September 24, 2004, Volume 1, Number 16


DEMOCRACY DIGEST

The Weekly Bulletin of the Transatlantic Democracy Network


NOTICE:

Freedom House, which together with the World Movement for Democracy sponors and assists the Transatlantic Democracy Network, has been awarded EUR 55,000 by the European Commission for a project that will bring together organizations and individuals from North America and the EU Countries for a consultation in April of 2005 on strategies and practical experience in the democracy support field A grant agreement will be finalized shortly. Thoughts about the agenda for this consultation and suggestions about potential articipants are welcome from all involved in the Transatlantic Democracy Network, and can be sent to Penn Kemble or Michael Allen at Democracy Digest. We expect that planning meetings for this project will soon convene. This project can deepen understandings on both sides of the Atlantic and provide important possiblilites for constructive cooperation.

ISSUES:

Atlanticism Debate Stirs in Europe
The presidential election campaign is engendering vigorous debate in the US over international purpose and strategy, but candid and occasionally pointed foreign policy debate are also taking shape in Europe.

Patten Calls for "Effective, Not Effete, Multilateralism" To Revive Atlantic Alliance
Democracy has “failed to roll out like an oriental carpet across the thankless deserts of the Middle East,” Chris Patten, the European Union's outgoing Commissioner for External Relations, recently told the European Parliament. But the effects of the Iraq war – the EU's “worst shambles” in Patten's five years in office – could yet lead to a revival of the transatlantic alliance and multilateralism, he acknowledged.

Although Patten's often salty comments were widely reported as swipes at the US, he was equally critical of European attitudes and -- as far as diplomatic etiquette allows -- of the French government in particular, suggesting that the world “deserves better than testosterone on one side and superciliousness on the other.”

“If the political culture of American exceptionalism excludes the notion of working with and talking to foreigners,” said Patten, “if unipolarity overseas is taken as a mark of distinction, a source of pride, too many Europeans make the mirror-image mistake of thinking that sniping at America is the same as having a European foreign and security policy.”

The national interest of the US is to “put its traditional allies on the spot, not challenging their right to consultation but probing what they have to say and how they intend to turn their rhetoric about co-operation into effective, not effete, multilateralism,” Patten proposes. How, he asks, do we “intend to go about not just draining the swamps in which terrorism breeds but also shooting some of the crocodiles” when the use of force to support the international rule of law remains a “question which we in Europe regularly duck”?

Patten's main worry is that “on either side of the Atlantic we will bring out the worst in our traditional partners,” and he expresses a preference for “a Europe which is a super-partner not a super-sniper – a super-partner of a respected global leader.” “Any alternative to that,” he warns, “offers only the prospect of a more perilous and a more querulous future.”

Atlanticism: Repaired or Redundant?
“It is proving far, far harder than many had imagined" to patch up transatlantic relations after the bitter dispute over Iraq. French president Jacques Chirac recently described the Iraq war as having opened up a "Pandora's box which none of us can close." Americans on both sides of US debate about Iraq (and,even more so, Iraquis) can find some encouragement in this summing up by Chirac: “But here we are. Saddam overthrown. Violence raging across much of the liberated land. The regime changed with an interim government preparing the way for democratic elections. Whatever our past criticisms we are all now up to our ears in this endeavour. If Iraq goes badly, we all suffer. So we have to work together to try to hold the democratic project together.”

The French critique of the Iraq war is elaborated in a new report from the Paris-based French Institute for International Relations (IFRI). "If peace had been quickly established and if, in keeping with 'neo-conservative' thinking, a model democracy had rapidly taken the place of a dictatorship, only the disgruntled and the partisan would have dwelled on the validity of previous justifications" for war, writes Thierry de Montbrial, IFRI's director. "The real question is whether the model of a truly democratic Iraq will be viable once international peacekeeping forces -- essentially American and British -- withdraw," he asks.

Yet in some respects the IFRI report is more sanguine. "Transatlantic relations were not shattered," it suggests. "A new transatlantic balance seems established, if not yet entirely stable."   "For the most part, the United States once again recognizes the need, or at least the usefulness, of a relatively strong and united Europe," Montbrial adds.

Chirac was speaking in Madrid at a summit with German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Spanish Prime Minister José Rodríguez Zapatero. British Prime Minister Tony Blair was not invited to the meeting at which Zapatero revived talk of "Old Europe" and “New Europe,” embracing the former as enthusiastically as he has distanced himself from the Atlanticism of his predecessors (socialist Felipe Gonzalez as well as the conservative Jose Maria Aznar). Chirac and Schröder recently had a similar summit with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. The common denominator of both events was the exclusion of Europe's “Euroatlanticists,” including Blair, and Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi. As Timothy Garton Ash notes, “constructive Euroatlanticism” is being unpleasantly squeezed.

Some pundits contend that the post-Cold war triumphalism of the democratic West is becoming a distant memory. “The promise of the liberal interventionism embodied by the Kosovo war is discredited by the invasion in Iraq; the potential of globalization as a public good is rejected by the anti–globalization movement; and the idea of democratic caucuses in the United Nations looks ridiculous against the experience of the American–French war in the Security Council,” says Ivan Krastev, of the Center for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Bulgaria. Krastev notes the reluctance of Euro-Atlanticists like Garton Ash to “betray the hopes and promises that were born in the time that we could name as the Clinton–Blair decade – one that started with the fall of the Berlin wall on 9 November, 1989 (“9/11” European–style) and ended with the fall of the Twin Towers (“9/11” American–style). But, Krastev suggests, “at present the intellectual legacy of that decade looks as ancient and irrelevant as the promise of 19th century socialism.”

Europe without America is “an incomplete idea,” insists Alberto Carnero, head of international affairs at Spain's FAES Foundation. Europe has no common “strategic stance,” as the Iraq debacle confirmed; no “democratic stature” given the difficulties encountered by the Constitutional Treaty and in recent European elections; and no “economic punch.” Consequently, “[t]he rebirth of Europe is intimately connected to the redefinition of the transatlantic relationship,” Carnero insists. Rather than Europe serving as a counterweight to the United States, European integration itself “owes much to the strength of the Atlantic link and the United States' commitment to underwrite the security and freedom of Europe.” Recent experience with Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran, illustrate the positive agenda shared by the US and most of Europe, Garner notes, while recognizing that “in the long term, the main challenge would be to transform the Greater Middle East.”

Is "The West" an Irrelevant Anachronism?
Europeans cannot afford to treat the Middle East “as an adventure playground for moralistic exporters of democracy,” says British commentator David Marquand (site registration required). The Middle East is “Europe's near abroad.” “Its stability is a vital interest for us,” he says. “For heartland Europe, at least, a stable Iraq -- even under a dictator -- was better than the instability that the Americans inevitably brought with them,” Marquand proclaims.

The language of NATO, the West, transatlantic partnership and the free world is an anachronistic product of the cold war, Marquand argues. Enlarged Europe and the US have many values in common since “American civilization is an offshoot of European civilization” but the notion of "the West" is irrelevant to Europe's future in an increasingly multipolar world. The West is not only a meaningless but also a dangerous concept, pronounces Marquand, a former European Commission official and influential British Liberal Democrat commentator. “Identities always define themselves against an 'other.'” “During the cold war, the other to the mythical west was Soviet communism. The only candidate for that role today is Islam.”

While the US will remain a superpower, it is likely to be joined in that status by China, India and “a renascent Russia” within a generation or two. The great question for Europe, says Marquand, “is how to ensure that the EU has the power, cohesion and will to safeguard the interests of its peoples in the inevitable multipolar world of the future.”

The West has indeed been divided by “deep political fissures,” argues David P. Calleo, Director of European Studies at Johns Hopkins University's Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC. Calleo suggests that the European notion –- and practice -- of multilateral alliances will be increasingly more appropriate and effective within a multipolar, interdependent world than the hegemonic, unipolar approach that currently dominates US foreign policy.

Michael Lind of Washington's New America Foundation suggests the underlying cause of transatlantic tensions is that “transatlantic convergence in values does not translate into foreign policy harmony.” In the US, Lind argues, “conservatives claim that the US and Europe are diverging in their values and interests. Atlanticists claim that on both counts, the US and Europe remain closely aligned. Both schools are wrong.”

“Even as their societies become more alike, the geopolitical interests of the US and Europe are diverging,” not least in the Middle East, says Lind. Echoing Marquand's concerns, Lind further notes that “unlike Europe, Russia, China and India, the US neither borders the Muslim world nor itself contains a substantial Muslim population.” Consequently, “Europeans are more likely to pay the price for US misadventures in the Middle East than the American people.”

Lind and Marquand seem somewhat to be mirror images of their equivalents on the American Right, eager to assert US distinctiveness as an unapologetically unipolar and unilateral hegemon. “Europeans, and especially Brits, tend to think of America as Europe-West, as part of 'Western Civilization,'” says US conservative commentator Grover Norquist. “We are not. America is the successor to the European civilization, not its extension.” “We fought our wars -- the Revolution, the War of 1812, the First and Second World Wars, and the Cold War -- to not be a part of Europe,” he contends. “Europe is not our friend or ally by the dint of culture, proximity, or national origin of some Americans, but rather where and when Europe stands for freedom.”

....But EU Needs To Project Itself
The European Union has to take itself seriously before it can expect the United States to treat it as an equal, the outgoing EU ambassador to the US warned the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this summer. Persuading Washington to treat the 25-nation bloc as a partner "depends on how seriously we take ourselves," said Günter Burghardt. He believes the "notion of sovereignty is one of the fundamental differences, with the US conceiving its sovereignty as "unlimited" whereas the EU is essentially about "joint sovereignty" and "multilateralism."

Reflecting Burghardt's approach in some degree, Denis MacShane, Britain's minister for Europe, contrasts the fact that no speaker at the recent US Democratic or Republican conventions mentioned the EU in their speeches, a contrast to the “almost obsessive focus of politicians, journalists, and intellectuals in Europe on the US.” “Europe is frantically lecturing Americans and each other on what the US should do,” he notes, while observing that few in the US know much about the EU. ”Is it not time to cultivate our own garden --- and start working out how to make Europe more dynamic and more able to promote its values around the world?” MacShane asks.

Without more sustained projection and in the absence of greater resources devoted to foreign policy and security, Europe will continue to suffer from “attitude inflation,” argues the Jerusalem Post's Bret Stephens. “In the US, attitudes translate into policy far more quickly and frequently than they do elsewhere in the world,” notes Stephens. By contrast, Europe suffers from “attitude inflation” which arises from the de-linking of attitude from policy. “[I]f you don't actually have to do something about your attitudes you're likelier to have more of them,” Stephens argues, “and they are bound to be both more extravagant and more unrealistic.”

“People who are in no position to end world hunger and bring about peace in the Middle East can endlessly carry on about ending world hunger and bringing peace to the Middle East,” he observes. “But statesmen who must actually wrestle with issues of cost, capacity, local difficulties and unintended consequences tend to have more realistic, and therefore restrained, attitudes.”

Is Europe's Global Assertiveness Hampered by Internal Crises?
While France and Germany have been the principal drivers of a common European foreign policy, some argue that domestic crises are sapping its confidence and resources. “Not so long ago, Germans and other Continental Europeans pointed to America's "working poor," as well as to the sorry state of public services in Britain, as defects that supposedly reflected the inevitable price Anglo-Saxon countries must pay for their ruthless form of capitalism,” recalls Ralf Dahrendorf, a member of the British House of Lords and former European Commissioner. By contrast, continental Europeans enjoyed contemplating the "Rhineland model," "a market economy that matched economic success with social justice. Noting that the German economy now lags behind most others in Europe, and almost all European economies trail Britain and the United States, Dahrendorf calls for a revised welfare state “based on a new balance of solidarity and individual effort.”

Even some of the most Europhile of commentators are increasingly pessimistic. Will Hutton, a British champion of the continental European “social model,” concedes that there is a “pervasive sense of decline in both countries” and openly worries that matters could deteriorate: “It could all turn ugly; an unratified European Constitution, stagnating economies, new dark nationalist politics and a fragmenting European Union.”

In France, the country's economic stagnation has bred acute anxiety and fostered debate about the country's influence and identity. French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier was recently forced to address French domestic concerns that Paris is even losing its influence within the EU after France failed to secure any of the leading posts for European Commissioners appointed by Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, the new Atlanticist president of the Commission. Even the most Francophile and anti-American commentators on the European left concede that the country's crisis is all-pervasive, lamenting the demise of French cultural and intellectual hegemony.

French decline is symptomatic of a wider Europe malaise for Nicolas Baverez, author of La France Qui Tombe (France in Decline). Europe, he says, is experiencing an historical rupture along three dimensions: strategic, featuring the commencement of a new century whose beginnings were marked by wars on what has historically been European terrain; economic, with the end of the 1990s economic boom; and intellectual and moral, following the "end of the end of history" and the emergence of a 21st century history marked by violence, war, revolution and economic crisis.

Europe is indeed facing a moral crisis, argues Rob Riemen of the Nexus Institute, an independent cultural think tank in the Netherlands. The controversy generated by the absence of any reference to Europe's common Christian heritage in the EU constitution and the related debate over the possible accession of Muslim Turkey into the EU prompted the Dutch EU presidency to convene a special conference to debate European values. Follow-up conferences will take place in Warsaw (1-3 October), Berlin (22-24 October) and Washington (18-20 November), with the Washington meeting co-hosted by the National Endowment for Democracy, before an European intellectual summit in The Hague on December 4 and 5.

Russia: From Red to Brown?
Invoking the Beslan atrocity as a pretext, Russian president Vladimir Putin has announced sweeping measures to eliminate all direct elections except those for President. His proposals could further erode the country's fragile democracy and turn the country into an authoritarian state, Freedom House warns.

"After the recent tragedy in Beslan, President Putin appears to be cynically using international support against global terrorism to eliminate already weakened domestic political opposition and to tighten control over the electoral process," said Freedom House Executive Director Jennifer Windsor. Other commentators are even more pessimistic. “Tomorrow's Russian state might look uncomfortably like yesterday's,” The Economist magazine warns. “More clearly than at any time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the spectre of absolute dictatorship seems to be inching closer, not fading away.” “To be blunt, Russia is about to turn itself into a dictatorship,” argues Masha Gessen, deputy editor in chief of Bolshoy Gorod, a Moscow weekly.

Gessen highlights two reasons why the next Russian government could be “a fascist one.” First, Putin has eliminated any meaningful opposition, except for the “Kremlin's pocket opposition,” the extreme nationalist Motherland party, which has taken on a life of its own to become relatively popular.  The second reason, she contends, is that “fascism is what Russians want.” They tell pollsters they would sacrifice their liberties for security and evict all Chechens from large cities. She quotes one of Russia's most prominent pundits on the most-watched TV network declaring "Terrorism happens only in democracies" and that "a totalitarian state cannot be blackmailed by the threat of death of civilians."

Most of Russia's regional governors have embraced Putin's proposal. Former presidential adviser Leonid Smirnyagin has explained why governors would prefer to be appointed rather than elected, quoting an unidentified Federation Council member as saying "it is much easier to lick one boot than to clean 400,000." One governor complained that that under the current electoral system, heads of executive bodies are "pushed around" by voters during decision-making.

Putin's clampdown presents the US with a particular challenge, some commentators argue. "Russia is one of the leading examples of how the war on terrorism has put the U.S. in a contradictory position in the world," said Thomas Carothers head of the democracy and rule of law project at Washington's Carnegie Endowment. "On the one hand, the US is pulling back from democracy with needed security allies who are less than democratic, while simultaneously calling for the U.S. to push for democratic transformations in other parts of the world."

Moises Naim, editor of Foreign Policy magazine concurs. "Putin could get away with it as the emphasis today is on security and stability, and, therefore, there's more willingness to sacrifice the democracy kinds of goals," Naim said. "Putin feels safe in stamping down on democracy because the values of security and stability around the world are now displacing the goals of democracy promotion."

Russia's slide into authoritarianism has also fuelled debates within the American right. Conservative commentator George F. Will criticized “the stunningly anticonservative idea animating the administration's [foreign] policy…. that all nations are more or less ready for democracy.” He singled out Robert Kagan, a leading neoconservative, for demanding that the US react against Putin's measures as an instance of “neoconservative naïveté that seeks to apply a single standard to all the nations of this naughty world.”

Former Dissidents Call For Democracy in Cuba
An international commission is a “vital priority” to aid the Cuban people in their construction of a democratic polity, concluded a major conference on democracy in Cuba. Such a commission would pool the experiences of democratic transition in Europe and Latin America for the benefit of Cuba's democratic dissidents.

Parliamentarians and nongovernmental organizations should coordinate the international adoption of Cuban political prisoners, the conference declaration suggests, and a list should be prepared detailing members of the Castro regime directly linked to human rights violations to ensure that they not be granted travel visas to democratic countries.

The conference, "Toward Democracy in Cuba," held September 17-19 at the Czech Senate, was hosted by the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba (ICDC), which Vaclav Havel founded last year, is being held under the auspices of the Foreign Ministry and is organized by the Prague-based People in Need Foundation, a supporting organization of the Transatlantic Democracy Network.

Participants included NGOs, parliamentarians and senior diplomats, including former Spanish Premier Jose Maria Aznar and former Chilean President Patricio Aylwin Azocar. Many attendees, including former prime ministers of Bulgaria and Latvia, related their experiences of transition to Cuban dissident groups. Former Czech President and leading dissident Vaclav Havel said he could "remember vividly what the support of the democratic world meant for me when I was persecuted and imprisoned in [communist] Czechoslovakia." "I feel obliged to repay this debt to those who are in a similar situation now."

The Czech Republic has taken a lead in supporting Cuban dissidents, prompted by the 1998 session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva that defeated a U.S. resolution condemning Cuba. The Czech Republic led efforts to successfully pass a similar resolution in 1999, an achievement which "illustrates that the Czech Republic can play a role on Cuban matters," according to Martin Palous, Czech Ambassador to the U.S., who as Deputy Foreign Minister presented the Cuba resolution in Geneva.

Since the mid-1990s conference organizers People in Need have provided Cuban democrats with medical supplies, computers, financial assistance and advice from former Czechoslovak dissidents. "Neither the US embargo nor EU engagement has worked,” says Tomas Pojar, People in Need's director, noting that “there are more dissidents than ever in Cuban jails." "So we think the focus should be on the dissidents and as far as I know, we are the only European country taking this route," he said.

The final declaration (detailed below in our Documents section) called for a common European position on Cuba, a regional Working Group to open Latin American embassies in Havana to Cuban civic activists, and a President's Task Force in Support of Democracy in Cuba as a mediating body to aid the Cuban opposition generate a peaceful transition to democracy and rule of law.

Transatlantic Complementarity Not Competition Possible in Middle East
The inaugural session of the Forum for the Future is being held on the fringe of the UN General Assembly this week. The forum was launched at June's G8 summit at Sea Island, Georgia, after the more ambitious Greater Middle East Initiative for democratic reform proposed by the United States was diluted, or as some contend emasculated, after opposition from European and Arab states. The forum avoids forthright reference to democratic change and is designed to convene diplomats and representatives of business and civil society, focusing largely on less politically sensitive technical issues such as job creation and development.

Despite differences over the Greater Middle East Initiative and the Iraq war, there remains scope for transatlantic “coordination and even for fruitful cooperation” on reform in the Broader Middle East, says a leading European expert on the region. While the EU and the US vary in their approaches, divergences can breed “complementarity rather than competition,” says Volker Perthes of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin. For instance, the Middle East Partnership Initiative launched by the Bush administration at the end of 2002 is welcomed as a “geographically more extensive, but less extensively funded” version of the EU's Euro-Mediterranean Partnership or Barcelona process launched in 1995.

“There is little doubt that within the next few years, if not over the next few decades, the Middle East will become the focus of international geopolitics and thereby largely determine relations between Europe and America,” says Perthes, head of the institute's Middle East and Africa Research Group.

European strategy for reform in the region is largely informed by the experience of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Helsinki Commission's multilateral and multidimensional negotiation structures served both to preserve stability and encourage change in Eastern and Central Europe, providing “useful points of departure” in the Middle East and North Africa.

Writing in the latest issue of the Middle East Policy Journal, Perthes conceded that European claims of greater credibility in the region are questionable. “A large proportion of the general public in Arab countries and Iran has become convinced that Europeans only put on a friendlier face, while ultimately hiding behind the United States so as avoid any concrete action in practice,” he suggests.

An alternative perspective takes a slightly more skeptical view of prospects for transatlantic cooperation in the Mediterranean region. According to Ian Lesser of the Washington-based Western Policy Center, Europe has tended to be “more attuned to soft security,” more open to dialogue, well-disposed to state-led reform and “perhaps less tolerant of the southern Mediterranean's many non-democratic and sovereignty-conscious strong states.” The US by contrast, has focused on hard security, prefers private-sector initiatives for development, prefers practical cooperation over generalized dialogue and at least since September 11 “has been relatively tolerant of strong states with questionable human rights records.”

Lesser posits three scenarios for transatlantic relations in the region: a continuation of an “arm's length approach” by the US; a “new convergence” in the face of a resurgent Islam confronting both sides of the Atlantic; and “heightened competition,” exacerbating asymmetries in current perceptions and approaches.

NEWS:

World's Largest Muslim Democracy Elects New President
Just six years after the fall of the Suharto regime, the world's most populous Muslim nation has conducted its first largely trouble-free presidential election. Some analysts are concerned that the election of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a retired general and former security minister, could augur a relapse into authoritarian rule. The recent sentencing to jail of Bambang Harymurti, the prominent editor of Tempo magazine has heightened concerns. But as the Wall Street Journal noted, the election “should also dispel the myth, beloved by authoritarians from Beijing to Cairo, that a rapid transition to democracy invariably leads to chaos.”

Despite the relatively smooth Indonesian election, a leading expert on democracy in Asia, Larry Diamond, warned an Asia Society meeting in Hong Kong this week "that this is not a good time for democracy" in the region. "There are serious problems of democratic performance," Diamond told the South China Morning Post (registration required) of 22 September. The Philippines' political system is mired in a "debilitating pattern of corrupt, clientelistic politics." Nevertheless, “the electoral institutions of democracy do seem to be working in Indonesia," Diamond said. "The system is very corrupt, the country is full of problems, but one can see some hope

Democracy Promotes, Not Retards Development
Poor democracies are generally more robust, peaceful and caring than poor dictatorships, according to a major new study by Joesph T. Siegle, Michael M. Weinstein and Morton H. Haperin that challenges the orthodoxy that economic development is a necessary precondition of democracy. Western governments and international development agencies have neglected the role of politics when dispensing aid, assuming that countries should develop economically before they can become democratic. But, the study contends, democratic regimes allow power to be shared and promote openness and accountability, generating the stability and legitimacy that facilitates development.

ERRATUM
In our last issue (Vol 1, number 15), we reported on the basis of a communication from the region that the Bahrain office of the National Democratic Institute had been closed. We are happy to report that NDI has recently informed us that this is not the case. The NDI continues to operate a full program from its Manama office. The Royal Court recently offered an award for the NDI's work in the country.

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, cradle-to-grave 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 annamaries@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.

PANOS-GKP Journalism Awards 2004
Transparency, Good Governance and Democracy: Do ICTs Increase Accountability?
Panos and GKP are pleased to call for submissions for the 2004 "Reporting on the Information Society" awards. The topic for this year is "Transparency, good governance and democracy: Do Information and Communication Technologies increase accountability?" Four awards of $1,000 each will be made for the best journalism on this topic produced by journalists in developing and transition countries. Full details here.

Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship in Governance and Democracy: University of Leeds, UK
This is a five-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.

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.

European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR): Ukraine, Haiti and Rwanda
The European Commission is seeking proposals for Human Rights Micro-projects in Ukraine. The full guidelines are availablehere and here. The deadline for submission of proposals is 25th of October 2004, at 17:00, Kyiv time.

The European Commission is launching a call for proposals for Human Rights Micro-projects in Haiti. The full Guidelines for Applicants and the other documents are available here and here. The deadline for submission of proposals is 18th of October 2004, at 16:00, Haiti time.  

Proposals for Algeria, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Mexico, Serbia and Montenegro Projects
EIDHR also 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

Delegation of the European Commission, Kigali
The Delegation of the European Commission in Kigali is advertising a call for proposals for Human Rights Microprojects in Rwanda. The main theme of the actions targeted by the present call for proposals is the capacity development of the civil society and of public officials to promote human rights. The full Guidelines for Applicants are available here. The deadline for submission of proposals is 18th of October 2004, at 16:00, Kigali time.

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Nathan Hale Foreign Policy think tank seeks democracy-related submissions for its working papers series. We proceed 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 US foreign policy interest. Papers need not represent finished pieces of research, but should offer new analytic or research findings. Our democratisation programme is an area of particular emphasis for us, and we would warmly welcome all proposals on related research topics.

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

EVENTS

18-20 September, Bibliotheca Alexandria, Egypt
The Beacon for Freedom of Expression Conference Further details: Mrs Hanan Abdel Razek, Conferences and Seminars Organiser, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, El Shatby, Alexandria 21526, Egypt Tel: +203 483 99 99, fax: +203 483 49 93 e-mail: mailto:hanan.abdelrazek@bibalex.orgwebite.

  29 September-2 October, Ankara, Turkey
International Symposium on New Tactics in Human Rights
Further details: c/o The Center for Victims of Torture, 717 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States, Tel: +1 612 436 48 00, fax: +1 612 436 26 06 e-mail: mailto:newtactics@cvt.orgwebsite,

1 October, 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.

25-26 October, 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, website.

7-10 November, 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: matilto:depwr@a-teleport.com, website.

DOCUMENT

THE PRAGUE MEMORANDUM: FINAL DECLARATION AND WORKING DOCUMENT
During the days of 17, 18 and 19 September we have met in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, to support the struggle for democratic change in Cuba. Former heads of state, current ministers and representatives from the European Union and Latin America, leaders from international and regional organizations, intellectuals, academics, human rights activists and members of non governmental organizations, members of parliaments from Europe and Latin America, and representatives of the Cuban civic movement have participated in this forum. Participants have included representatives from the full range of the ideological spectrum, among them social democrats, Christian democrats, liberals and conservatives.

It is inconceivable and unacceptable that people continue to be imprisoned in Cuba for their ideals and peaceful political activity. We know that the majority of Cubans desire non-violent democratic change in order to establish freedom and democracy in their land. Furthermore, all of us here are convinced of the necessity of this change due to the contact we maintain not just with the pro democracy movement, but also with the silent majority of citizens who are paralyzed by the fear of repression.

The true source of sovereignty lies in the exercise of their innate rights by the citizens of any given country. A people are not sovereign if they cannot exercise these rights, if they cannot freely elect their political representatives from different ideological options, if they cannot count on the existence of an independent judiciary to balance the power of the government. We defend Cuban sovereignty when we defend the right of the Cuban people to democracy and when we insist that the Cuban government comply with the international agreements on democracy and human rights that it has signed. Without a general amnesty for all political prisoners, recuperation of civil liberties and free general multiparty elections the Cuban people cannot fully exercise their sovereignty.

Our goal is to help create the conditions so that the Cuban people can bring about democracy through a non-violent transition. Our priority is to strengthen the civil society and civic movement that are bringing about that democracy. In order to accomplish this, we seek to set out common objectives for a general plan of support for democracy in Cuba that can be implemented in a coordinated manner at different levels and from different parts of the world. The task of general coordination and support for this plan will correspond to the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba.

The following mechanisms must be established in order to help create the conditions so that the Cuban people can freely choose the political and economic system they desire:

  • Creation of an international network of non-governmental organizations that have expressed solidarity with democracy in Cuba.
  • Creation of an international network of parliamentarians in support of democracy in Cuba.
  • Creation of a President's Task Force in Support of Democracy in Cuba.
  • An international commission of experts that will pool resources from the transition experiences in Europe and Latin America to aid the Cuban people in their own transition to democracy.

These mechanisms will function according to a general work plan whose priorities will be:

To insist that the international community does not and will not tolerate any human rights violations in Cuba. This is vital in order to support the current victims and prevent future violations.

The following measures will be implemented in order to contribute to this goal:

  • Coordination of the international adoption of political prisoners by MPs and NGOs.
  • Preparation of a list of members of the Castro Regime directly linked to human rights violations and seek that they not be granted travel visas to democratic countries.
  • Mobilization of youth, women and civil society from around the world in order to condemn human rights violations in Cuba, which can only be achieved through a general amnesty and recuperation of civil liberties.

To achieve greater international recognition and legitimacy for the Cuban civic movement through:

  • Support for the current European Common Position on Cuba.
  • Creation of a regional Latin American Working Group that will work to open the doors of the Latin American embassies in Havana to contact with the Cuban civic movement.
  • Creation of a President's Task Force in Support of Democracy in Cuba, which will offer itself as a mediating body to aid the Cuban opposition in establishing fundamental agreements on cooperation and coordination that will lead to a peaceful transition to democracy and rule of law.
  • Furthermore, it will be a vital priority of this plan to aid the Cuban people in their transition to democracy through the creation of an international commission that will pool the experiences of transition in Europe and Latin America in order to aid the Cuban people in the construction of a democratic polity.

We acknowledge the 'Manifesto for the Liberty of Prisoners of Conscience in Cuba' presented by José María Aznar at this summit and share its objective of an international campaign for a general amnesty for Cuban political prisoners.

The ICDC commits itself to long term work on behalf of Cuban democracy so that one day all Cuban citizens live in dignity and be able to fully exercise their rights as human beings. This summit marks the beginning of a concerted international effort to aid Cuba in becoming a full member of the world democratic community. We are convinced that through their own efforts and with international solidarity, Cubans will one day enjoy the true peace that only freedom brings. It is to this worthy goal that we fully commit our efforts.

Signatories
Marcos Aguinis, novelist and former secretary of culture, Argentina
Patricio Aylwin, former president of Chile
Kim Campbell, former Prime Minister of Canada
Philip Dimitrov, former Prime Minister of Bulgaria
Václav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic
Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, former U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
Mart Laar, former Prime Minister of Estonia
Luis Alberto Lacalle, former President of Uruguay
Cecilia Malmström, Swedish Member of European Parliament for Liberal Party
Luis Alberto Monge, former president of Costa Rica
Matti Wuori, Finnish Member of European Parliament for Greens/European Free Alliance

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