Amman, Jordan: October 7 – 9, 2009
Beirut, Lebanon: October 26 - 28, 2009
Cairo, Egypt: November 4 -6, 2009

The Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) in cooperation with the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Georgetown University’s Center for Democracy and Civil Society, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), is excited to begin our annual regional conferences in the Middle East. The 2009 Conferences are hosted in partnership with the Center for Strategic Studies at Jordan University, the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies. The conferences will examine political reform dynamics in Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt and the role of U.S. foreign policy. The purpose is to generate recommendations for U.S. policymakers for how to improve the impact of U.S. policy and to effectively encourage democratic reform.

The conferences include panel discussions featuring Arab and American experts on U.S. foreign policy initiatives, progress of political reform in the region, and the role of the U.S. and Europe in assisting this process. Four main topics of the conferences are:

• Elections & Political Processes
• Religious Freedom & Inclusion
• Women’s Rights & Empowerment
• Human Security & Development

The conferences will take place in Amman, Beirut, and Cairo. Participants include Americans living in the US or in the region, Europeans, as well as local young professionals residing in the three Arab countries, ages 23-35. Each conference includes 15 Middle Easterners and 15 Americans and Europeans. Since the number of spaces is limited, participants have been chosen by competitive application. We have sought an ideologically and geographically diverse group of participants.

We have been thrilled with the response this year, as we received more than 900 applications for the 90 available spots for participants in the three conferences.  In the weeks ahead, we look forward to publishing the policy recommendations that come out of these conferences and then advocating on behalf of those recommendations in Washington.  Keep an eye on this page for more information, and if you have any questions, please e-mail 2009conferences@pomed.org.