The Future of Democracy Initiative Events

The Future of Democracy Initiative hosts a series of lectures, conferences, and symposia to highlight the state of democracy worldwide and the challenges of democratization. This initiative brings together GW's faculty expertise on these issues along with leading scholars, analysts, and policymakers. The culminating project of this initiative will be a scholarly book about the future of democracy.

Globalization and Democracy: Lessons from India and Malaysia
April 23, 2009

• K.S. Jomo, Assistant Secretary General for Economic Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations
• Kaushik Basu, C. Marks Professor of International Studies and Economics, Cornell University
  
• Bridget Welsh, Associate Professor of Southeast Asian Studies, the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
  
  Moderator:
  
• Shawn McHale, Director, Sigur Center for Asian Studies; Associate Professor of History and International Affairs, GW
  

Best Practices and Principles for Democratic Regulation of Community Radio and Television in Latin America
October 29, 2008

• Eduardo Bertoni, Due Process of Law Foundation
• Aleida Calleja, World Association of Community Radio
  
• Damián Loreti, Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales; Universidad de Buenos Aires
  
• Darian Pavil, Open Society Institute
  

Fateful Eights in Czech History: Historical Anniversaries of 2008 and their Significance for the Czech Republic Today
October 24, 2008

Day 1 Panelists    Day 2 Panelists

A Time of Transition: U.S. Impact on Reform in a Changing Middle East
September 22, 2008

• Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Founder, Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, Cairo
• Marc Lynch, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, GWU
  
  Moderator:
  Andrew Albertson, Executive Director, Project on Middle East Democracy

The Russia-Georgia Conflict and the U.S.: How did we get here, and what leverage does the West have?
September 11, 2008

• James Goldgeier, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University; former Director of Russian Affairs, National Security Council
• Rod Hunter, Senior Fellow, The Hudson Institute; former Director of Trade, Energy, and the Environment, National Security Council
• John Mackedon, M.A. candidate in European and Eurasian Studies, George Washington University; former peace corps employee and journalist in Georgia
• Hope M. Harrison, Director of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, George Washington University, former Director for European and Eurasian Affairs, National Security Council
  
  Moderator:
  Michael Moore, Director of the Institue for International Economic Policy, Professor of Economics and International Affairs, George Washington University

Russia 2008: Domestic and Foreign Policy Trajectories
September 8, 2008

• Henry Hale, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University
• Ivan Kurilla, Assistant Professor of History and International Relations, Volgograd State University
• Evgenia Popova, Tomsk State University
• Dina Spechler, Associate Professor of Political Science, Indiana University
• Hope M. Harrison, Director of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, George Washington University

What have we learned about Islamist Political Movements?
May 12, 2008

• Marc Lynch, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University
• Amr Hamzawy, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• Janine Clark, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Guelph
• Joshua Stacher, Middle East Studies Fellow, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University
• Nathan Brown, Director of the Institute for Middle East Studies, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University

Printing Democracy: Taiwan's Tang-wai Opposition Journals
April 24, 2008

• Gerrit van der Wees, Senior Political Advisor, Formosan Association for Public Affairs and editor of Taiwan Communique
• Chou Ching-yu, Commission on Woman's Rights Promotion, Executive Yuan, former published of Care, Taiwan's foremost human rights magazine in the 1980s
• Antonio (Chun-nan) Chiang, Journalist, former chief editor of the Eighties and other tang-wai journals
• Fu-mei Chang, Minister, Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission (OCAC)

Top of Page

Defeating Dictators: Electoral Change and Stability in Competitive Authoritarian Regimes
April 9, 2008

• Valerie Bunce, Aaron Binenkorb Professor of International Studies and Government, Cornell University
• Sharon Wolchik, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, GW

Kuwait's Government in Crisis: Implications for Democracy
April 3 , 2008

• Edward W. Gnehm, Kuwait Professor of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Affairs and former US ambassador to Kuwait

The Elections in Iran
April 2, 2008

• Afshin Molavi, Fellow, New America Foundation; author of Persian Pilgrimages: Journeys Across Iran
• Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; author of Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic

The Taiwan Presidential Election: Domestic, Regional and International Implications
March 26, 2008

• Harry Harding, University Professor of International Affairs, GW
• Robert Sutter, Visiting Professor, Georgetown University & Adjunct Professor of International Affairs, GW
• Edward McCord, Associate Professor of History & International Affairs, GW
• Shelley Rigger, Brown Professor of East Asian Politics, Davidson College
• Hans Stockton, Associate Professor in the Center for International Studies, University of St. Thomas
• Kirk Larsen, Director, Sigur Center for Asian Studies and Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History and International Affairs, GW

Economic Reforms and Democracy in Nepal
February 27, 2008

• Prem Khanal, Chief, Business Bureau, The Kathmandu Post

The Challenges of Integrating Islam: Comparative Experiences of Europe and the Middle East
February 14, 2008

• Hope Harrison, Director of the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies; Professor of History and International Affairs, GW
• Merve Kavakci, Lecturer in International Affairs, GW
• Zeyno Baran, Director, Center for Eurasian Policy; Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute
• Nathan Brown, Director of the Institute for Middle East Studies; Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, GW
• Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen, Director, Danish-Egyptian Dialogue Institute
• Liesl Riddle, Assistant Professor of International Business and International Affaris, GW
• Jon Anerson, Professor of Anthropology, Catholic University
• Marc Lynch, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, GW
• John Bowen, Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis

Top of Page

Venezuela in the 21 st Century: Democratic Trajectories and Global Relations January 28, 2008

• Bernardo Álvarez Herrera, Ambassador of Venezuela to the United States
• Lowell Fleischer, Senior Associate, Center for Strategic and International Studies
• Daniel Hellinger, Professor of Political Science, Webster University
• Kristin Lord, Associate Dean, Elliott School of International Affairs
• Cynthia McClintock, Director of the Latin American and Hemispheric Studies Program, Elliott School of International Affairs
• Jennifer McCoy, Director, Americas Program at The Carter Center; Professor of Political Science, Georgia State University
• Teodoro Petkoff, Editor of Tal Cual, founder of the MAS party, and three-time presidential candidate
• Ana Maria Sanjuan, Director of the Center for Peace and Human Rights, Central University of Venezuela
• Michael Shifter, Vice President of Policy, Inter-American Dialogue; Adjunct Professor, Center for Latin American Studies, Georgetown University

Can Democracy Survive Globalization? Lessons From Taiwan
December 17, 2007

• Senator Bob Dole, former Senate Majority Leader

Corruption in Africa: the Path from Neopatrimonialism
November 8, 2007

• Nic Van de Walle, John S. Knight Professor of International Studies and Director of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, Cornell University; Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development

Democracy, Development and Nation Building
October 30, 2007

• Dr. Francis Fukuyama, Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy and Director of the International Development Program, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University

Explaining the Differences in Level of Democracy in Contemporary Latin America
October 29, 2007

• Scott Mainwaring, Professor, University of Notre Dame

Shaping Taiwan's Politics: Democracy, Identity & Security 20 Years After the Lift of Martial Law
September 27, 2007

• Jaushieh Joseph Wu, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office
• Richard Bush, Brookings Institute
• Kerry Dumbaugh, Congressional Research Service
• Vincent Wang, University of Richmond
• Harry Harding, Professor of International Affairs, GW

Democratization and Civil War
September 17, 2007

• Jack Snyder, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relations, Columbia University

Islamist Political Movements in the Arab World: Contentious and Electoral Politics
May 4, 2007

• Mustapha Khalfi, Former editor-in-chief, Al-Tajdid (Moroccan daily) and member, Justice and Development Party, Morocco
• Sanjay Ruparelia, Professor of Political Science, The New School
• Baber Johansen, Director, Islamic Legal Studies Program, Harvard University
• Mark Lichbach, Chair of Government and Politics, University of Maryland
• Nathan Brown, Director of the Middle East Studies Program at the Elliott School of International Affairs

Top of Page

A Symposium on Democracy Promotion in Africa
April 24, 2007

• Jim Swann, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, US Department of State
• Joel Barkan, Professor Emeritus, University of Iowa
  Ambassador George Moose, Adjunct Professor of International Affairs, The Elliott School of International Affairs
• Penda Mbow, Professor of History, Univeristy of Dakar
• Bernadeta Killian, Senior Lecturer, University of Dar es Salaam and Visiting Fellow, National Endowment for Democracy
• Gina Lambright, Assistant Professor of Political Science, GW

Corruption and Democracy
April 16, 2007

• Mark Warren, Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia
• Susan Rose-Ackerman, Henry R. Luce Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale Law School
• Daniel Kaufmann, Director Global Programs and Governance, World Bank Institute

Democracy in Latin America: The Recent Wave
April 13, 2007

• Cynthia McClintock, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, The Elliott School of International Affairs
• Cynthia Arnson, Director, Latin American Program, Woodrow Wilson Center
  Kevin Healy, Adjunct Professor of International Affairs, The Elliott School of International Affairs

Botswana: How Does Their Democracy Work, and What is the Rest of Africa Waiting For?
April 11, 2007

• His Excellency Lapologang Caesar Lekoa, Ambassador of the Republic of Botswana to the US

Making Democracy Stick: Lessons from Mature, Emerging and Transitional Democracies in Asia
April 11, 2007

• Kirk Larsen, Director of the International Affairs Undergraduate Program, and the Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History and International Affairs, The Elliott School of International Affairs
• Emmanuel Teitelbaum, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, The Elliott School of International Affairs
• Marvin Weinbaum, Visiting Professor, The Elliott School of International Affairs

Comparing India and China: Market-Friendly Federalism and Democracy Links
April 5, 2007

• Aseema Sinha, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin at Madison
• Jaiwen Yang, Professor of International Business and International Affairs, GW

A Dialogue on the Future of Democracy
April 4, 2007

• Barry Lowenkron, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, U.S. Department of State
• Ken Wollack, President, National Democratic Institute
• Michael E. Brown, Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs

Top of Page

Is Democracy In Peril? A Global and Regional Assessment
March 29, 2007

• Kristin Lord, Associate Dean, The Elliott School of International Affairs
• Thomas Melia, Deputy Executive Director, Freedom House
• Nathan Brown, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, The Elliott School of International Affairs
• Henry Hale, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, The Elliott School of International Affairs
• Cynthia McClintock, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, The Elliott School of International Affairs
• Gina Lambright , Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, The Elliott School of International Affairs
• Thomas Carothers , Vice President for Studies - International Politics and Government, Carnegie Endowment for Peace

The 11th Annual Gaston Sigur Memorial Lecture: The Korea Triangle: The Two Koreas between China and the United States
March 28, 2007

• Han Sung-Joo, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea

Tailoring the Truth: East German Memory Culture and the Role of Historical Consciousness in a State-Socialist Society
March 28, 2007

• Jon Berndt Olsen, Post-doctoral fellow in the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University

Bringing the World to Egypt: Volunteerism – Approaches, Personal Experiences, & Global Impacts
March 26, 2007

Participating Organizations

• Coptic Orphans
• Mission Life Center
• HANDS Along the Nile

Current Challenges and Opportunities in Advancing Israeli-Palestinian Peace
March 26, 2007

• Lara Friedman, Director of Policy and Government Relations for Americans for Peace Now
• David Makovsky, Director of The Washington Institute's Project on the Middle East Peace Process
• Rafi Dajani, Executive director of the American Task Force on Palestine

Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell
March 22, 2007

• Karen DeYoung, Associate Editor, The Washington Post

Experiences from the Top of Europe: The Northern Countries of the European Union
March, 22, 2007

• Eva-Maria Liimets, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Estonian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
• Anne Lammila, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Finnish Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Ukraine: Political Crises or Normal Politics?
March 21, 2007

• Taras Kuzio, Assistant Professorial Lecturer at the Elliott School of International Affairs

Arms Exports as a Tool of Russian Foreign Policy
March 21, 2007

• Lajos Szaszdi, Independent Scholar

Election Monitoring: A Case Study in Democracy and Development
March 20, 2007

• Eric Bjornlund, Author of Beyond Free and Fair

Regime Change: U.S. Strategy through the Prism of 9/11
March 19, 2007

• Robert Litwak, Director of International Security Studies, The Woodrow Wilson Center

The US-UN Relationship: A Golden Opportunity
March 7, 2007

• The Honorable Timothy E. Wirth, President of The United Nations Foundation

Parapolitics and Human Rights in Colombia: An Evening with Senator Gustavo Petro and Carlos Rodriguez Mejia
March 6, 2007

• Senator Gustavo Petro, Congress of Columbia
• Carlos Rodriguez Mejia, Deputy Director of the Colombian Commission of Jurists

Toward a Harmonious World: New Developments in China's Foreign Policy
March 5, 2007

• Qin Yaqing, Executive Vice President and Professor of International Studies at the China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU), Vice-president of the China National Association for International Studies, and Executive Deputy Director and Secretary-general of the East Asian Studies Center at CFAU

Indigenous Movements in the Andes: In Search of Roots and Ruptures.

A Brown Bag Lecture with Andean historian Brooke Larson
March 1, 2007

• Brook Larson, Professor, Stony Brook State University of New York
• Erick D. Langer, Professor, Georgetown University

Getting Transatlantic Cooperation on Climate Change: Germany's Agenda for the G-8
March 1, 2007

• Thomas Bagger, Deputy Head of Political Affairs at the German Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Dialogue With Iran?
March 1, 2007

• Geoffrey Kemp, Director of Regional Strategic Programs, The Nixon Center

The Globalization of Democracy: Boom, Recession and Renewal
February 26, 2007

• Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Top of Page