September 14, 2004, Volume 1, Number 15


DEMOCRACY DIGEST

The Weekly Bulletin of the Transatlantic Democracy Network


ISSUES:

This issue of Democracy Digest focuses on two subjects we expect will not only interest but encourage many readers. On these two issues an understanding of one may reinforce understanding and appreciation of the other. First, a marked change in tone among Muslim commentators in discussions of terrorism and extremism has emerged in the aftermath of recent atrocities in Russia and elsewhere. This shift has been noted in a compendium of comment by informed observers prepared by the Middle East Media Research Institute. One of the most striking and promising statements about this change of tone comes from Iranian exile Amir Taheri, who describes the Muslim world as a theater for a "civil war of ideas" between traditionalists opposed to reform and modernizers favoring democratization. Taheri makes an especially resonant comparison, suggesting that the Muslim world resembles the late 1980s communist bloc, characterized by "a bankrupt ideology, corrupt elites and economic decline," with its people seeking to share the freedom and prosperity that modernity offers.

The second theme we take up in this Democracy Digest has to do with prospects for strengthening the transatlantic relationship. An important new study of public opinion in Europe and the United States by the German Marshall Fund gives reason for hope that serious and sustained efforts to engender transatlantic cooperation in behalf of democratic change in the broader Middle East and on Europe's troubled Eastern borders could bear fruit. If the democracies of Europe and North America can move beyond recent tensions to cooperate effectively in enhancing tendencies toward democratic reform, then recent shifts in the Muslim world offer great hope for peoples long subjected to incompetent, corrupt and brutal regimes which breed little but violent extremism.

German Marshall Fund Survey and Analysis Offers Insights on Transatlantic Relations

The German Marshall Fund has released its latest survey of public opinion in Europe and the United States.  Transatlantic Trends 2004 provides those thinking about the outlook for transatlantic relations in both Europe and the US with valuable information and insights.   The publication of this study comes in the midst of a US Presidential election that many think may open a new page in relations between Europe and the US no matter which candidate wins. Some observers also speculate that Europeans are becoming ready for a new and more constructive conversation with America because many Europeans want a more effective international role for the European Union, not simply sterile competition with the US. There may also be an increasing awareness among Europeans of the deep challenges the continent faces in dealing with Islamic extremism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and instability on its southern and eastern borders.  

Some findings of the study will have special interest for readers of Democracy Digest.  The transatlantic relationship has its difficulties, but it is not as bad as some might think, and there are signs that repairs could be effective.

  •  Common Values:  Americans (71 percent) and Europeans (60 percent) retain broad consensus that the United States and the European Union have enough common values to be able to cooperate on international problems.

  • Both Europeans and Americans agree that seven threats are important or extremely important:  Islamic fundamentalism, immigrants and refugees, international terrorism, an Arab-Israeli military conflict, the global spread of disease, a major economic downturn, and weapons of mass destruction.   On the last of these the absence of stockpiles of ready WMD in Iraq may have brought some modest diminution in European concern, but it still ranks relatively high.

  • Despite recent transatlantic tensions "most Europeans hold moderately favorable feelings toward the United Sates," the study notes. “Europeans gave the United States a thermometer reading of 55 on a scale of 1-100.” The study finds “....This represents no change over last year." Americans gave the EU a thermometer reading of 62 degrees." These are still reasonably warm atitudes on both sides, that offer considerable room for constructive dialogue.  

  • "The number of Europeans who believe that the United States and Europe have grown farther apart declined from 36 percent in 2003 to 31 percent in 2004, with declines in every country for which we have trend data except France,” the study finds. “Americans are more likely than Europeans to perceive a growing estrangement."

  • Interestingly, fully "79 percent of Americans find it desirable for the European Union to exert strong leadership in world affairs."  This is hardly the impulse to make Europe America's handmaiden that has been suggested in certain caricatures. Europeans are now somewhat more skeptical of US "global leadership." Europeans say they want a more powerful EU in order to be able to cooperate more effectively with the US.

  •  Paradoxically, "64 percent of Europeans believe Europe should acquire more military power to be able to protect its interests separately from the US.”  But, "only 22 percent of Europeans believe their governments should be spending more on defense." An old pattern continues.

  • The study found wide disparities between Republicans and Democrats in the US over the role of military power in international affairs.  According to commentary by Marshall Fund president Craig Kennedy at a Washington presentation of the study, "the divide between right and left in Europe" on certain of the core issues examined in the study is not so great as the divisions now evident in the US. "The German Greens and the CDU are less divided than Republicans and Democrats in the US."

  • Nor is it so clear that it is appropriate to think simplistically of a more pro-US "New Europe" in contrast to a more skeptical “Old Europe." The study finds that pro-US sentiment has declined sharply in countries such as Poland and Slovakia, and sentiment in Turkey is not encouraging.  But old friends Italy and Portugal turn in quite positive numbers.      

  • Despite widespread doubts about Turkish accession to the EU in important countries such as Germany and France, Kennedy reported that many Europeans do not consider Turkey's Muslim culture a negative factor in considering its accession to the EU. Many actually believe this should be considered a positive thing, perhaps because as a member state Turkey might help build bridges not only to Europe's neighbors in the Muslim world but also to Muslim immigrant groups within European societies.

    Ossetia Massacre Prompts Muslim Outrage, Self-Criticism
    As noted above, the school siege and massacre in Beslan, North Ossetia, has prompted an unprecedented amount of soul-searching and criticism on the part of Arab and Muslim commentators. “It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims,” writes Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed, former editor of Al-Sharq Al-Awsat. “Let us acknowledge this reality instead of denying it," he insists. “We cannot clear our names unless we own up to the shameful fact that terrorism has become an Islamic enterprise; an almost exclusive monopoly, implemented by Muslim men and women.”

    "Does this not say something about us, about our society and our culture?” Al-Rashed asks. Blaming jihadist “neo-Muslims” for distorting and debasing Islam, he places responsibility squarely with leaders in the Arab and Muslim world, those “sheikhs who have turned themselves into pulpit revolutionaries who send the children of others to fight while they send their own children to European schools."

    This theme is echoed by Suleiman Al-Hatlan in the Saudi government daily Al-Watan, who believes the “acts of violence and barbarism occurring at present are nothing but the natural consequence of generations of Muslims having been misled and force-fed speeches [filled with] hostility and hatred for others over the course of decades, which deepened the backwardness and the ignorance in the Islamic world.”

    Jihadists on Defensive in Islamic "Civil War"?
    The reaction to the atrocity in Beslan reflects broader debates in the Muslim world that, according to some accounts, amount to a "civil war" within Islam.

    Even before the recent kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq prompted protests from Muslim leaders in France, a manifesto for tolerance initiated by Algerian-born union activist Tewfik Allal prompted a lively movement in opposition to Muslim fundamentalists. "We are of Muslim culture. We oppose misogyny, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and the political use of Islam. We reassert a living secularism," declares the manifesto which has attracted several hundred signatories and a list of non-Muslim "Amis du Manifeste" (Friends of the Manifesto) expressing solidarity.

    In the wider world, Islamists are losing the battle for the hearts and minds of the people argues Gilles Kepel, a Paris-based expert on Islam and Arab politics. He notes that Al Qaeda chief ideologue Ayman Zawahiri's concern that the "jihadist vanguard" was becoming isolated from the "Muslim masses" has proven to be justified. Not only have Islamist militants been “unable to galvanize civil society,” says Keppel, but “jihad has backfired and led to what they call fitna — a war within Islam.” Perhaps more debatably, Kepel argues that French policy in the Middle East, especially its criticism of the Iraq war and pro-Palestinian sympathies, helped mobilize Islamic opinion within and outside France against the journalists' kidnapping. France's recent experience suggests that Al Qaeda can “be beaten at its own hearts-and-minds game” and that Russia and the US “are missing an opportunity to mobilize Muslim civil society against Islamist terrorism and dry out the social swamps from which it springs.”

    Reformers are also making inroads by using Islamic concepts against the Islamists. For example, in Morocco, women's rights advocate and parliamentarian Nouzha Sukalli is “one of a new breed of Muslim activists trying to transform societies by working within religious traditions." By avoiding secularist arguments, invoking the "egalitarian" nature of Islam and stressing a commitment to reconciling differences with religious authorities within Islamic discourse, Sukalli (a grantee of the National Endowment for Democracy and an active participant in the World Movement for Democracy ) has helped secure new laws allowing women to divorce their husbands, collect alimony and receive forms of inheritance.

    Democracy the Antidote to Terror?
    A totalitarian impulse is the common denominator motivating terrorists of every stripe and only democracy can stop them, argues British commentator Michael Gove in the London Times (registration required). He follows Nobel development economist Amartya Sen in stressing that “just as democracies deal much more effectively with natural disasters than autocracies because free institutions keep governments efficient… [t]he same principles apply to dealing with man-made threats such as terrorism.”

    “It is no coincidence that both President Putin and the House of Saud should have had to endure an upsurge of terror on their territory this year,” Gove contends, concluding that the “need to spread democracy to counter terror and tyranny, far from being a neoconservative dream that died in the sands of Iraq, remains not just the most important lesson of the 20th century, but the single most important challenge of our time.”

    Arab Reformers Mobilize: In Exile and At Home
    Suggestions that the Arab world is “on the verge of democracy” may be over-optimistic. ”Ferment is not change,” cautions conservative commentator Danielle Pletka. But she seems to be on safe ground in stating that “for the first time in half a century, democracy is the talk of the Arab world” as debate “once confined to emigre papers published in London or Paris, has suddenly bubbled up onto the pages of the state-controlled press in the Arab world.”

    Some of the "best contemporary minds in the Arab world" met recently in the august surroundings of Oxford University, England, representing the “lost resources of an Arab world that is fast becoming isolated by illiteracy, ignorance and repression,” and “united by the devastating reality that not a single one is able to return to work in his or her native country.” The members of the Project for Democracy Studies in Arab Countries believe long-term change in the region can only be secured by redefining the relationship between politics and religion.

    They insist Arabs themselves must develop the institutions their societies need, particularly “civil organizations to safeguard and monitor the rule of law, human rights and education, as well as sectarian and ethnic diversity,” the current absence of which means that “publicly accessible information about the shortcomings in Arab societies is almost nonexistent.”

    Amir Al-Naffakh, professor of Islamic philosophy at Baghdad University, shares the view that reform is imperative, complaining that “security-obsessed states have grown stronger at the expense of civil-society institutions.” Reform is entirely consistent with shura, he argues, which values consultation and, by extension, freedom, democracy and political participation within the theory and practice of Islam.

    But he is less anxious about exclusive Arab ownership of change, expressing the concern that calls to “reject external initiatives on the grounds that they encroach on national sovereignty” will diminish the momentum for change. Reformers are often caught in a double-bind: “Any attempt to challenge [the status quo] from within society is met with exclusion through repression. External challenges face political rejection and popular resentment.” “In this duel, where the battle lines are being drawn between Arab regimes and the international community,” he warns, “any loss sustained by the regimes is a gain to public freedoms in Arab societies.”

    This reluctant embrace of external catalysts for change is shared by Palestinian analyst Daoud Kuttab, who is more concerned about “the silence displayed by genuine Arab intellectuals regarding the substance of, and the need for, reform, rather than the parties behind it.” “Since Arab democrats have failed to reach their goals through their own efforts,” he argues, “there is no harm in supporting any idea that fits with theirs, irrespective of the messenger.”

    The reality is that in “fighting to retain the last foothold that liberal values still have in the Arab world,” Arab liberals “have no choice but to seek external sources of funding and expertise to support their various activities,” says Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian novelist and analyst.

    Cooperation between the region's liberals and international supporters represents “a last-ditch effort to develop, modernize and democratize the Arab world, peacefully and from within,” insists Abdulhamid, currently a visiting fellow at the Saban Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC. “This is unmistakably a struggle against all odds, but that is exactly what makes it so necessary.” Yet autocrats and authoritarians have been resilient across the region.

    The “incumbency of individuals and their narrow circles of supporters has done more harm than good,” says Rami Khouri, editor of Beirut's Daily Star. He ironically suggests 25-year term limits for Arab leaders noting that the current leaders of Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya have been in power for a total of 65 years. "This is not an issue of ideology, but rather of biology,” Khouri suggests, observing that “human beings who enjoy unchecked and unaccountable power for decades at a time inevitably slip into a pattern of distorted decision-making that exaggerates their own sense of wisdom and infallibility."

    Democracy IS the Answer
    A “people-to-people relationship” involving thousands of nongovernmental organizations will bolster democratic forces and strengthen civil society in Muslim countries, argues a leading analyst. Contributing to a new report from Stanford University's Hoover Institution, A Practical Guide to Winning the War on Terrorism, Amir Taheri says the Muslim world is currently a theater for a “civil war of ideas” between traditionalists opposed to reform and modernizers favoring democratization.

    The three countries that have traditionally offered intellectual leadership– Iran, Turkey and Egypt – are for varying reasons no longer in a position to do so with the consequence that the Muslim world resembles the late 1980s communist bloc, characterized by "a bankrupt ideology, corrupt elites and economic decline," with its people seeking to share the freedom and prosperity that modernity offers.

    Noting that many Arab and Muslim states have committed themselves to human rights and related standards through the European Union's Barcelona Process and similar initiatives, Taheri stresses the need to connect and reinforce such accords in the form of "a single memorandum of understanding between the Muslim world and the major democratic powers.”

    Democracy Promotion Questioned by Right and Left
    A growing camp of conservative pundits has joined figures on the left in questioning the legitimacy and feasibility of democratization. In the United States, some Republican political figures and commentators have expressed reservations about the Bush administration's efforts to promote democracy in the Middle East, invoking “conservatism's traditional skepticism about government's ability to transform culture.”

    For instance, Senator Pat Roberts, chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has spoken of the need to restrain what he calls “growing US messianic instincts – a sort of global social engineering where the United States feels it is both entitled and obligated to promote democracy – by force if necessary.”

    For one leading European commentator, the notion of spreading democracy “is not merely quixotic – it is dangerous.” Arguing that democratization aggravated ethnic conflict and led to the disintegration of multinational and multicommunal polities after both 1918 and 1989, left-wing British historian Eric Hobsbawm suggests that it reflects a false assumption that globalization facilitates a “universal pattern” of human affairs, including political institutions.

    Democracy promotion is also indirectly dangerous, Hobshawn claims, since it “conveys to those who do not enjoy this form of government the illusion that it actually governs those who do.” Hobsbawm's cynicism and ambivalence towards democracy are perhaps predictable. As commentator Ian Buruma has observed, Hobsbawm is "not a natural democrat." While professing to be "deeply committed to a world governed in the interests of ordinary people and not elites." he questions whether free and fair elections are “necessarily a good thing."

    As a lifelong and unapologetic communist, Hobsbawm was recently described in the London-based Independent as the “David Irvine of the left.” Yet unlike the British Holocaust denier, Hobsbawm -- recently awarded the Balzan prize, worth one million Swiss francs ($788,000/€651,000), for his analysis of twentieth century European history -- does not insist that Soviet mass murder did not happen, but rather that it was justifiable.

    Such skepticism has come under criticism from perhaps unlikely sources. Democracy is spreading, insists Michel Rocard, a former prime minister of France and current member of the European Parliament, because compared with all other political regimes, democracy “represents ethical progress twice over." First, because it is based on respect for human rights; and second, because universal suffrage prohibits neglecting or oppressing minorities.” Realpolitik and foreign policy realism will not disappear, says Rocard, but, departing from the French statist tradition, he insists reasons of state must be subjected to greater public scrutiny and accountablity.

    And in an analysis that has reportedly been avidly read in the White House, leading American international relations expert John Lewis Gaddis offers a cogent defense of the Bush Administration's National Security Strategy and its efforts to promote democracy. Characterizing the current administration's approach as “Fukuyama plus force,” he rejects the notion of a clash of civilizations between Islam and the West, insisting that the real clash is occurring within Islam.

    "Germany Marginalized by Anti-American Foreign Policy"
    --Adenauer Stiftung
    Anti-Americanism has distorted German foreign policy, prompting a dilution of the country's influence in the world, according to an analysis from the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, the German Christian Democratic Party's democracy promotion agency. A study by the foundation's foreign policy analyst Karl-Heinz Kampf describes German foreign policy as "autistic" and politically incompetent due to its overt anti-Americanism.

    "Tearing down foreign policy walls without giving thought to the stability of the edifice does not bring about any gain in influence, but leads to marginalization," Kampf argues. He says Berlin's mistaken strategy of aligning with France against the US and Britain over Iraq suggests it is incapable of demonstrating solidarity even without military commitment. Furthermore, Germany has failed to propose any realistic alternative solutions to the Iraq problem.

    German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer cautioned last week that Europe must engage more energetically in the Middle East or risk conflict on its doorstep. "Will the Mediterranean turn into a sea of cooperation or confrontation between us?,” Fischer asked a conference on the broader Middle East attended by over 200 German ambassadors and officials. Europe was at a crossroads in the fight against terrorism, said Fischer, and transatlantic cooperation was a condition of long term success. "Once the [US presidential] election is over we must continue the transatlantic dialogue and try to achieve a strategic consensus," he said.

    Fischer singled out the situation in Iran as one of both promise and danger. Iran, he believes, “has created every condition for a democracy” but he remains “deeply concerned about the erosion of human rights and tensions with Israel" and the "nightmare scenario" of a nuclear-armed theocracy.

    New Transatlantic Rift Threatens Over China Arms Embargo
    The European Union's current review of the arms embargo against China is threatening to provoke a re-emergence of the transatlantic divisions that emerged over the Iraq war. The British government – and Prime Minister Tony Blair personally-- have reservations about lifting the ban, imposed in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre. But other EU member states favor lifting the embargo.

    While no decision is likely until after November's US presidential election, the review has divided European politicians and officials. French president Jacques Chirac has led the campaign to lift the embargo. He has found support amongst those who argue that China's strategic importance to the EU outweighs human rights considerations. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, eager to negotiate the lucrative sale of German-built stealth submarines to the Beijing regime, also supports an end to the ban. Commentators suggest the embargo may be lifted at the EU-China summit meeting in December.

    But others have argued for prioritizing ethics over commerce. European parliamentarian Graham Watson suggests that not only the United States is opposed to any change, fearing European weapons being used to threaten Taiwan. The Netherlands – current holders of the EU presidency -- Denmark and Sweden favor keeping the ban. Since it can only be lifted by a unanimous vote by the European Council, their opposition should maintain the embargo.

    “We will not hurry the arrival of democracy in China by selling guns to those who would repress it,” Watson states. “Until the respect for human rights and civil and political freedoms in China advances by a quantum leap, the position of the EU should be unequivocal” in keeping the embargo intact.

    ….. and EU-Asia Tensions Over Myanmar
    A dispute with Asian nations threatens to upset next month's EU-Asian ASEM summit in Hanoi. Asian nations are insisting that Myanmar, formerly Burma, be invited but EU states are reluctant to share the table with the country's military junta.

    ASEM, an economic and political forum for promoting EU-Asian build trade and cooperation, comprises 15 EU nations plus the ASEAN grouping of Asian states, comprising China, Japan, South Korea, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The EU wants to include its 10 new member states in ASEM but the Asian nations insist on including Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos as a quid pro quo.

    The EU is opposed to the continued house arrest of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and the junta's refusal to allow Myanmar's National League for Democracy to participate in a national political convention. The EU is likely to demand that the regime release Aung San Suu Kyi as a condition of their attendance. The EU has imposed a travel ban on Myanmar's military rulers and frozen their financial assets in Europe.

    But Asian nations are concerned to get access to Myanmar's resources and open up the country to investment. Foreign investment in Myanmar jumped 94 percent to US$95.3 million (€79 million) in 2003 despite economic sanctions. While the largest single source of investment was Britain, with some US$27 million (€22 million) in transportation, Asian nations are also prominent. Thailand invested US$22 million (€18.2 million) in oil and gas, while other investors included Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Brunei, all of which have invested in the country's fisheries sector.

    Democracy activists are insisting that the EU “should indicate starkly to ASEAN that it must use the next meeting of Asian and EU foreign ministers to apply real pressure on Myanmar now, before Myanmar assumes the ASEAN presidency in 2006.”

    Iran One Of My 'Biggest Regrets' -- EU's Patten
    Iran's "backward movement" on human rights and refusal to meet the international community's nuclear demands are among his biggest regrets, says Chris Patten, the EU's outgoing external relations commissioner.

    "Demography is unshakably on the same side as democracy," said Patten, who leaves office at the end of October. "[Iran is] the greatest pre-Islamic civilization in the region, a country with an exciting culture, a country terribly young -- 600,000 or 700,000 youngsters coming onto the job market every year."

    Patten criticized the US for its failure to engage Iran and for undermining EU efforts in the region, noting that “it doesn't make it easier that now, when we try to discuss human rights issues with Iranian officials, we have issues like Abu Ghurayb [prison abuse] shoved in our faces."

    But while the EU has tried to bring Iran "out of the cold," Tehran has spurned its efforts. The EU has sought to form an "umbilical relationship" between EU trade concessions and Iranian social and political reforms -- and assurances that nuclear power will be limited to civil uses. Iran failed to honor its end of the bargain.

    The EU's policy of constructive engagement towards Iran has been criticized, and not only in the United States. One commentator recently compared EU policy to “feeding carrot soup to a lion in the belief that the lion will eventually become a vegetarian.” Western governments and human rights groups recently expressed outrage at the execution of Ateqeh Rajabi, a teenage girl, in the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran, for "acts incompatible with chastity."

    “Like all states that practice violence against their own people and terror against others, Iran construes weakness in other nations as a license for further repression at home and adventurism abroad,” says Michael Gove of the London Times. "We need to work now to support the appetite for democracy among the Iranian people," Gove insists, "just as we gave hope to Soviet dissidents and Polish trade unionists in the 1980s by backing those who broadcast the truth to the oppressed, funding those who will organize for change and showing those who are really the West's friends that we know a shared enemy when we see one."


    NEWS

    Darfur Killings Are Genocide.
    The US has found Khartoum and its Arab Janjaweed militia responsible for "genocide" against African tribes in Darfur, US Secretary of State Colin Powell told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He addressed the committee as the UN Security Council prepared to debate a resolution threatening sanctions against Sudan.

    Secretary Powell stressed US diplomatic leadership in seeking to end the violence and in providing up to 80 percent of all international humanitarian aid to Darfur. While Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar complained of UN ineffectiveness, the Secretary of State replied that no country was willing to send troops. He proposed an expanded mission of the African Union with troops given the power to intercede to stop atrocities.

    A recent visit to Darfur prompted Democratic senator Jon Corzine and former UN ambassador Richard Holbrooke to suggest that the United States and NATO provide airlift and logistical support to the African Union to assist its monitoring mission, an operation which should then “evolve rapidly into a full-fledged peacekeeping operation.”

    New Democracy Institute for Bahrain
    A new institute to promote political reform and democratization will be launched in Bahrain within the next few months. The Bahrain Institute for Democratic Development (BIDD) will focus on "preparing programs and educational seminars on democracy, political plurality and human rights among other subjects," MP Abdul Nabi Salman told Gulf News.

    The institute is modeled after the US National Democratic Institute which recently closed its Manama office after three years of promoting democratic change in the kingdom. NDI had been invited by the Bahraini Royal Court to "help the government spread the electoral and democratic awareness" said a government official. "Now the reforms' transitional period is over, and we believe the democratic experiment in Bahrain has taken roots, the government feels that the role of the NDI is no longer needed as such,” the Bahraini claimed.

    Bruton Appointed European Union Ambassador to US
    The former Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) John Bruton, has been appointed Head of the European Commission's Delegation to Washington. Formerly leader of the center-right Fine Gael party, Bruton will take up his post in November.

    Azerbaijani Leader Offers Concessions To Opposition
    Several months after a hotly disputed election, Azerbaijan's authoritarian president Ilham Aliyev has offered to engage in a dialogue to foster national reconciliation.

    Opposition figures have responded cautiously, demanding such concrete reforms as evidence of the regime's good faith, including an amnesty for political prisoners, return of political exiles, including former President Ayaz Mutalibov, measures to democratize the political process, including the annulment of the constitutional amendment that abolished the proportional system in parliamentary elections, and the inclusion in election commissions of representatives of all political forces.

    Kuwaiti Government Licenses Human Rights Group
    Kuwait City: The Kuwaiti authorities have finally authorized a human rights group, 10 years after it was established.


    INFORMATION:

    ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

    The August 6 edition of Democracy Digest cited a Palestinian official's observation that "Egyptian politics is like the pyramid: President Hosni Mubarak is at the top, and there's a very wide base. Syrian politics is like the Eiffel Tower: President Hafez al-Assad [today his son, Bashar] is at the top, and there are a few people on each level. Palestinian politics is the shape of Yasir Arafat: Yasir Arafat is Palestinian politics and that's all there is to it." The source for this quote was Barry Rubin, in his article “After Arafat” in the Spring 2004 edition of the Middle East Quarterly.

    OPPORTUNITIES

    Club of Madrid
    Program Officer and Program Assistant
    The Club of Madrid is an independent organization dedicated to strengthening democracy around the world by drawing on the unique experience and resources of its members – democratic former heads of state and government. Working in partnership with other organizations and governments that share its democracy-promoting goals, the Club of Madrid provides strategic support and technical advice to leaders and institutions seeking to consolidate democracy and those making the first step towards a democratic form of government.

    The organization currently has vacancies for a Program Officer and a Program Assistant. Full details and position requirements are available here. To apply please send a letter indicating which position you are applying for, briefly explaining your motivations for seeking this job, together with your CV in English or Spanish to: clubmadrid@clubmadrid.org. Please write the name of the post for which you are applying in the subject line.  

    Democracy Council
    Economic Development Specialists
    The Democracy Council, a US-based NGO, is looking for three economic development specialists for work in the West Bank and Gaza.
    1. A senior Economist with at least a Master's degree in economics or related areas (such as trade, and development), ten years of work experience in developing countries (especially in the Middle East), familiarity with institutional problems faced by developing countries, prior experience on project design or assessment teams, and prior experience performing economic analysis of projects and sector assessments.
    2. A senior Trade Expert with an advanced degree in trade-related areas, at least ten years experience in trade related issues in the areas of industry, competitiveness, and services, experience in developing countries (especially in the Middle East region) and familiarity with institutional problems faced by developing countries.
    3. A Private Sector Development Specialist with an advanced degree from an accredited university in business administration, marketing, or finance, at least 10 years of relevant experience in international business, and economic development especially in a developing country environment.
    Please contact Paul Findley at tel: (310)479-2441, fax: (310)479-2740 or e-mail: mailto:pfindley@democracycouncil.org

    International Foundation for Electoral Systems
    Senior Program Manager, Baghdad, Iraq
    IFES is an international, nonprofit organization that supports the building of democratic societies. IFES provides targeted technical assistance to strengthen transitional democracies. Founded in 1987 as a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, IFES has developed and implemented comprehensive, collaborative democracy solutions in more than 120 countries. Through the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS, a joint venture with the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute, IFES has been awarded a Cooperative Agreement with USAID/Iraq under the heading, “Domestic Oversight and Voter Education Activities for the Iraqi Electoral Process." Under this agreement, IFES will design and implement a program aimed at identifying, monitoring and where possible, mitigating and preventing violence related to the upcoming election process. To apply e-mail your resumé and cover letter to: Anchal Gupta at: jobs@ifes.org referencing Job Requisition #15-04MENA/Sr.PM in the e-mail subject line.

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

    Islam & Democracy Project
    The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) is launching a new project called “Connecting Islam and Democracy.” CSID will partner with community leaders in Algeria, Jordan, Morocco and Egypt to develop materials and strategies that show the connection between Islamic and democratic principles. As a result of this project, CSID envisions that community leaders will be better able to discuss Islam and Democracy with their constituents. New textbooks will be designed to reach and inform the ordinary citizen about what democracy is, how it works, its benefits and advantages, as well as its compatibility with Islam. 

    CSID is seeking 10 participants from each country (Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, and Jordan) to be involved in the design and the dissemination of textbooks and training materials. CSID is especially looking for NGO leaders and activists, youth leaders, political and religious leaders, journalists, and women NGO leaders. Anyone interested in participating should contact Aly Abuzaakuk, CSID program officer for the Middle East and North Africa.  Letters of Invitation and Application Forms are available (in both English and Arabic) here.

    FELLOWSHIPS/AWARDS

    Gleitsman Foundation
    The Gleitsman Foundation is currently accepting nominations for the 2005 International Activist award, which is granted to those working to correct social injustice worldwide. Details are available on the Gleitsman Foundation Web site. Deadline is November 5, 2004.

    Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders
    The Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders is granted annually to someone who has demonstrated an exceptional record of combating human rights violations by courageous and innovative means. The prize aims to encourage human rights defenders who are in need of protection. The value of the award is 30,000 Swiss Francs (US$23,000/€19,500) to be used for further work in the field of human rights. The deadline is October 1, 2004. For more information go here

    Reebok Human Rights Award
    This award recognizes young activists who have made significant contributions to human rights causes through nonviolent means. The Award aims to generate positive international attention for the recipients and to support their efforts. Honorees, who are 30 years of age or younger, receive a USD $50,000 grant from the Reebok Human Rights Foundation to further their work. The deadline is December 31, 2004. For more information go here.

    World Learning for International Development
    Democracy Fellowship, Kenya
    With the imminent signing of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the warring parties within the country, there is new hope for establishing a democratic government in Sudan. Following the agreement there will be a six-year interim period during which Southern Sudan (GOSS) will begin to develop self-governing institutions as it acts as an autonomous region. Under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement there will be two levels of government: the Government of Sudan and the Government of South Sudan, with a variety of power sharing and federalism structures in place to facilitate this relationship. The USAID mission in Sudan is looking for a Democracy Fellow with experience in democracy and governance and public administration to assist the mission and its counterparts in the GOSS in setting up the foundations of a state, particularly the various ministries.

    Candidates must be US citizens with an M.A. or Ph.D plus five years of related experience and should send a completed application to: Democracy Fellowship (Sudan) World Learning 1015 15th Street, NW, Suite 750 Washington, DC 20005 fax: (202) 408-5397 e-mail: mailto:dfp.info@worldlearning.org The deadline is September 27, 2004.

    Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice & Human Rights
    The Thomas J. Dodd Prize aims to honour an individual or a group that has made a significant effort to advance the cause of international justice and global human rights. Named after the former Connecticut Senator and legal counsel at the Nuremberg Trials, the bi-annual award carries a cash prize of USD $75,000 and a commemorative bronze bust of Thomas J. Dodd. The deadline is November 1, 2004. For more information go here.

    Press Freedom Awards 2004
    For journalists from Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and Romania. The deadline is September 15 2004. For more information go here.

    EVENTS

    October 1, 2004, Wardman Park Marriott, Washington, DC
    Middle Eastern American Convention for Freedom and Democracy, hosted by The Center for Middle East Freedom
    Sessions will cover Democratization and the Middle East -- Evaluation of Freedom Dynamics in the Region, featuring Farid Ghadry – Syrian Democratic Coalition and Dr. Walid Phares of Florida State University; Islam and Democracy, featuring Radwan Massmoudi of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy; and Democratization Policy – Evaluation of U.S and European Democratization Policy in the Region, including speakers from the US Administration and leading academics. For more information call: 202-328-2000.

    FALL BACK
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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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