DEMOCRACY, PEACE AND WAR
AP Photo
November 17, 2008
"Real Conflicts and Imaginary Ideologies"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
"We must sort out the real causes of conflict from the manufactured stresses and imagined threats of the many ideological warriors on both sides who still plague and hamper us all."
AP Photo
November 10, 2008
"Joy in America"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
"George W. Bush and his band of zealots used the anger-based emotional high after 9/11 to simultaneously misdiagnose themselves, their enemies, their friends and their place in the world. Consequently, they pursued catastrophic domestic and foreign policies. Obama must beware such pitfalls. He and his senior officials must understand more accurately how the United States and the world actually interact, in good times or bad, in order to forge policies based on credible analyses that are free of self-congratulatory emotionalism or pride."
November 2008
Partnership for Progress
Report
By Xenia Dormandy, Senior Associate, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Hassan Abbas, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program
The Belfer Center's Xenia Dormandy and Hassan Abbas participated in a working group on the state of Pakistan convened by the Center for American Progress. The resulting report proposes strategies for enhanced security, democratization, and economic growth.
Martha Stewart
October 30, 2008
Brent Scowcroft Addresses International Issues Facing the Next President
News
Former national security advisor Brent Scowcroft called on the next president to engage in civilized dialogue on foreign policy during a Forum address Wednesday evening (Oct. 29) at Harvard Kennedy School.
AP
October 29, 2008
"Six for Six"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
"Somalia seems to offer more intriguing evidence about how governments often must come to terms with militias, insurgent forces and other such informal armed groups in countries around the Arab-Asian region -- and the roles these entities play where formal governments appears unable to deliver the basic requirements of statehood."
October 13, 2008
"The Simplistic Allure of Militarism"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
Among the problems the senior American military and intelligence leaders acknowledge these days in Afghanistan are a robust and expanding heroin trade, the limited impact of the central government in Kabul, a steady stream of militants from next door Pakistan where they enjoy safe havens and popular support, and a weak economy.
AP Photo
October 6, 2008
"Demeaning Democracy"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
As the consequences and costs of the Iraq war, the global war on terror, and the economic mismanagement unfold, so does the 2008 US presidential election. Now, even the latter appears to disgrace the once admired ideal of America's democracy in the eyes of the world.
AP Photo
September 24, 2008
"Tzipi Livni"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
"Her challenge is very similar to the one that her father faced in 1938 when he joined the Irgun underground in Palestine: How to safeguard a Zionist homeland and state for Jews, in a land that had been majority owned and populated by Palestinian Arabs?"
Fall 2008
"Making the World Safe for Partial Democracy? Questioning the Premises of Democracy Promotion"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 2, volume 33
By Arthur Goldsmith, Former Senior Research Fellow, Intrastate Conflict Program/International Security Program, 2004-2005
Democracy promotion is a favored strategy to advance the cause of world peace, especially in the Greater Middle East, but undifferentiated democracy promotion has two faulty premises. First, all progress toward the establishment of democratic regimes does not necessarily make the global community safer. Second, regime change is not something external actors have the capacity to direct along desired pathways. The first assumption fails to consider the well-documented security problems caused by partial democracies. The second assumption overstates the ability of powerful outsiders to induce transitions to full democracy. These research findings are grounds for cautious and selective democracy promotion, not a blanket approach that is indifferent to the composition of the regimes designated to be reformed and democratized.
Eva Serraberra
September 15, 2008
"The Tragic Failure of Arab Moderates"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
"It is worthwhile viewing George W. Bush's presidency from a different perspective than America's performance abroad, for example by reviewing the efforts and fate of those around the world who partnered with Washington..."
