• Chinese Model – A Challenge to Liberal Democracy?
• Responsible Stakeholder or Strategic Competitor?
• "Syria With a Smile" - Union Leader's Detention Reveals Tunisia's Other Side
• Russia NGO Law Claims First Victim Claims First Victim, Sends "Chilling Signal"
• Democracies Frustrate Pressure on Burma's Junta
• Bahrain Activists' Arrest Prompts Shia Protests

• News in Brief
• Opportunities
• Resources
• Events

On January 17, a convoy of the National Democratic Institute was attacked in Baghdad, leaving four dead, including Andrea "Andi" Parhamovich, a 28-year-old NDI staffer and three security personnel. An al-Qaeda-linked group of Iraqi Sunni insurgents claimed responsibility. "Andi's work helped to build the kind of national level political institutions that can help bridge the sectarian divide and improve Iraqi lives," said a statement from NDI.

"There is no more sacred roll of honor than those who have given their last full measure in support of freedom," said NDI Chairman Madeleine K. Albright. NDI and its Iraqi partners were "fortunate to benefit from the dedication and commitment of Andi Parhamovich who believed passionately in helping to improve the lives of Iraqi citizens," said NDI President Kenneth Wollack. "This is a tragic loss for the Institute and its Iraqi friends." The security personnel killed were, he said, "close members of the NDI family for the years of protection they have afforded our Institute staff."

Democracy Digest and its readers, we're sure, extend heartfelt condolences to the families involved and NDI's Iraq team, and share NDI's commitment to "honor their example, keep alive their memory, and carry on their work."

Chinese Model – A Challenge to Liberal Democracy?

Dictatorial and authoritarian regimes - from Cuba to Syria - seem increasingly enamored with the Beijing Consensus or "Chinese model" of democracy-free development. Critics suggest that Market Leninism or "Leninist corporatism …. is not a viable new model, but an ultimately dysfunctional hybrid. But technocrats within Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party, for example, are tempted by the prospect of market-driven change within an authoritarian framework. "The Soviet Communists were not able to adapt to new realities and for this reason they collapsed," says one NDP reformist. "The Chinese, however, have been able to change from within."

"By suggesting to authoritarian rulers that China has perfected a model for rapid economic growth without concurrent political liberalization, Beijing offers hope for autocrats to remain in power," argues China-watcher Joshua Kurlantzick. "Unlike Japan a few decades ago, China is not only perceived as a potential economic peer," says German foreign policy analyst Gudrun Wacker, "but could also emerge as a political alternative to Western liberal democracy."

But commentators differ on whether Beijing is pursuing more than it's declared energy diplomacy or actively promoting its model as an ideological challenge to the democratic liberal paradigm. China's foreign policy is based on "the opportunistic development of greater strategic designs," according to a European ambassador to Beijing, addressing a recent meeting in Washington. Policies differ between regions and countries, reacting to varying circumstances and challenges, he said, but they are nevertheless rooted in China's perception of its national interests which include energy security and global stability.

The communist regime was "searching for its way" and felt overwhelmed by its new responsibilities, the diplomat suggested. The Beijing Consensus, a phrase he had never heard uttered in China's capital, was a Western construct. As other commentators have noted, its foreign policy prioritizes "stability, development and reform" (in that order). Furthermore, it is suggested, China remains a developing nation, with harsh poverty in the hinterland beyond the economic growth zones. The underlying fragility and illegitimacy of the regime is a further constraint on its global reach, says analyst Gordon Chang, since "a nation that can barely govern itself will not be capable of dominating the other 200 countries on the planet.

But, argues Kurlantzick, while its diplomacy appears unorganized or pragmatic, Beijing is clearly developing a more proactive and coherent diplomatic strategy in the developing world. The party's elites consider their Chinese model of development to be exportable and tacitly promote it. The color revolutions shocked the country's communist elite, he says, "prompting Beijing to crack down harder on civil society at home and consider ways to curtail it abroad." China has largely escaped blame for the backlash against democracy promotion despite the fact that "the growing power and sophistication of China's foreign policy in the developing world is putting the brakes on democratization."

"Although Beijing's domestic and foreign policies are not malevolent by design," argues China expert David M. Lampton, "they often have harmful effects, and for those countries on the receiving end of them, intentions may not matter much." Offering billions of dollars in aid and loans to African regimes without conditions threatens to undermine good governance, respect for human rights and poverty alleviation, Hillary Benn, UK international development secretary, said this week. "Building accountability and responsiveness is in the end how these countries are going to develop," he said.

The Washington forum heard evidence of a pronounced "blowback" against Chinese influence, including violent protests, from Peru and the Philippines through to Zambia and South Africa. Chinese products have flooded Africa's textiles market, undercutting and pushing out indigenous manufacturers, while poor safety practices, particularly in mining, have alienated African workers and labor unions. "China can become a superpower, but all we can be is a supplier of raw materials," said South African president Thabo Mbeki.

In the meantime, "American democracy promotion — ranging from economic engagement to democracy programs to lofty rhetoric — has not halted the speed at which the Chinese authoritarian behemoth presses on with grave human rights abuses," according to a recent analysis which recommends that democrats "better understand how such authoritarianism adapts to, co-opts, and compartmentalizes market forces and their various accompanying liberal attributes."

Responsible Stakeholder or Strategic Competitor? - China in the Middle East

The broader Middle East, which currently provides over 45 percent of China's total oil imports, provides evidence of its newfound assertiveness. Observers have noted that "China's power in the Middle East, especially in the Persian Gulf, is increasing". Beijing is also promoting the new Silk Road, a potentially "formidable corridor for global commerce", as an alternative market axis for Arab elites. "The west has got ageing populations and ageing economies," says one Arab businessman. "The east is where the true glamour lies."

"China's economic – and in part technological – potential is casting the country in the light of an attractive partner" in the region - a trade partner, an investor, a technology supplier, an alternative monetary fund and development assistant," argues Jochen Steinhilber in a paper for the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. What is disturbing for democrats is that not only China's economic leverage but its growing political influence and "soft power". Egypt, for instance, "sees China as a successful model of modernization that should be emulated in the Arab world", says a recent analysis. Geopolitically, Egyptian strategists "believe that close ties with an emerging China can act as a potential check on U.S. influence in the region" at a time of growing resentment in Cairo towards U.S. pressure to implement democratic reforms.

"American grass is not necessarily bad, only it is not used to the climate when it is planted in the Arab earth," a People's Daily editorial asserted. "If the Arabs are forced to quicken their living rhythm, reverse their concept of value and change their customs and habits, the result will inevitably be offending the Arabs and will thus be spurned by them."

"China's support for regional dictators could severely impede efforts by the U.S. and Europe to help their Arab partners with political, economic, and educational reforms," says one recent analysis. "China offers itself as an alternative patron and advocate to the autocratic and theocratic regimes in the region that nurse grudges against America's perceived hectoring about human rights and political freedoms", argues a report from the Heritage Foundation. China's support for regional autocrats could "severely impede" US and European efforts to help Arab partners with political, economic, and educational reforms. "Beijing's irresponsible tactics and policies are antithetical to the interests of stability and freedom in the world's most volatile territory," it concludes.

"Unlike their Western counterparts, Chinese leaders avoid controversial political issues such as human rights [and] promoting democracy," analysts suggest. Similarly, The Economist notes that for states like Iran and Syria, "eager to check American power in the region, China's veto power at the UN and its shared misgivings about America make it a welcome friend. Refreshingly, China asks no questions about democracy." It would, of course, be naive to expect a regime that suppresses domestic democracy and remains so hostile to basic liberties at home to respect or promote them abroad. "Human rights? We don't care," said a Beijing energy adviser. "We care about oil. Whether Iran would have nuclear weapons or not is not our business. Anyone who helps China with energy is a friend."

More optimistic analysts suggest that China "must develop ties that do not flout international standards of good governance and human dignity or threaten U.S. security interests." Similarly, while Western diplomats and political leaders are urging China to become a "responsible stakeholder in the global system", it appears to be adopting postures more appropriate to a "strategic competitor".

Beijing's assertive foreign policy cannot be easily divorced from the nature of the regime. "China is exporting some of its most dysfunctional domestic practices, including corruption, bad lending, disregard for labor rights and poor environmental standards," says a recent commentary. But it is a mistake to yield to the "increasing temptation .. to deal with China on global strategic issues, shying away from its internal problems." Beijing will always resent alleged infringements on its sovereignty but the rest of the world has a legitimate interest in its domestic policy. "A limited and contingent attachment to international responsibility cannot substitute for real political liberalization inside China."

"Syria With a Smile" - Union Leader's Detention Reveals Tunisia's True Colors

Media and union groups expressed concern over the arrest and harassment of Lotfi Hajji, the leader of a Tunisian journalists' union in Tunisia, and a participant in the 2006 World Movement for Democracy assembly. "There is a pattern of intimidation in Tunisia that is not acceptable," said Aidan White, general secretary of the International Journalists' Federation.

A victim of earlier harassment, after his arrest in December, Hajji was told to sign an undertaking not to work any further with the Al-Jazeera satellite TV channel without an official authorization. His arrest prompted criticism from the European Parliament's socialist group which demanded his release and reminded Tunisia's authoritarian regime that the EU/Tunisia association agreement requires respect for the rules of democracy, human rights and, in particular, freedom of expression.

The authorities are reportedly concerned at Hajji's engagement with the 18 October Coalition for Rights and Freedoms which brings together a diverse range of opposition, from Islamists through democrats to radical leftists. The coalition was initiated in 2005 by political parties and civil associations committed to ending internecine squabbling by collaborating "on the basis of common goals rather than on ideological affinities". The coalition's consensual process "is an indication that the struggle for the rule of law is the overarching concern shared by all opposition forces in Tunisia," says Hajji, "a pattern that other opposition forces across the Arab world are increasingly following."

"Trade unions have played a key role in Tunisia's history since the struggle for independence," notes one analysis, "when the 1952 assassination of labor leader Farhat Hached was a catalyst for the final push against French domination." Members of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG) are calling the Tunisian government to end the persecution of writers, journalists, and human rights defenders, including Hajji, Sihem Bensedrine, Naziha Rjiba, Moncef Marzouki, and Abdallah Zouari.

Russia NGO Law Claims First Victim, Sends "Chilling Signal"

Russia's Supreme Court has confirmed the dissolution of a human rights monitoring group, using the recently enacted law on nongovernmental organizations. The decision, against the EU-funded Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, delivered "a double blow - one to freedom of expression and another to civil society," said Amnesty International. "This ruling … sends a chilling signal that other NGOs stepping out of line can share its fate."

The society, which used a network of correspondents across the northern Caucasus to report human rights violations, promised to contest the ruling. "We are going to take our case to the European Court of Human Rights and, possibly, our Constitutional Court," said Oksana Chelysheva, one of the Society's leaders.

The case took off in February 2006 when Stanislav Dmitrievsky, the group's co-chair, was convicted of inciting racial hatred after publishing in the society's bulletin a statement by Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov calling for negotiations to end the conflict. Dmitrievsky received a two-year suspended sentence by a court in Nizhny Novgorod, 250 miles east of Moscow, where the society, a NED grantee, was based.

It is illegal for NGOs to be led or managed by anyone convicted of a felony – in this case, "extremism" - under Russia's controversial NGO law. The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society was subsequently prosecuted for refusing to remove Dmitrievsky from its board and membership, and for declining to publicly denounce Dmitrievsky within five days of his conviction.

The prosecution drew protests from Western Europe and the United States, including members of the European Parliament. "It's convenient for the Russian regime if Chechen-Russian relations are overrun by radicals on both sides," said Czech MEP Jana Hybášková. "Then it's very easy to say that there are no democrats on either side, only fundamentalists and radicals."

"Neither the act of printing statements by separatist leaders, nor the content of the statements themselves, would be considered extremist in most Western countries, no matter how unpopular the cause involved," said an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin from a group of leading politicians and intellectuals. "Moreover the flood of genuinely extremist material that appears almost daily in the Russian media, which has gone without comment from the Russian prosecutor's office, makes it clear that the law is being selectively applied in order to silence the society."

The court proceedings were observed by representatives of the European Commission Delegation and embassies of the USA, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Lithuania, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Representatives of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch also attended, alongside observers from Russian human rights organizations, including Memorial and the Civic Assistance Committee. The court's ruling, however, will only accelerate the slow death of independent journalism in Russia.

Since the trial, the society has announced that it has moved, at least as a legal entity, to Finland where it has been registered. It will continue its informational, humanitarian and the legal projects in the Caucasus through the Nizhny Novgorod Foundation for Promoting Tolerance and a regional Tolerance Association it recently registered in Chechnya.

Bahrain Activists' Arrest Prompts Shia Protests

Sectarian tensions came to the boil in Bahrain this week with police confronting stone-throwing Shia protesting against the arrest of opposition activists. The three activists, arrested last week on charges of instigating subversion through illegal means, were released on bail after violent riots erupted across the island state.

Hassan Mushaima, secretary-general of Haq Movement of Liberties and Democracy, and Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, former head of the now-defunct Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), and Shaker Abdulhusein were also accused of "stoking animosity against the political system". A BCHR said that the charges were not dropped and the case will go to the court. Alkhawaja is due to travel to the United States later this month to deliver a lecture about political reform in Bahrain (see Events below).

Bahrain has a Shia majority of between 60-75 percent of the population but it is ruled by the Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty, established in 1811 following the family's invasion of the island. The ruling clique has been jumpy since 1981 when an Iranian-sponsored attempted putsch failed in its attempt to install a Shia theocracy.

A 2005 report from the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights claimed that while 75 percent of the population is Shia, only 18 percent are employed, and comprise only 2 percent of the army and police." "They have also been marginalized in politics," a BCHR representative says. "Today they are less than 25 percent of the ministers, and half of the cabinet are the royal family."

Mushaima and al-Khawaja had been investigating a politically sensitive case dubbed "Bandargate". A former government consultant Salah al-Bandar alleged last year that senior government officials had approved the use of electronic technology to rig the November elections in favor of minority Sunnis. The government charged al-Bandar, a Sunni, with sedition and expelled him from the country. The arrested activists had invited a U.S. think tank and others to discuss Bandargate at a planned conference in Bahrain at the end of February.

Democracies Frustrate Pressure on Burma's Junta

Five prominent democracy activists detained last September by Burma's military regime last September were recently freed. The five freed activists were members of the 88 Generation Students' Group. But the Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma described the new prisoner release as a ruse to deflect international criticism. "This looks like nothing but a cynical ploy to stop the U.N. Security Council from taking action," said Aung Din, the campaign's policy director.

Their release followed the introduction of a U.N. resolution demanded that the regime release all political prisoners and came shortly after Southeast Asian foreign ministers, meeting at the ASEAN regional summit, called on the military junta to initiate political reform. Indeed, China and Russia, with the support of South Africa (a member of the Community of Democracies' convening group), both vetoed a US- and British-backed UN security council resolution condemning the junta's human rights abuses.

The region's democrats have been frustrated by the ASEAN convention that requires decision-making by consensus and the group's code of non-interference in member states' internal affairs. But the code has been up for review and former Philippine president Fidel Ramos is one of several former leaders to insist that a revived charter should establish democracy as a goal for ASEAN member states. However, Asia's leading democracy has been dragging its feet. India is a major arms supplier to the junta and New Delhi is "placing energy, trade and security concerns, notably over separatist insurgents in Assam state who seek refuge in Burma, before democracy promotion and human rights." Indian foreign affairs minister, Pranab Mukherjee, recently became the first senior leader from a major democracy to visit Naypyitaw, the remote city that the military junta declared the new capital last year 2006.

At a time when the international community seeks to exert pressure on the Burmese junta, India and South Africa not only raised eyebrows but demonstrated stunning myopia. Perhaps India may be forgiven for forgetting the international anti-colonial movement that supported its independence from Britain. But is the international solidarity manifested in the global anti-apartheid movement now so alien to the ANC comrades in South Africa?

IN BRIEF

Freedom Stagnating as Anti-Democrats Push Back, says Freedom House Survey
Life is getting harder for the world's democrats. "When the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union imploded, there was a lot of low-hanging fruit," says Arch Puddington, director of research at Freedom House. The 2006 edition of its much-cited survey identifies a "freedom stagnation" due to the percentage of countries designated as Free remaining flat for nearly a decade. "In the Baltics, in Eastern Europe, these were countries ripe for democracy, culturally and politically and historically, with close proximity to Western Europe," Puddington told a launch meeting in Washington. "Now we're left with much harder cases, in China, Africa, the Middle East."

The number of countries classified as "free" is at an all-time peak of 90 and a further 123 states are deemed "electoral democracies" (states with variable performance on human rights and governance but where elections are largely free and fair and political oppositions are allowed to operate and enjoy access to the media). Freedom registered setbacks in the Asia-Pacific region, a slight decline in Africa and an "entrenchment of authoritarian rule" in most countries of the former Soviet Union.

But last year did see the emergence of "worrisome trends that present potentially serious threats to the expansion of freedom in the future," Freedom House reports. Developments reflected a growing pushback against democracy driven largely by authoritarian regimes, including Russia, Venezuela, China, Iran, and Zimbabwe. This pushback, says Freedom House, threatens to erode progress made over the last thirty years by targeting organizations, movements, and media that promote democratic freedoms.

A full package of charts and graphs and an explanatory essay are available from Freedom House online.

Democracies Secure UN Censure of Human Rights Violators
Leading democracies overcome spoiler states' efforts to end the practice of naming and shaming the world's worst human rights violators, according to a survey from the Democracy Coalition Project. Members of the UN Democracy Caucus were instrumental in ensuring that the UN General Assembly's Third Committee adopted four key country resolutions. The survey, released to commemorate the 58th Anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights, analyzes the voting patterns of UN Member States at the 61st UN General Assembly. The analysis is based on a scorecard that records the voting on five country resolutions condemning human rights abuses. Yet the scorecards showed a disappointingly poor record by states within the Community of Democracies, including India, the Philippines, Morocco, Mali and South Africa, all members of the COD Convening Group.

"Democratators" Muzzle Media – CPJ report
A new breed of hybrid leaders - popularly elected but authoritarian "democratators" - present an alarming new model for state control of the media, says the Committee to Protect Journalists. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez typify a generation of sophisticated leaders who use laws to control, intimidate and censor.

"The democratators tolerate the facade of democracy -- a free press, opposition political parties, an independent judiciary -- while gutting it from within," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon in this week's Attacks on the Press in 2006 report. Since Putin came to power in 2000, 133 journalists had been killed. None of their killers have been brought to justice - a record that "causes reporters to ask fewer questions, to probe less deeply, to pass up risky stories." It's no wonder that "when it comes to press freedom, Russia is now ranked below countries like Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Afghanistan."

Studies Without Borders - A Bridge to Chechnya
"Man does not live by bread alone," says Milana Terloeva, a 26 year-old Chechen. "What I missed most in the basements of Grosny, as the hail of bombs fell, were my school books, my films, and all the things that would have freed my soul from this hell." In September 2003, she left the rubble of Grosny for Paris. Having completed a journalism degree at the prestigious Institute for Political Sciences (Sciences-Po) and published a "wonderful" book, she is preparing to return home. Milana epitomises the success of Etudes Sans Frontieres (Studies Without Borders).

At a poorly-attended Paris demonstration against the Chechen war (200,000 dead from a population of one million), handful of French students asked themselves: "What can we do to rescue young Chechens of our age?" Because foreigners are not allowed to work in Chechnya, they adopted some fellow students from Grosny and offered them the chance to study in Paris. The handful of French students who founded Studies Without Borders in March 2003 had one aim in mind, write Andre and Raphael Glucksmann: "extending a hand to those who have been sent into exclusion by the insanity of human history."

The Glucksmanns' treasured friend Anna Politkovskaya understood its significance. "A droplet in an ocean of indifference? Nobody understood better than she the decimation of this merciless war, nobody had risked his or her life as often in order to meet the shadow-dwellers of Grosny," they write. "In her upbeat way, she said that ten, twenty, thirty or fifty students who go to Europe are equally a sign of hope for those who stay behind in the ruins. No, they are not alone in the world. No, the word Chechen had not been completely forgotten."

Terrorism is "fed by an ideology of isolation, hopelessness and hatred [that] cannot be combated with military-police cooperation alone," the Glucksmann's contend. "The psychological straight jacket in which the victims of the political and social plagues of terror and isolation are constrained, must be torn apart."

Donations to Studies Without Borders can be made to the following account:

Etudes Sans Frontieres
IBAN : FR76 1020 7000 41 04 0410 3782 518
(compte Etudes Sans Frontieres)
Code Swift : CCBP FRPP MTG

Konto: 04041037825 cle : 18
Bei der BICS (Banque popualaire)
56 Bd St Germain, 75005 Paris
Code banque : 10207
code guichet : 00041

EU, Club of Madrid and UN Democracy Fund Initiative
The European Commission and the UN Democracy Fund are to support the Club of Madrid's "Dialogue on Democratic Values in the Arab World" which promotes dialogue on democratic reform with decision-makers from government and civil society on democratic reforms. The Dialogue on Democratic Values and Freedom of Association project aims to build consensus in six Middle East and North African countries on freedom of association, a vital issue for democratic consolidation and pluralist political participation. Given their progress in this area, Jordan and Morocco will be the initial countries. Discussions will be informed by external analysis by FRIDE, the Madrid-based think tank and CoM sister organisation. The European Commission is providing 75% of the funding and the United Nations Democracy Fund the remaining 25%.

Cuban Democrats' Solidarity Appeals
Dolia Leal, a founding member of Cuba's Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) dissident group, has issued a plea for her husband, Nelson Aguiar Ramírez, in a letter addressed to the International Red Cross, political celebrities and human rights organizations. Ramírez, an electrical engineer, is founder of the Cuban Orthodox Liberal Party and a member of the Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society. He was incarcerated during the repression of March 2003 and sentenced to thirteen years in prison. He has been declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.

Leal has suffered intimidation and threats by State security agents. Her letter asks that the international community petition the Cuban government for an extrapenal license for Ramírez, given his fragile state of health, and demand that her husband be returned to a hospital for appropriate medical attention. Emails of support may be directed to "la Orden Masónica Mixta Internacional Le Droit Humain," at Dhumain@wanadoo.fr or by snail mail to Dolia Leal, Calle 28 No. 157, apartment 15, in Vedado, Havana, Cuba.

The Cuban authorities have also threatened human rights lawyer Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva with jail if he does not end his human rights activities or leave Cuba. As the President of the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights, Gonzalez Leiva has been a vigorous human rights advocate and has lent critical support to other activists and journalists who have come under attack. Previously imprisoned and currently serving a four-year sentence under house arrest, Gonzalez Leiva, who is blind, is kept under constant surveillance by the authorities. He is subject to harassment and has been violently assaulted by government-sponsored vigilantes. Click here to take action and express your concern and to call for the lifting of restrictions on his freedom of movement and expression.

Seymour Martin Lipset: Democracy Scholar
Seymour Martin Lipset, who recently died aged 84, was the leading theorist of democracy and American exceptionalism, and, in many respects, an exceptional American. "No postwar social scientist has more insightfully analyzed the conditions, values and practice of democracy," according to one of his colleagues, both in the United States and comparatively.

A leading member of the hugely influential Second Generation of New York intellectuals, Lipset's parents had emigrated to the city from Czarist Russia. His working-class Jewish roots in the Bronx and his education in the radical milieu of City College fed his early Leftism and stimulated a lifelong commitment to understanding and explaining why the US was the only western democracy that failed to develop a sustainable socialist or labour party. Lipset attributed American socialism's weakness to the diversity of its working class which diluted the impact of social class as a determinant of political allegiance. But he was nevertheless at pains to emphasis organized labor's positive contribution to sustaining democracy and promoting pluralism. Democracy "requires institutions which support conflict and disagreement as well as those which sustain legitimacy and consensus", he noted in Political Man, his classic text.

In remarks that anticipated the current backlash against democracy, he suggested some 13 years ago that "the requisite cultural changes are still not strong enough in many new democracies to justify a conclusion that the 'third wave' [of democratization] will not be reversed" and called for "caution about the long-term prospects for stable democracy in many of the new systems, given their low level of legitimacy."

Irena Kirkland: Hosted "Freedom's Nerve Center" for Dissidents, Democrats
Victimized by the two great totalitarianisms of the last century, few people fought back as tenaciously as Irena Kirkland, 81, a Holocaust survivor and energetic human rights advocate, who recently died of cancer at her home in Washington, DC.

She hosted leaders of several dissident and democratic movements with her husband, AFL-CIO president Lane Kirkland, making their home "a nerve center for the freedom struggle then unfolding in the world", according to Carl Gershman, president of the National Endowment for Democracy. As a board member of the nonprofit International Rescue Committee, she was committed to the plight of the world's refugees.

Growing up as a young Jew in Czechoslovakia, her grandfather was a parliamentarian during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and her uncle served in the short-lived democratic government of independent Czechoslovakia in the inter-war years. After the Nazi occupation, her family was transported to the Therezin ghetto and, in late 1944, she was transported to Auschwitz with her twin sister Alena and 2,500 other Jews. All but 200 perished in the gas chambers. The sisters narrowly escaped the attention of the notorious Josef Mengele when a "kapo" -- a prisoner guard -- urged them to give different birth dates.

After the war, Mrs. Kirkland at Charles University in Prague and joined the Social Democrats. But, after the Communists coup of 1949, she was arrested and interrogated. She seized the opportunity afforded by a brief diplomatic thaw and escaped "on an absolutely last-chance boat" to Israel.

Shortly before her death, former Czech president Vaclav Havel and former U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright visited Mrs. Kirkland at home to present her with the Czech Republic's prestigious Gratias Agit Award for her work on behalf of democracy, human and worker rights and refugee assistance.

RESOURCES

Democratic Transitions: The 'Sequencing' Fallacy
Several scholars and commentators have argued for "democratic sequencing", suggesting that because democratic transitions can often be messy and early elections destabilizing, democracy promoters should first focus on establishing the rule of law and strengthening state institutions before pushing for elections or even, in some cases, democratic transitions.

But, there is an inherent tension between rule-of-law development and state-building on the one hand, and autocratic regimes on the other, argues Thomas Carothers in a must-read article on "The 'Sequencing' Fallacy". It is not in autocrats' best interests to strengthen the rule of law and the state if they want to stay in power, he contends in the January 2007 issue of the Journal of Democracy. It is also morally questionable to require citizens to suffer repression until their country is deemed ripe for democracy. Sequencing advocates have a valid point in highlighting "the need to pay more attention to the effects that a country's underlying economic, social, and political conditions, structures, and historical legacies will have on the chances that a democratic transition can succeed there." But, says Carothers, this can be secured by a more gradualist approach to democratization and democracy promotion which involves developing fair and open processes of political competition, "but doing so in iterative and cumulative ways rather than all at once."

The January 2007 issue of the Journal of Democracy also examines the claim that democracy requires a complex set of cultural, institutional and other preconditions. Such arguments often cite in evidence the supposedly incremental emergence of the established democracies. But, says Sheri Berman in How Democracies Emerge: Lessons from Europe, history suggests that even today's established democracies have "backstories" as volatile as anything in today's developing world. In his Revolution Reconsidered, Charles H. Fairbanks, Jr. argues that the recent "color revolutions" in the former Soviet Union should prompt us to reassess the idea of revolution and to consider the flaws in the concept of "democratic transition."

Empowerment in Post-conflict Situations
The devastating consequences of conflicts require new approaches and instruments that recognize the individual's role as an agent of change, argues a new analysis from the Madrid-based FRIDE think-tank. Donors and practitioners should base their policies and interventions on a strategy of empowerment.

OPPORTUNITIES

Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy - Call for Paper Proposals
The Rights of Women and Minorities in Islam and Muslim Societies, for CSID's 8th Annual Conference, April 27, 2007, Washington DC.

The eighth annual conference of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) will be devoted to exploring the complexities of this highly important topic today in the context of democracy and democratization in these diverse Muslim-majority societies. Paper proposals are invited from prospective participants on the following five broad topics. Possible topics are not restricted to the ones that follow but proposals must establish their relevance in general to the issues of women's and minority rights and their impact upon democratization processes in the Islamic world.

1. How do traditional views on women and gender roles affect women s participation in the political and economic spheres? How are Islamic and Islamicizing discourses being deployed to empower women in these spheres in some cases and disenfranchise them in others?
2. What are the resources within Islamic religious and intellectual thought and historical practices that may be forefronted today in support of the equality of women and of minorities? How effective will an indigenous Islamic human rights discourse be in undermining patterns of discrimination against women and minorities?
3. How do cultural practices intersect with religious beliefs to create a certain hermeneutics of gendered behavior? In other words, how are existing cultural norms which militate against women s equal rights and sense of well-being given a religious veneer in order to justify their continuation? How are women lawyers, scholars, and activists challenging the status quo in some cases and effectively dismantling discriminatory laws and practices (for example, the recent repeal of rape laws in Pakistan)?
4. How has the rise of political Islam or Islamism in the twentieth century affected the rights of women and minorities in Muslim majority societies? What has been the predominant view in these movements in the first half of the twentieth century?
5. How can moderate Islamist movements be harnessed to promote gender rights and the equality of citizens today? What is the spectrum of views now current among these groups in various parts of the Islamic world? What bearing does this have on the prognosis of future political developments in the region?

Both broad theoretical studies and specific case studies are welcome.

Paper proposals (no more than 400 words) and should be sent to:
Prof. Asma Afsaruddin, Chair, Conference Program Committee
1625 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 601, Washington, D.C. 20036.
Tel.: (202) 265-1200. Fax: (202) 265-1222.
E-mail: conference@islam-democracy.org

Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by February 15, 2007 and final papers must be submitted by March 31st, 2007.

Various Vacancies: National Democratic Institute
The National Democratic Institute is recruiting for several international vacancies, including Iraq: Senior Program Manager, Civic Organizing and Advocacy Specialist; Iraq: Senior Program Officer, Political Party Training Specialists; Kosovo: Senior Legislative Expert; Lesotho: Resident Senior Program Manager for Elections ; Liberia: Resident Director ; Madagascar: Resident Senior Program Manager for Elections Pakistan: Senior Program Manager ; Russia: Resident Civic Trainer ; Russia: Resident Director ; Russia: Resident Political Party Trainer ; Serbia: Resident Director ; Ukraine: Resident Director ; West Bank/Gaza: Resident Political Party Program Officer And for the following Washington-based positions: Legislative/Parliamentary Strengthening Advisors: Governance ; Manager of International Recruitment Program Assistant: Central and Eastern Europe ; Program Assistant: Latin America and the Caribbean Program Officer: Asia ; Program Officer: Eurasia ; Program Officer: Middle East and North Africa ; Senior Program Assistant: Asia ;Senior Program Manager: Southern and East Africa ; Senior Program Officer: Central and West Africa Phone: 202-728-5500 Email: HR@ndi.org Apply online.

The International Republican Institute
Vacancies for various full-time positions, including: Resident Accountant, Iraq; Resident Country Director, Cambodia; Resident Country Director, Kenya; Resident Country Director, Liberia; Resident Country Director, Moldova; Resident Country Director, West Africa; Resident Political Party and Public Advocacy Specialists, Iraq; Resident Program Officer, Angola; Resident Program Officer, Azerbaijan; Resident Program Officer, Liberia; Resident Program Officer, Resident Program Officer, Juba, Sudan. IRI is an Equal Opportunity Employer. If you are interested in employment opportunities, please click on the links above to read the job description for available positions. Please e-mail your resume to personnel@iri.org and reference the specific opportunity you are interested in. IRI does not accept unsolicited resumes. To view IRI benefits, please click here.

Assistant Program Officer - South and Southeast Asia

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a Congressionally-funded, private, nonprofit grant-making organization that works to support freedom around the world, seeks an Assistant Program Officer to work with its South and Southeast Asia team. The position is based in Washington, D.C. Specific duties of the Assistant Program Officer will include:

• Drafting summaries of proposals to present at quarterly Board meetings;
• Assisting in the evaluation of project proposals;
• Communicating regularly with grantees;
• Assisting in monitoring the work of grantees;
• Tracking political developments in the region;
• Providing administrative support to the region's Program Officers and Director;
• Organizing events to highlight specific democracy-related issues.

NED offers competitive salaries and excellent benefits. The NED is an equal opportunity employer. To apply, please send a letter of interest, resume, including contact information for three references, and a short writing sample. Applications may be sent by email to asiajobs@ned.org. Please write "S/SEA APO Search" in the subject line. For more information please see http://www.ned.org. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

Assistant Program Officer for East Asia – Position Opening

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a congressionally funded, private, nonprofit grant making organization that supports democratization efforts around the world, seeks an Assistant Program Officer to work with its East Asia team. The position is based in Washington, DC.

The Assistant Program Officer will work with program staff to provide programmatic and administrative support to NED's East Asia grants program, monitor grant budgets, prepare reports and assist in the development of grants for the region.

Specific duties of the Assistant Program Officer will include:

• Assisting in the evaluation of project proposals and drafting summaries of proposals to present at quarterly Board meetings;
• Assisting in monitoring the work of grantees' program activities;
• Tracking political developments in the region;
• Providing administrative support to the region's program officers;
• Organizing events to highlight specific democracy-related issues.

To apply, please send a letter explaining your interest in the position to the East Asia Hiring Manager at asiajobs@ned.org, with "Assistant Program Officer for East Asia – [your name]" in the subject line. In addition to a résumé, please include contact information for three references.

Date of posting: January 25, 2007. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

For more information about NED, please see http://www.ned.org.

Deputy Director, Jordan: American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative, Jordan (Amman)
The American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative seeks a Deputy Director to manage and implement legal reform projects in Jordan. The Deputy Director will assist in managing staff and grants and lead substantive initiatives in the areas of legal education reform, alternative dispute resolution, and other areas of rule of law, and reports to the Director in the field.

Requirements include a JD, previous experience or background in the region, and substantial experience managing USAID grants. Excellent written and oral communication skills in English required, Arabic strongly preferred. Previous international rule of law program development and implementation experience desired. To apply, send cover letter, resume and 3 references to jobs@abaceeli.org. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis as received, and will be accepted until the position is filled. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Program Officer, Congressional Relations
The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) is a nonpartisan American public policy and grant-making institution dedicated to promoting greater cooperation and understanding between the United States and Europe. The Congressional Relations Department is recruiting for a Program Officer to help meet the needs of this growing organization. Working closely with the senior congressional officer and the Economics Program staff, the Congressional Relations Program Officer will be responsible for managing the congressional work of an expanding trade, development and economics program. This includes developing and maintaining a network of congressional contacts in both Houses of Congress; liaising with GMF European offices and other departments to implement congressional strategies and activities; identifying and organizing convening opportunities on Capitol Hill; tracking and monitoring relevant legislation; liaising with external partners on relevant projects. The German Marshall Fund of the United States offers a stimulating work environment, competitive salary, and excellent benefits. To be considered for this position, please forward cover letter and current resume to hr@gmfus.org or fax to 202-387-0146. Please reference job title in the subject line.

EVENTS

February 12, 2007 5:30 pm New York Democracy Forum: Garry Kasparov on The Prospects for Russian Democracy. McGraw Hill Auditorium ( 1221 Avenue of the Americas ) McGraw Hill Auditorium, located at 1221 Avenue of the Americas (entrance on 49th Street – take escalators to second floor auditorium). The Foreign Policy Association and the National Endowment for Democracy invite you to attend the next lecture of the New York Democracy Forum, featuring renowned chess world champion and Russian democracy activist Garry Kasparov speaking on The Prospects for Russian Democracy.

As Russian parliamentary and presidential elections approach in 2007 - 2008, the Kremlin-backed United Russia party has passed a series of laws curtailing media freedom; restricting nongovernmental organizations, religious communities, and other civil society groups; and restricting freedom of assembly and the use of popular referenda. The democratic parties, SPS and Yabloko, have been almost entirely marginalized. Existing nongovernmental organizations have, however, been loath to give up their independence, and new organizations like The Other Russia and a thriving youth movement have arisen. Garry Kasparov, who abdicated his #1 chess ranking in 2005 to devote his intellect and energy to Russian democracy and was a principal organizer of The Other Russia's inaugural meeting in July 2006, will discuss the role of these and other pro-democracy forces in the coming 2007-2008 election cycle. McGraw Hill Auditorium, located at 1221 Avenue of the Americas (entrance on 49th Street – take escalators to second floor auditorium). 5:30pm registration, 6:00pm lecture, 7:00pm Catered Reception. Admission: FPA/NED/OTR/Chess Club Members and Students with ID Free, Guest of FPA member $15.00, OTR member $15.00, Guest of member $15.00, Non-member $25.00.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007, 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. Hong Kong's Democratic Reform – An Unexpected Path?, featuring Christine Loh OBE, CEO, Civic Exchange. Moderator: Minxin Pei, Senior Associate and Director of the China Program, Carnegie Endowment. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1779 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington DC 20036.

The Carnegie Endowment cordially invites you to attend a lunch seminar, "Hong Kong's Democratic Reform – An Unexpected Path?" by Christine Loh, Founder and CEO of Civic Exchange, an independent, non-profit policy think tank based in Hong Kong. Ms. Loh will analyze recent trends in the democratic reforms in Hong Kong. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty, so Ms. Loh's seminar will provide an excellent opportunity to take stock of Hong Kong's progress toward full democracy. The Economist described her as "perhaps LegCo's most gifted member."

Ms. Loh has been a long-time advocate of democracy, human rights, urban planning and the environment. Her publications include Getting Heard: A Hong Kong Citizen's Handbook (2002); Building Democracy: Creating Good Government for Hong Kong (2003), At the Epicenter: Hong Kong and the SARS Outbreak (2004), Functional Constituencies, A Unique Feature of the Hong Kong Legislative Council (2006), and Hong Kong, Being Here: Shaping a Preferred Future (July 2006).

15–18 March 2007 Conference on 'Civil Resistance and Power Politics', St Antony's College, Oxford, 15–18 March 2007
Thursday 15 March 2007 Sessions include Civil resistance and power politics; The US civil rights movement: power from below and above; The Politics of Nonviolent Action and the spread of ideas about civil resistance; Iranian resistance to the Shah, 1963-79; Philippines: 'People Power,' 1983-7; Can good methods overcome difficult circumstances? Generalising the conditions for successful civil resistance; China: Tiananmen 1989: defeat of civil resistance. Contributors include: Dr Gene Sharp, Albert Einstein Institution; Abbas Milani (Director of the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University); Dr Peter Ackerman, Founding Chair, International Center on Nonviolent Conflict; Aleksander Smolar, President, Stefan Batory Foundation, Warsaw; Adam Michnik (editor, Gazeta Wyborcza); Ghia Nodia (Chairman of the Board, Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy & Development); Michael McFaul (Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution); Timothy Garton Ash (Professor of European Studies at Oxford University, Chair). Further details are available from the following websites: http://cis.politics.ox.ac.uk/research/Projects/civ_res.asp and http://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/esc/esc-civil-resistance.shtml

Saturday 28 - Sunday 29 April 2007Chinese Approaches to Democracy. A weekend school at Rewley House, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford, UK. Oxford University Continuing Education, in association with the Nordic Confucius Institute, Stockholm. As China extends and consolidates its economic miracle, the reform of authoritarian political institutions presents its next great challenge. In this course, we shall consider the resources for democracy to be found in traditional Chinese philosophy, the different conceptions of democracy that have emerged in China over the past century and the passionate debates about democracy among present-day Chinese Marxist, Liberal, New Left and Neo-Confucian philosophers and other intellectuals. Is there a pathway towards a stable democratic future for Chinese government and society? This weekend, jointly run between OUDCE and the Nordic Confucius Institute in Stockholm, initiates a longer-term programme of events on Chinese philosophy in Oxford and Stockholm. Sessions include : Democracy and Chinese responses to modernity; Contemporary Chinese debates: Democracy with Chinese characteristics? Further details: Short Courses Administrator, OUDCE, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JA Tel: (01865) 270380 or email: ppdayweek@conted.ox.ac.uk.