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| Dimensions: 8.5'' x 11'' |
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| 124 pages |
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AEI Press
(Washington)
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| Publication Date: February 2008 |
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| Paperback |
| ISBN: 000-0-0000-0000-0 |
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View the full text of Dissent and Reform in the Arab World as an Adobe Acrobat PDF.
To order a free hard copy of this report, email your mailing address to laura.harbold@aei.org.
The Arab world suffers from a debilitating democracy deficit. The region's ruling governments' antipathy for pluralism, political dissent, and free speech have helped to incubate extremism by denying outlets for peaceful expression to all but a privileged few.
In U.S. policy circles, even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, conventional wisdom remained that partnerships with illiberal Arab governments, no matter how unsavory, would best serve U.S. national security. Following September 11, 2001, however, most U.S. policymakers concluded that promoting democracy was not only the best antidote for the region's woes, but also Washington's best safeguard against future attacks.
No sooner had this tectonic shift in U.S. foreign policy occurred, however, than questions about its viability and wisdom arose. Do democrats exist in the Arab world? Are Arab societies fit for democratic self-government? Will Islamist extremism wrongly benefit from popular participation?
To try the efficacy of pro-democracy policies in the Arab world, the American Enterprise Institute initiated the "Dissent and Reform in the Arab World" project. Directed by Danielle Pletka, vice president of foreign and defense policy studies, and Michael Rubin, resident scholar, the project commissioned essays from Arab reformers and activists who championed the causes of liberal democracy long before such calls ever reverberated in Western capitals. Together, these authentic voices dispel the fiction that the Arab world is infertile ground for democracy.
Danielle Pletka is vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at AEI.
Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at AEI.
Jeffrey Azarva is a research assistant at AEI.
Table of Contents
Introduction, Jeffrey Azarva, Danielle Pletka, and Michael Rubin
Part I: Essays by Program Participants
1. Bahrain
Challenging Government Control of Media, Okmran Salman
2. Egypt
Challenges to Democratization, Ayat M. Abul-Fattouh
3. Iraq
Pluralism--Its Wealth and Its Misery, Haider Saeed
The Development of Shi'ite Islamic Political Theory, Sama Hadad
4. Jordan
Building a Political Will, Jamil al-Nimri
The Challenge of Progress, Emad Omar
5. Lebanon
Together: Equal but Different, Jad al-Akhaoui
Hezbollah and the Problem of State Control, Lokman Slim
A Country to Be Born, Najat Sharafeddine
6. Libya
Has Rapprochement Worked?, Mohamed Eljahmi
7. Syria
Mobilizing the Opposition, Ammar Abdulhamid
8. Yemen
A Country on the Brink, Ali Saif Hassan
9. Tunisia
Tunisia's Election Was Undemocratic at All Levels, Neila Charchour Hachicha
Part II: Voices from the Region: A Collection of Editorials from the Arab Press Calling for Reform
10. In Tunisia, the Sound of Enforced Silence, Neila Charchour Hachicha
11. The Failure of the Intellectual and Cultural System, Sherif Kamal
12. The Necessity of Political Reform, Ibrahim Abdul Majid Saleh
13. On the Brief "Damascus Spring," Shaaban Aboud
14. Let's Make the New World, Naguib Mahfouz
15. Iraq and the Challenges of Change, Amr Ziab al-Tamimi
16. A New Call for Self-Criticism, Borhan Ghalion
17. Kuwaitis' Seriousness in Reform, Eid al-Dowaihies
18. Political Reform Is the Road to All Reform, Said al-Gamal
19. A Framework for Political and Social Reform in Syria, Yassin al-Haj Saleh
