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  "authors": [
    "Nathan J. Brown",
    "Nathan J. Brown"
  ],
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    "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace"
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Other

Post-Election Iraq: Facing the Constitutional Challenge

Iraq’s newly elected National Assembly (NA) will soon take up its major task—although hardly its only one—of drafting a permanent constitution. The task is to be completed in time to submit the draft constitution to a national plebiscite by October 15, 2005.

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By Nathan J. Brown and Nathan J. Brown
Published on Feb 1, 2005
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Democracy, Conflict, and Governance

The Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program is a leading source of independent policy research, writing, and outreach on global democracy, conflict, and governance. It analyzes and seeks to improve international efforts to reduce democratic backsliding, mitigate conflict and violence, overcome political polarization, promote gender equality, and advance pro-democratic uses of new technologies.

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Program

Middle East

The Middle East Program in Washington combines in-depth regional knowledge with incisive comparative analysis to provide deeply informed recommendations. With expertise in the Gulf, North Africa, Iran, and Israel/Palestine, we examine crosscutting themes of political, economic, and social change in both English and Arabic.

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Iraq’s newly elected National Assembly (NA) will soon take up its major task—although hardly its only one—of drafting a permanent constitution. The task is to be completed in time to submit the draft constitution to a national plebiscite by October 15, 2005. Constitutions are rarely written during calm times. Countries rarely feel any pressure to redesign their basic institutions unless they are confronting crisis. There are some exceptions, of course—in fact, one of the major obstacles to the development of constitutionalism in the Arab world is that constitutions were written under conditions of insufficient turmoil.

Click on the link above for the full text of this Policy Outlook.

About the Author
Nathan Brown is a senior associate in the Democracy and the Rule of Law Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, on leave from his position as professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University. He is a distinguished scholar and author of four well-received books on Arab politics.

About the Authors

Nathan J. Brown

Nonresident Senior Fellow, Middle East Program

Nathan J. Brown, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, is a distinguished scholar and author of nine books on Arab politics and governance, as well as editor of five books.

Nathan J. Brown

Nonresident Senior Fellow, Middle East Program

Nathan J. Brown, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, is a distinguished scholar and author of nine books on Arab politics and governance, as well as editor of five books.

Authors

Nathan J. Brown
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Middle East Program
Nathan J. Brown
Nathan J. Brown
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Middle East Program
Nathan J. Brown
Political ReformDemocracyMiddle East

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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