Democracy and Governance Studies

Welcome to the Democracy and Governance Studies program at Georgetown University, housing the Master of Arts in Democracy and Governance and the Center for Democracy and Civil Society (CDACS).

Lebanon: Is Real Reform Possible?

Domestic reforms are critical to ensuring Lebanon's long-term independence and sovereignty. Will the Lebanese government be able to strengthen the institutional framework that is required to expand economic opportunity and break down the clientelist structure of the Lebanese state?

The Middle East Program of the Woodrow Wilson Center and the Safadi Foundation USA will be presenting Lebanon: Is Real Reform Possible?, a talk by Mohammad A. Safadi, Minister of Economy and Trade and Member of Parliament, Republic of Lebanon.  Minister Safadi will address the current situation on the ground and outline specific steps to move the reform process forward.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

6th Floor Floor Auditorium

Woodrow Wilson Center

Please RSVP to mep@wilsoncenter.org or fax 202-691-4184 with your name, title, affiliation, and email.  Seating is limited. Seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis.  A photo ID is required for entry.

The Woodrow Wilson Center is located in the Ronald Reagan Building (Federal Triangle stop on Blue/Orange Line). Public parking is available underneath the Reagan Building; however we recommend metro or taxi. www.wilsoncenter.org/directions

http://www.safadifoundationusa.org

Safadi Foundation USA is a non-partisan registered 501(c)(3) public charitable tax-exempt organization dedicated to promoting a national and strategic framework for Lebanon's development.

Democracy & Society on Foreign Policy in the Obama Administration

The Winter 2010 issue of CDACS' journal, Democracy & Society, features thematic articles advocating that the Obama administration redesign democracy assistance strategies as well as papers urging changes to the U.S.’s bilateral relationships with Egypt and Mexico. We also review six new books on foreign policy suggestions for the Obama administration. The range of the policies these authors advocate reflects the number of challenges the administration faces, their diversity, and disagreements over the sources of the problem and solutions to them.  It also includes a Call for Papers for the next issue, "Democrats, Dictators, and Demonstrators: Sharing Strategies on Repression and Reform."

Regime and Opposition in Iran: Preparing for a New Confrontation?

The tumultuous events that have rocked Iran in recent weeks suggest that the conflict between regime and opposition is far from over. Indeed, the "Ashura Protests" of December 2009 tell a different story: of a regime that is struggling to hold on to power and some shred of legitimacy, and an opposition that is looking for ways to unify as it confronts state violence.

How will the evolving clash between regime and opposition affect the stability of the Islamic Republic, on the one hand, and its foreign relations, on the other? What are the implications for recent events for the Obama administration's efforts to engage Iran and deflect its efforts to build what many experts believe is a nuclear arms capacity?

To explore these and other related question, please join Georgetown Democracy & Governance Co-Director Professor Daniel Brumberg and others at the United States Institute of Peace on Monday, February 1, 2010 at 10 am for what promises to be an extraordinary discussion.

** This event will be webcast live beginning at 10:00am on February 1, 2010. You may also join our live discussion on Twitter via the hashtag #usipiran. Questions from our online audience will be put to the panelists. Go to our event web page to find out more: http://www.usip.org/events/revolution-undone

SPEAKERS
Abiodun Williams, Chair
Vice President, Conflict Analysis and Prevention, U.S. Institute of Peace

Daniel Brumberg
Acting Director, Muslim World Initiative, U.S. Institute of Peace
Topic: Repression and Resistance in a Divided Society

Robin Wright
Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow, U.S. Institute of Peace
Topic: In Search of Unity: Iran’s Opposition
Read Robin Wright's testimony to Congress on Iran's Green Movement

Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, Reformist Member of Iranian Parliament (2000-2004)
Visiting Scholar, University of Massachusetts
Topic: The Future of Iran’s Opposition

Suzanne Maloney
Resident Scholar, Saban Center, The Brookings Institution
Topic: The Regime: Where are the Fissures?

George Lopez
Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow, U.S. Institute of Peace
Topic: Implications for U.S.-Iranian Engagement
Read George Lopez's testimony to Congress on Sanctions

Monday, February 1, 2010
10:00am - 12:00 pm

United States Institute of Peace
1200 17th Street, NW Washington, DC
USIP 2nd Floor Conference Room, and Online at
http://www.usip.org/webcast.html

POMED, CDACS release "After Cairo" report

In Fall 2009, the Center for Democracy & Civil Society (CDACS)  co-sponsored regional conferences hosted by the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED).  At these conferences in Amman, Beirut, and Cairo, CDACS and POMED listened to prominent under-35 civic leaders and their American counterparts to seek their recommendations for how the U.S. could follow through on the spirit of President Obama’s June 4th, 2009 speech in Cairo. Discussions focused on the four human dignity issues President Obama raised in Cairo: Democracy, Religious Freedom, Women’s Rights, and Development. Together, the three conferences developed 56 recommendations for the administration on ways it can translate the vision of the Cairo speech into constructive actions. The following report presents their recommendations precisely as they composed them. The report also examines polling data related to the priorities President Obama announced in Cairo.

Emerging Leaders for Democracy Roundtable

In his inaugural address on January 20, 2009, President Barack Obama declared,
“To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.” In Fall 2009, The Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) hosted conferences in Amman, Beirut, and Cairo with emerging democratic leaders to develop concrete policy recommendations that would make the new beginning a reality. On January 19, 2010, selected conference participants will discuss the recommendations with Kenneth Wollack, President of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in a roundtable chaired by Dr. Michael C. Hudson, Director of Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS), and Dr. Barak Hoffman, Executive Director of Georgetown University’s Center for Democracy & Civil Society (CDACS).

Who: Kenneth Wollack, President, National Democratic Institute (NDI)

POMED Emerging Leaders in Democracy Conference participants:

Mohammad Azraq, Amman conference
David Linfield, Amman conference
Karim Bayoud, Beirut conference
Cole Bockenfeld, Beirut conference
Bassem Samir, Cairo conference
Jessica O’Higgins, Cairo conference

Dr. Michael C. Hudson, Director, Georgetown University Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS)

Dr. Barak Hoffman, Executive Director, Georgetown University Center for Democracy & Civil Society (CDACS)

When: Tuesday, January 19, 2010, 5 pm

Where: Mortara Center for International Studies

3600 N Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20057

RSVP By Friday, January 15th, 2010 to gucdacs@gmail.com

Co-Sponsored by the Center for Democracy & Civil Society and the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

Democracy & Governance Program Application Deadline!

The application deadline for admission to the M.A. Program in Democracy & Governance for Fall 2010 is Friday, January 15th, 2010.  Details on the application process are available here, and be sure to complete the online application.

CDACS co-sponsors Dictators and Demonstrators Symposium, December 10th

 The Center for Democracy and Civil Society, with co-sponsors Freedom House and the Forum for the Study of Democracy, hosted a graduate student and young professional symposium on December 10th, 2009 at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C.  The Forum for the Study of Democracy is the student organization of Georgetown's Democracy & Governance Program.

Entitled Dictators and Demonstrators: Sharing Strategies on Repression and Reform, the symposium featured a panel on "Demonstrators", moderated by Freedom House Deputy Executive Director and Democracy & Governance Program adjunct professor Thomas Melia, with participants Gabrielle Bardall from the lnternational Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), Hervé St Louis from the Center for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, Laura Mottaz from the National Endowment for Democracy's Center for lnternational Media Assistance, and J. Hunter Price from the Department of Political Science at Trinity University.

A "Dictators" panel, moderated by Georgetown Professor Daniel Brumberg, Democracy & Governance Program co-director and acting director of the United States Institute of Peace Muslim World Initiative, featured Lauren Albright from Temple University's Department of Political Science, Sheena Chestnut from Harvard University's Department of Political Science, Jeanne Elone from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced lnternational Studies (SAIS), and Brandon Yoder from National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

Panel participants were selected following a call for papers in October 2009. Papers from the conference will be published in the spring edition of Democracy & Society.

You can listen to the panels here.


Dictators and Demonstrators Symposium, December 10th

From Rangoon to Tehran, demonstrators continually adopt new strategies and technologies in their struggles against oppressive regimes. However, demonstrators are not the only ones adapting. In an effort to preempt demonstrators, authoritarians manage access to technologies, cooperate in regional organizations, and learn from each other. Contending dictators and demonstrators are aware of this competitive learning, but we know little about which side is more adaptable and under what conditions.

With these issues in mind, the Center for Democracy & Civil Society (CDACS), in cooperation with Freedom House and the Forum for the Study of Democracy, presents a graduate student and practitioner symposium, Dictators and Demonstrators: Sharing Strategies on Repression and Reform.

Thursday, December 10th, 2009
Council on Foreign Relations
1777 F Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006
10 AM - 1 PM

Demonstrators: 10:00a.m. – 11:20 a.m.
Commentator: Thomas O. Melia, Deputy Executive Director, Freedom House
-
Gabrielle Bardall, International Foundation for Electoral Systems
Kilic Kanat, Department of Political Science, Syracuse University
Laura Mottaz, Center for International Media Assistance, National Endowment for Democracy
J. Hunter Price, Department of Political Science, Trinity University

Dictators: 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Commentator: Daniel Brumberg, Associate Professor of Political Science at Georgetown University and Acting Director of the Muslim World Initiative at the US Institute for Peace.
-
Lauren Albright, Department of Political Science, Temple University
Sheena Chestnut, Department of Political Science, Harvard University
Jeanne Elone, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
Brandon Yoder, National Endowment for Democracy

Refreshments will be served

RSVP by December 8 to cdacsconference@gmail.com

Talk by Michael Signer, author of Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies

The Center for Democracy & Civil Society presents Michael Signer, author of Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies, who will speak on threats demagogues pose to democracy around the world during a talk on Wednesday, November 18th. Signer contends that constitutionalism, a culture of values respecting democratic authority and citizenship, best protects democracy from disintegrating into tyranny at the hands of demagogues.

Michael Signer is Senior Fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, and a Principal of the Truman National Security Project. He previously served as Director of the Homeland Security Presidential Transition Initiative, a joint project of the Center for American Progress and Third Way and was chief foreign policy advisor to the 2008 presidential campaign of Senator John Edwards.  He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley and a J.D. from the University of Virginia.

12:-1:30 PM
Georgetown University
3520 Prospect Street, NW
Car Barn 427
RSVP to gucdacs@gmail.com

Democracy & Governance Program Open House

The Master of Arts Program in Democracy & Governance will be hosting an Open House for prospective students Wednesday, November 4th, at 5:30 pm.  The open house will be held at the Mortara Center for International Studies, 36th and N Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20007.  Please R.S.V.P. to Sarah Jackson at sij3@georgetown.edu.

DG Student's Op-Ed Featured in The Wall Street Journal

DG student Samuel Tadros co-authored an op-ed published by The Wall Street Journal.  The article was written with Amr Bargisi and is entitled, "Why Are Egypt's Liberals Anti-Semitic?  Western delegates to the Cairo congress should know about the country's Judeophobia."  Tadros and Bargisi are both senior partners with the Egyptian Union of Liberal Youth (EULY). 

DG Student, Union of the Egyptian Liberal Youth receive Templeton Award

Congratulations to the Union of the Egyptian Liberal Youth (EULY) and DG student and EULY senior partner Samuel Tadros!  EULY recently won an "Award for Special Achievement by a Young Institute" in the Atlas Economic Research Foundation's 2009 Templeton Freedom Awards for Excellence in Promoting Liberty.  The Templeton Freedom Awards are the largest international awards program for think tanks. Samuel will join EULY at Atlas's Freedom Dinner on November 9th, 2009 in Washington, D.C., when the organization will be recognized for its “Why Am I a Liberal?” essay competition, the first of its kind in the Arab world.

The Minaret and the Satellite Dish
Intense turmoil is destabilizing many parts of the Muslim world. What are the challenges and opportunities Israel faces in this changing political environment?  On October 21st, 2009, the Center for Democracy & Civil Society and the Embassy of the State of Israel present Avi Melamed on "The Minaret and the Satellite Dish: Opportunities and Challenges for Israel in a Changing Muslim World." 

Mr. Melamed is an independent security analyst in Israel on Middle East affairs. He has held a range of governmental posts on intelligence and counter-terrorism, and served as the Senior Advisor on Arab Affairs to Jerusalem Mayors Teddy Kollek and Ehud Olmert. He is also the co-author of Separate and Unequal-The Inside Story of Israeli Rule in East Jerusalem (Harvard University Press, 1999).

12:00 to 1:30 PM
MSFS Conference Room, Seventh Floor, Intercultural Center (ICC)
Georgetown University
37th and O Streets, N.W.
Washington, DC 20057
RSVP to gucdacs@gmail.com or 202-687-0596.


Engaging the Muslim World

Please join Democracy & Governance Program Co-Director Professor Daniel Brumberg, director of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Muslim World Initiative, for a lively discussion on "Conflict, Identity, and Reform in the Muslim World," also the title of USIP's new volume edited by Professor Brumberg and Dina Shehata.

The event, on October 15th from 9:30 to noon at USIP's offices at 1200 17th Street, NW, Washington, D.C., will feature speakers including:

Keynote Address

• The Honorable Keith Ellison (D-MN)
  U.S. House of Representatives
• David R. Smock, Commentator
  Vice President, Center for Mediation and Conflict Resolution, Religion and Peacemaking Center of Innovations

Speakers

• Abiodun Williams, Moderator
  Director, Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention, U.S. Institute of Peace
• Daniel Brumberg
  Director, Muslim World Initiative, U.S. Institute of Peace
  Co-Director, Democracy Studies, Georgetown University
• Dina Shehata
  Senior Researcher, Al-Ahram Center, Cairo
• Ömer Taşpınar
  Non-resident Scholar, Saban Center, Brookings Institution
• Palwasha Hassan
  Jennings Randolph Afghanistan Fellow, U.S. Institute of Peace

Elections in Afghanistan

CDACS Executive Director Barak Hoffman and M.A. in Democracy and Governance alumni Austan Mogharabi, Danielle Pearl, Evan Smith, and Miki Wilkins traveled to Afghanistan to serve as election observers as part of a delegation from Democracy International. The purpose of the mission was to evaluate the degree to which the conduct of the election conformed to accepted international norms of election administration, human rights, and democratic representation. The credibility of the elections is vital to the consolidation of democracy in Afghanistan. The Government of Afghanistan's Independent Electoral Commission has not yet announced the results.