoners as proof of Washington's perfidy. “There is no way anyone can believe America's declarations about spreading freedom and democracy,” says Rafiq Khoury in Lebanon's al-Anwar.

In the US itself, skepticism about the Bush Administration's proclaimed goals of democracy in Iraq and throughout the Greater Middle East has been bubbling up on both the right and the left. Venerable conservative James Q. Wilson argues that although democracy may be an honorable goal, what is most important is “to keep [Iraq] out of the hands of a military dictator or an extremist mullah.” Another conservative commentator, George Will, contends that Iraq shows that some peoples lack the level of cultural development democracy requires in order to take root. The Middle East Forum's Daniel Pipes goes even further, arguing for a “democratically-minded strong man,” an option allegedly preferred by some State Department and CIA operatives, an option preferred by some State Department and CIA operatives, according to James Rubin, former Coalition Provisional Authority officer in Iraq.

Skepticism is also emerging among American liberals. Rand Beers, foreign policy adviser to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, suggested that democracy is “too heroic” an aspiration for Iraq and that stability is a more realistic aim. (Kerry has since affirmed his commitment to the aim of democratization.) Former Clinton administration ambassador Peter Galbraith suggests Iraq "is not salvageable as a unitary state" and that non-democratic governments are likely in both the Sunni triangle and the Shiite south. In Britain, 52 former British diplomats, dubbed the “camel corps,” wrote Prime Minister Tony Blair that “however much Iraqis may yearn for a democratic society, the belief that one could now be created by the coalition is naïve.”

Blair has been combative in his response. "I totally disagree with this idea that democracy and freedom, that's something western countries can do but somehow out in the Arab world or the Middle East these ideas can't take root." Rajeh Khuri of Beirut's al-Nahar rebukes those whose one-sided stress on the abuse of prisoners by the US has allowed them to forget that much of the Middle East is "a vast Abu Ghraib prison where many have died and more are still dying in obscurity . . . far away from the eyes of witnesses, from cameras, statements and speeches." Philip Stephens of the Financial Times adds that September 11 proved that “It is the so-called realists who have been shown to be naive…. Both ethics and realpolitik argue for fundamental reform in the Arab world.”

One intriguing suggestion made by several democratisers: deal with the turmoil in Iraq by speeding up the timetable for elections and self-rule: “Even flawed elections in Iraq would contribute to a sense of political progress--of movement toward legitimate self-government--that would give us a chance of improving the situation,” argue US neo-cons Robert Kagan and William Kristol.

Supporters of this view point out that in a number of local elections held under less than perfect conditions in southern Iraq, extremists did not fare so well. In fact, the Wall Street Journal's Yaroslav Trofimov has reported that “councils created through elections ended up with fewer tribal sheikhs and Islamic clerics than the temporary administrations run by local notables chosen by the US Marine Corps. Michael Gove in the London Times notes that secular democrats have triumphed in the 17 towns across Iraq where local elections have been held.

But how the US, Europe and the UN will respond to the new equation shaped by the past week's outrages remains unclear.

New EU Strategy Commits Neighbors to Reform Action Plans
The European Union launched a new 800 million Euro ($945 million) “neighborhood” strategy May 12 which offers neighbors from Morocco to Georgia the prospect of financial aid, trade and security co-operation in exchange for progress on democratic and economic reform.

The strategy envisions a framework under which initially seven countries commit to action plans for democratic and economic reform. The first wave comprises Moldova, Ukraine, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco. Egypt and Lebanon will likely be included later this year. The EU will monitor states' progress on liberalization.

The Action Plans are based on a “commitment to shared values”, including respect for human rights, rule of law, and good governance. The EU insists the plans will be differentiated - “tailor-made to reflect the existing state of relations with each country, its needs and capacities as well as common interests”.

Cuban dissidents criticize new US measures to undermine Castro
Leading Cuban dissidents -- among them Oswaldo Paya, Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo and Elizardo Sanchez Santacruz -- have criticized new measures to tighten restrictions on Cuban-Americans' cash remittances to relatives on the island and limit family visits to one every three years. The recommendations of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba are designed to accelerate the end of Fidel Castro's one-party communist regime.

Their position is likely to get attention in Europe, where the Havana regime has recently suffered significant setbacks. The European Union, once inclined toward closer trade relations with Cuba, suspended negotiations after last year's crackdown on dissent. Castro denounced the EU as Washington's "Trojan horse".

Democratization vs. liberalization?
Egyptian dissident Saad Eddin Ibrahim believes a “benign convergence” of external pressure and internal demand is driving a new wave of democratic liberalism in the Middle East. Reforms by the Moroccan and Jordanian monarchies are also adding to the momentum for liberalization, he adds, writing in the latest Wilson Quarterly.

In the same issue, Middle East expert Daniel Brumberg warns against conflating democratization and liberalization. Brumberg, a senior associate at the Washington DC-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argues US strategy in the region has stressed political liberalization -- promoting a freer debate and competition in the media, civil society, and political parties. Liberalization is a necessary but insufficient condition for democracy that requires “rules, institutions, and political practices through which voters regularly and constitutionally replace or modify their leadership by the exercise of representative political power.”

Brumberg poses a “fundamental” question: “Should the United States augment, or even replace, its traditional liberalizing strategy with a democratizing strategy, whose manifest goal…is to lay the foundation for an actual transition to competitive democracy? And if the answer to that question is yes, how should the shift be accomplished? At which countries of the Arab world should the new strategy be directed?” By investing its hopes in Iraq, the current US administration is “skirting the challenge of promoting genuine democratization in the Arab world”. He concludes, “Washington would be far better off hedging its bets through a strategy that makes at least one Arab country a candidate for something more than the old liberalization game. Morocco might be a good place to start.”

Fischer Positive on Arab Democratization Prospects
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has told the political weekly Der Spiegel there are discernible conditions for democracy in the Middle East. “Some Gulf states have started to carry out democratic reforms” and “Algeria is slowly working its way out of the great national tragedy of the past 12 years”. “Iran has an impressive civil society potential, above all in the major towns and cities”, he continued. And the current Turkish government “is trying to develop a moderate type of Islam' which would give Turkey a “bridge-building function between Islamic societies and Western democracies.”

Don't fund dictators, Nobel Prize winner tells World Bank
"Freedom is the most precious thing a human being can possess," said 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi in a Presidential lecture at World Bank headquarters in Washington DC,

Ebadi, a lawyer who teaches at Tehran University, said the international community should not lend to undemocratic countries because loans to monarchs and unaccountable governments undermine human rights. "Moreover, all dictators and tyrants will one day be brought down by their people," Ebadi said. "Palaces of tyrants will one day fall and that's when oppressed people will revolt against the governments and the policies they believe kept these regimes in power. Anger is the enemy of intellect."

Fundamentalists' wake-up call to democratisers
“The recently committed deadly attacks of fundamentalist groups at western democracies are wake-up calls for the need to defend and deepen our democracies,” says Roel von Meijenfeldt, Executive Director of the Institute for Multiparty Democracy (IMD). Speaking at the Westminster Foundation's recent conference on political parties in emerging democracies, he emphasized the need to be “far more efficient and focused on the promotion of democracy elsewhere in the world”

Carl Gershman, president of the National Endowment for Democracy, stressed the importance of encouraging cooperation between parties and civil society organizations while recognize the differences between the two sectors. “The distance between them is necessary and healthy”, he told the same conference. “Civil society should not be subordinate to parties, and it's a mistake to wrap the party sector into an undifferentiated concept of civil society.”

Nation-Building and Democracy – a Chastening Perspective
The Transition to Democracy in Iraq is jeopardized by the lack of security and the emergence of violent militias which, warns democracy expert Larry Diamond, threaten to undermine the otherwise promising growth of political participation and civil society groups. Diamond, who teaches at Stanford University and is an associate of the National Endowment for Democracy, recently spent several months as an adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority. He voiced his concerns at a recent Johns Hopkins University conference on "Nation-Building: Beyond Afghanistan and Iraq”.

Democracy Promotion: European and Arab Perspectives
Unlike Eastern Europe, the Arab world has been reluctant to engage the democratic governance agenda. So suggest the authors of a study examining how democracy promotion has been integrated into the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. There is some consensus on “democracy” amongst European states, but Arab perspectives vary. Europe has done little to encourage democratic governance or understand models other than its own, they argue. The authors question the degree to which indigenous paradigms can meet the democratic ideal. Arab commentators accuse Europe of trying to promote their own vision and Europe's policies may intensify this conviction.

INFORMATION

World Forum On Human Rights Starts May 16 In France
Some 900 researchers, policy-makers and civil society representativeswill attend the UNESCO World Forum on Human Rights, May 16-19 in Nantes, France. The forum will focus on three main issues:  human rights and terrorism, globalization and discrimination, and poverty as a violation of human rights. Panelists include Hassan Jallow, chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor for Rwanda and Jeffrey Sachs, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's special adviser on the Millennium Development Goals.

EU Funding for Democracy, Good Governance and Rule of Law
The European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights has issued a call for proposals for projects promoting democracy, good governance and the rule of law. Priorities are outlined on a regional or country-specific basis and include strengthening civil society, human rights education, freedom of expression, rule of law and institutions, and conflict prevention and resolution. The deadline for submission of preliminary proposals is 29 June 2004, 16:00 Brussels time.

Development Grants from World Bank
The World Bank offers grants to facilitate development projects designed to encourage innovation, co-operation between organizations, and to increase participation by local stakeholders in Bank-funded projects. Grants are distributed in various ways, including competitions such as the Development Marketplace, civil society grants, support for innovation in information and communication technologies, social funds, co-financing and projects supported by trust funds that are managed by the Bank. (Further details.)

Dutch PM, former US Secretary of State at Democracy Assistance Conference
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright are among several speakers confirmed for Democracy Agenda's July conference, Enhancing the European Profile in Democracy Assistance, to be held in The Hague, Netherlands, 4-6 July 2004.

IGC Members to Address DC Iraq Conference
Iraqi Governing Council members Mahmud Ali Osman and Ghazi Mashal Ajil Al-Yawar will address an international conference on political developments in Iraq on Friday June 11 in Washington, DC. The conference - Iraq: Power Sharing and Its Discontents: The Challenge of Constructing a Permanent Iraqi Constitution - is sponsored by the American University Center for Global Peace. Other speakers include Ghassan Al-Atiyyah of the Iraq Foundation for Development and Democracy, Noah Feldman, of New York University School of Law and Peter Galbraith, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. (Further details available at: http://www.american.edu/academic.depts/acainst/cgp/.

Crisis of confidence in Latin American democracy -- UNDP
A new report by the UNDP reveals a crisis of confidence in Latin American democracies. The report, Democracy in Latin America: Towards a Citizens' Democracy includes statistical data on 18 Latin American countries, polls, research, interviews, analyses, and recommended action , and is intended to generate debates on the state of democracy in the region. The report is available online in English, Portuguese and Spanish.

Justice in Muslim Societies
The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) is holding its fifth annual conference on May 28-29, 2004, in Washington, DC. The conference, "Defining and Establishing Justice in Muslim Societies," will convene leading scholars, activists, and policy makers to discuss methods of promoting freedom, justice, and democracy in the Muslim world. The deadline for pre-registration is May 15, 2004. or contact Layla Sein at sein@islam-democracy.org.

Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellowships
The Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program at the Washington, DC-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED) welcomes fellowship applications for 2005-2006. The Fellows Program was established in 2001 to enable democracy activists, practitioners, scholars, and journalists from around the world to deepen their understanding of democracy and enhance their ability to promote democratic change. A working knowledge of English is required. The application deadline for fellowships in 2005-2006 is Monday, November 1, 2004 (or e-mail: mailto:fellowships@ned.org

Palestinian Reform – Reality and Aspiration
A new book from the Jerusalem-based Civic Forum Institute (CFI) includes summaries of two conference events held in Gaza and Ramallah in 2003, recommendations from workshops held in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Reform – a Palestinian Perspective: Between Reality and Aspirations features reports by leading Palestinian scholars on financial, judicial, administrative, election, economic, local government, and civil society reform. The book is available in English and Arabic.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

May 16-19, Nantes, France
World Forum on Human Rights, organised by the City of Nantes, at the initiative and with the support of UNESCO, and in cooperation with the French National Commission for UNESCO. Laurus International, World Forum on human rights, 61 rue Jules Auffret, F-93500 Pantin, tel: +33 1 49 42 45 30, fax: +33  1 49 42 45 49, e-mail: aframery@laurus.fr, web site: http://www.unesco.org/.

June 14-21, Salzburg, Austria
'Reinventing the West: Redefining the Transatlantic relationship' Salzburg Seminar, Leopoldskron Strasse 56-58, Box 129, A-5010 Salzburg, tel: +43 662 83 98 30, fax: +43 662 83 98 37, e-mail:info@salzburgseminar.org, web site: http://www.salzburgseminar.org/.

June 16-21, Halki, Greece
15th Halki International Seminars: 'Transatlantic cooperation in the greater Middle East and South-eastern Europe', ELIAMEP, 4 Xenophontos Street, GR-105 57 Athens, tel: +30 210 331 50 22, fax: +30 210 364 21 39, e-mail: halki@eliamep.gr, web site: http://www.eliamep.gr/.

July, 4-6, The Hague, the Netherlands
Working conference on 'European profile in democracy support' Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, IMD Office, Korte Vijverberg 2, NL-2513 AB The Hague, tel: +31 70 3115464, fax: +31 70 3115465, e-mail: info@nimd.org, web site: http://www.nimd.org/