Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Egypt still represents the best chance for U.S. democracy promotion in the Arab world in the near future, according to this Policy Brief by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Secular parties independent of governments are experiencing a deep crisis in most Arab countries. The decline affects liberal and socialist-oriented parties alike. While the crisis is real, continued decline is not inevitable: there still exist in the Arab world large potential constituencies that are disenchanted with incumbent regimes but not willing to commit to Islamist parties either.
An inside look at the misguided U.S. policy in Afghanistan in the wake of the defeat of the Taliban—a policy that severely undermined the effort to build democracy and allowed corrupt tribal warlords back into positions of power and the Taliban to re-infiltrate the country.
The decision by the United Nations Security Council to establish a Special Tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of Rafiq Hariri and others under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter has dramatically raised tensions in Lebanon.
On June 25, Carnegie senior associate Nathan Brown presented his commentary "The Peace Process Has No Clothes: The Decay of the Palestinian Authority and the International Response." Daniel Levy of the New American Foundation served as discussant and Marina Ottaway moderated.
On June 23, 2007, the Carnegie Middle East Center and Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies held a workshop on the challenge of economic reform in Egypt. The presenters were Othman Mohamed Othman, Minister of Economic Development, Sufyan Alissa, Carnegie Endowment Middle East Center Associate, Ragui Assaad, Population Council, and Sherine El Shawarby, World Bank.
On June 19, the Carnegie Middle East Center hosted an in-house discussion with Timur Goksel, former senior advisor of UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon), on the challenges and opportunities facing the current UNIFIL II mission. The event was attended by a number of scholars and commentators as well as CMEC staff. The talk was moderated by CMEC director Paul Salem.
The Carnegie Middle East Center hosted a seminar entitled “Algeria: Elections, Religious Extremism and Reform.” The seminar featured a presentation by Dr. Rachid Tlemcani, Visiting Scholar at Carnegie’s Middle East Center, and a commentary by Dr. Myriam Catusse of the French Institute for Middle Eastern Studies in Beirut. The panel was moderated by CMEC director, Paul Salem.