Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
On March 29, 2007, Rachid Tlemcani, visiting scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center, argued that since the civil war of the 1990s, violence in Algeria has decreased and the economic and political situations are stabilizing. Daniel Brumberg, professor of government at Georgetown, served as discussant and Marina Ottaway, Carnegie Endowment, moderated.
In recent years African leaders have spoken out against corruption and injustice across the continent, in many cases with real effect. But when it comes to one of the region's most brutal dictatorships – Zimbabwe – this new Africa is nowhere to be found.
Facing an urgent need to defuse crises in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine, the United States is now focusing primarily on Arab states' foreign policy behavior and relegating democracy promotion to the background. But despite the risks of encouraging political change in an already chaotic region, abandoning Middle East democracy as a strategic goal would be a tragic and unnecessary mistake.
On March 7, 2007, the Carnegie Endowment hosted a talk “Changing Orientations of the Military and Problems of Governance in Pakistan” by Hasan-Askari Rizvi from the School of Advanced International Studies at The John Hopkins University.
As the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq enters its fifth year, conflicts and political rivalries in the region appear to be assuming a sectarian edge unseen since the Iraq-Iran war. This time round, though, a new element is in play. It has to do with what is perceived as the growing role being played by Arab Shia who many see is making a radical break with a long tradition of political inactivity.
On February 28, 2007, Carnegie hosted Ahmed Hashim and Judth Yaphe for a discussion on the nature of the insurgency in Iraq.