Nov 18, 2009

Sponsor: NED

Middle Eastern Democrats and Their Vision of the Future

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the liberation of Kuwait, democrats in the Middle East have been fighting uphill battles to reform and open up their political space.  Some governments have conceded to local demands for partial reform and relaxed political control and the advent of the internet and satellite television have provided additional safe space for emerging civic networks.  Most recently, there have been hopeful signs --

  • Women gained the vote and won parliamentary seats in Kuwait,
  • Lebanon held a fundamentally peaceful and well-administered election,
  • Moderate parties made significant gains in Iraq and;
  • 3,400 women won municipal council seats in Morocco.

In addition, civil society gains in Arab countries have been significant and are unlikely to be reversed. 

Still, democrats from the region often occupy a beleaguered political space between entrenched authoritarian systems and radical Islamist movements, their vulnerability highlighted by the imprisonment of the Egyptian liberal leader Ayman Nour soon after his unsuccessful presidential campaign. (He was released earlier this year.)   

Given the considerable interest that the United States has in democratic progress in the Middle East, it is important that positive trends continue and that the prospect for democracy be fully appreciated.  NED is holding this conference to give leading Middle Eastern democrats an opportunity to share their concerns with an American audience, and to highlight the challenges they believe lie ahead as well as their vision of the possibilities for democratic progress in the region.

Program

Welcome
Carl Gershman, President, National Endowment for Democracy

Keynote
Congressman Howard Berman, Chairman, House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Watch Video :: VIDEO
Read Remarks :: PDF

Video Message on Middle Eastern Democracy from Ayman Nour,
Head of the Egyptian El Ghad Party, former MP and Presidential Candidate.
Watch Video :: VIDEO
Video followed by  Q&A conference call
Watch Video :: VIDEO

Panel: “What are the Challenges and Prospects for the Region?”

  • Musa Maaytah, Minister of Political Development, Jordan
  • Nouzha Skalli, Minister of Social Development, Family and Solidarity, Morocco

Commentators:

  • Michele Dunne, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
  • Leslie Campbell, Senior associate and regional director for the Middle East and North Africa,      
    National Democratic Institute
  • Laith Kubba, Senior Director, Middle East and North Africa Programs, National Endowment for Democracy

Moderator:   

  • Lorne Craner, President, International Republican Institute

Roundtable Discussion: “What Assistance Can the International Community Provide?
Watch Video ::VIDEO

  • Tamara Cofman Wittes, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs
  • Daniel Brumberg, United States Institute of Peace
  • Scott Carpenter, Keston Family Fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy
  • Vidar Helgesen, Secretary-General, International IDEA
  • Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Wallerstein Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Drew University
  • Musa Maayta, Jordan
  • Nouzha Skalli, Morocco

Moderator:

  • Kenneth Wollack, President, National Democratic Institute

Participant Biographies

Howard Berman
Howard Berman began his political career over 30 years ago in the California State Assembly.  In his first term in the state legislature, he was named Assembly Majority leader and also served as Chair of the Assembly Democratic Caucus.  In 1982, Berman was elected to the US Congress where he serves on the Foreign Affairs and Judiciary Committees. Berman also serves as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, where he has been a strong supporter of democracy initiatives around the world. In the 111th Congress, his top priorities include improving America’s diplomatic strength through a reauthorization of the State Department, strengthening assistance to combat extremism in the Middle East, and improving the efficiency of U.S. foreign aid.

Daniel Brumberg
Daniel Brumberg is co-director of the Democracy and Governance Studies program at Georgetown University, where he has taught since 1993.  He also serves as acting director of the US Institute of Peace’s Muslim World Initiative in the Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention, where he focuses on issues of democratization and political reform in the Middle East and wider Islamic world. Previously, he was a Jennings Randolph senior fellow at USIP, where he pursued a study of power sharing in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. With a grant from the MacArthur Foundation, Brumberg is currently working on a comparative study of power-sharing experiments in Algeria, Kuwait and Indonesia. He is also the Chairman of the nonprofit Foundation on Democratization and Political Change in the Middle East.

J. Scott Carpenter
J. Scott Carpenter is the Keston Family fellow at The Washington Institute and director of Project Fikra, which focuses on empowering Arab democrats in their struggle against extremism. From 2004 to 2007,  Carpenter served as deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. In 2006, he was also named coordinator for the State Department's Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiatives. Before serving in key positions with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, Mr. Carpenter was deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Carpenter worked for the International Republican Institute (IRI) for seven years before joining the State Department. 

Leslie Campbell 
Leslie Campbell is the National Democratic Institute’s (NDI) senior associate and regional director for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). He joined NDI in 1994 and has directed the Institute's programs in the MENA region since 1996.  Mr. Campbell has overseen a vast expansion of NDI's programs in the Middle East with the establishment of nine permanent offices and dozens of programs that support political, civic and governance reform, and development throughout the Arab world. A frequent guest and commentator on Middle East issues for major news outlets, he has also written a number of articles and papers on the subject of democracy in the Middle East. He has served as a member of task forces and study groups on Middle East democracy at the Brookings Institution, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the United States Institute of Peace.  

Lorne Craner
Lorne Craner is president of the International Republican Institute. He has led the strengthening of IRI’s programs in countries such as Afghanistan, China, Colombia, Pakistan, Indonesia and Iraq. Previously, Craner was Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor for Secretary of State Colin Powell. Among other accomplishments, he helped construct the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s “good governance’ criteria, sharpened the administration’s focus on human rights in Central Asia, and contributed to democratization in the Middle East. Upon his departure, Craner received the Distinguished Service Award, the State Department’s highest honor, from Secretary Powell. He has also served at the National Security Council and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he has testified on numerous occasions before House and Senate Committees. 

Tamara Cofman Wittes
A Middle East democracy expert,  Tamara Cofman Wittes is the newly appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, with specific policy responsibilities for democracy and human rights. Previously, she directed several Middle East research projects, including the Middle East Democracy and Development Project at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute where she also oversaw a visiting fellows program. Wittes also served as a specialist at the US Institute of Peace and as director of programs at the Middle East Institute. 

Michele Dunne
Michele Dunne is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and editor of the Arab Reform Bulletin, a monthly online journal. She has served on the staff of both the National Security Council and the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Office, as well as at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem, and the Department of State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. Her research interests include Arab politics, political and economic reform, and U.S. policies in the Middle East. She holds a Ph.D. in Arabic language and literature from Georgetown University, where she is an adjunct professor of Arab Studies.

Vidar Helgesen
Vidar Helgesen is the Secretary-General of International IDEA, a position he has held since 2006.  From 2001 to 2005, Mr Helgesen was Norway’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. His portfolio included human rights and democracy, refugee issues, peace and reconciliation processes, and UN policy.  He also served as Special Adviser to the President of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). Mr Helgesen holds a law degree from the University of Oslo.

Saad  Eddin  Ibrahim
Saad Eddin Ibrahim is a leading Egyptian human rights and democracy activist. He is the founder of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies and the Arab Organization for Human Rights, which have played a major role in reviving the civil society movement in Egypt.  In 2000, Ibrahim was imprisoned for using EU funds for election monitoring on charges of defaming Egypt’s image abroad. He was eventually released due to international protest regarding the motives of his arrest. Again in 2008 Ibrahim was charged with defaming Egypt, which led to his exile to the US where he currently pursues a career in academics at Drew University and continues to speak out against the current regime.  

Musa Maaytah
Musa Maaytah has served as the Minister of Political Development of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan since February 2009.  Prior to his appointment, he founded the Al Badeel Center for Studies and Training to contribute to the genuine democratization process of political life in Jordan and to advance political pluralism and the development of civil society.   From 1996 to 2005, Minister Maaytah served as Secretary General of the Jordanian Democratic Party of the Left (JPDL).

Nouzha Skalli
Nouzha Skalli is Morocco’s Minister of Social Development, Family and Solidarity and a member of the political bureau of the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS).  She has been an elected member of the Parliament since the 2002 legislative elections. As a member of the Socialist Alliance caucus, she held the chairmanship for two legislative sessions. She is a trained pharmacist and former chairwoman of the National Federation of Unions of Pharmacists of Morocco. Ms. Skalli is known as a civil society activist and strong advocate for women’s human and political rights. She has played a central role in the creation of a number of women’s associations: the Democratic Association of Moroccan Women (ADFM), Judicial and Counseling Center for Women Victims of Violence and Center for Women’s Leadership (CLEF).  She is currently vice-president of ADFM and she was co-author of a number of the association’s publications, including “Women’s Rights in the Maghreb: The Universal and Specific” (1992) and “Women and Power in Morocco: The Mutilated Democracy” (2001).

Kenneth Wollack

Kenneth Wollack has served as the president of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) since March 1993. Mr.Wollack has traveled extensively in Eastern and Central Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Africa on behalf of the Institute's political development programs. He has testified on numerous occasions before congressional committees, appeared on national television and radio, and spoken before world affairs councils across the country. He has served on various task forces sponsored by the Brookings Institute, the United States Institute of Peace, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Center for U.S. Global Engagement. Mr. Wollack currently is a member of the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid and is the chairman of the board of directors for the U.S. Committee for the United Nations Development Program.