September 19th, 2008 by Jason

This afternoon, the International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy hosted a presentation on ways in which the U.S. can encourage democracy in the Arab world. The panel featured Atef Al-Saadawy, Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at NED; Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution; and Michele Dunne, Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Atef noted that a main cause of stagnation in MENA is the monopoly of political power by the ruling elite and the repression of all opposition. He said the U.S. must continue to support the clear indigenous demand for democratic change, and called for political and economic pressure to be used as a basic tool to encourage political reform.

Larry Diamond said our priority must be to press for the expansion of the political landscape to allow opposition parties the chance to grow constituencies.  Michele Dunne suggested the U.S. would have more success if it applied pressure in private, and noted that if our assistance capacity is frustrated by repressive governmental policies toward NGOs, our aid programs will be useless.

For full POMED notes on this event, click here.

Posted in DC Event Notes, Democracy Promotion, Foreign Aid, Human Rights, US foreign policy |