Project on Middle East Democracy

Activities


POMED works to accomplish its mission through three programs.

First, we foster dialogue on political reform and democracy between and among Americans and Middle Easterners. This includes but is not limited to:

  • Organizing conferences in the Middle East between young Americans and Middle Easterners to discuss effective strategies for reform.
  • Conducting panel discussions and debates in Washington that facilitate and encourage the exchange of ideas about America’s impact on political reform and democracy.
  • Convening working groups to tackle challenging topics, and offer innovative recommendations.

Second, we provide accurate and thorough research and analysis to legislators, policymakers and democratic development practitioners. This includes:

  • Publishing a Policy Brief Series on issues of core relevance to democratic development in the Middle East and North Africa. The briefs help seed innovative research by talented rising analysts from the academia, think tanks, practitioner organizations, and human rights groups in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East.
  • Producing country pages that aggregate the best open source information on a country-by-country basis, helping policymakers to consider ways to support the US long-term interests in democratic development.
  • Writing country and issue background papers on topics of interest to legislators and policymakers.

Third, we advocate for a consistent and credible pro-democracy foreign policy towards the Middle East by supporting a coalition of actors and organizations who share POMED’s principles:

  • Discussing the consequences of U.S. policies with legislators, congressional staff, executive branch officials, and other interested parties, and encouraging them to support democratic reform in the Middle East.
  • Writing and commissioning policy papers and briefs.
  • Organizing monthly roundtables for congressional staffmembers on peaceful US means for supporting democratic reforms in the Middle East.

 

POMED Events: 

In the past year, POMED has continued its successful series of panel discussions in Washington DC on American policy toward political reform in the Middle East. More details and event summaries can be found on our events page.

POMED Conferences

POMED recently worked with Americans for Informed Democracy (AID) to hold a series of three “Bringing the World Home” conferences in Jordan, Egypt, and Morocco. Click here for more information.