Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

Democracy ‘normalizes’ Islamists?

The report’s authors stress that such shifts are not an inevitable result of democratization. Critical variables encouraging ‘normalisation’ of Islamist parties include the existence of strong competition from other parties or movements; the legitimacy of countervailing forces or institutions; and the adoption of genuinely participatory, non-violent strategies. ..

Promoting democracy, not regime change

Elections do little to enhance democratic development if state institutions are ineffective or unresponsive, argues Rep. David Price (D-NC) in a forthcoming issue of The Washington Quarterly. The new administration should sustain the U.S. commitment to democracy promotion, despite recent setbacks and mistakes. Price draws several lessons for promoting democracy, drawing on the House Democracy Assistance Commission’s work in strengthening partner legislatures in Afghanistan, Indonesia, ..

Democratic advantage in multipolar world

Suggestions that the incoming U.S. administration might abandon a Freedom Agenda that “overpromised and underperformed” may be unnecessarily alarmist. But the Washington Post cautions that while welcoming more humility, caution and realism in foreign policy, “abandoning the promotion and support of democracy as core American goals would be a terrible mistake.”..

New Canadian democracy assistance agency on the way

Canada’s new government is formally committed to establishing a “new, non-partisan democracy promotion agency.” Yesterday’s ‘throne speech’ outlining official policy said the initiative would “support the peaceful transition to democracy in repressive countries and help emerging democracies build strong institutions.”..

Civilian capacity vital to managing global insecurity

The most critical challenges facing the world - from climate change and nuclear proliferation to infectious diseases and terrorism - are transnational in nature, demanding a transnational response. New approaches to global governance require the exercise of ‘responsible sovereignty’, argues Carlos Pascual, foreign policy director at the Brookings Institution...

Authoritarian temptation emerges in the new geopolitics, claims U.S. intelligence report

The emergence of a non-democratic model of development could have an appeal to states in the Middle East, a senior U.S. intelligence official suggested yesterday. China and, to some extent, Russia, arguably represent an alternative to liberal democratic market economies, National Intelligence Council chairman Thomas Fingar told a meeting at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy...

Should liberals promote liberal democracy?

The new U.S Administration will inherit an intimidating array of foreign policy challenges, not least the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the threat of a nuclear Iran, a stagnant Middle East peace process, and addressing Russia’s resurgent authoritarianism. As in every other administration, there are likely to be internal differences on strategy and policy..

Freedom House report highlights authoritarian offensive

The “color revolutions” ushered in democratic transitions, but also prompted a pronounced backlash against freedom of association worldwide, according to a new report from Freedom House. Governments are taking calculated action to restrict nongovernmental organizations, human rights groups and independent trade unions, notes Freedom of Association Under Threat: The New Authoritarians’ Offensive Against Civil Society...

‘Seismic’ economic shifts challenging democracy assistance

The Economist Intelligence Unit recently highlighted the possibility of the global financial crisis undermining democracy and democracy assistance..

Supporting Arab democrats - for sustainable security

While the “tyranny of other priorities“, including Iraq and Afghanistan, will provide more pressing foreign policy challenges for the new U.S. administration, the issue of Arab democracy is unlikely to fade away. The latest reminder of the region’s acute democratic deficit came with this week’s “constitutional coup” in Algeria that saw parliament rubber-stamp constitutional amendments that abolish presidential term limits, ensuring President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s passage to a third te..

Reviving democratic internationalism?

Some analysts, drawing on fformer U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower advice - “If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it” - advocate a Global Grand Bargain covering several dimension of foreign policy. On development, for example, they suggest that the U.S. could expect poor countries to make a stronger commitment to a more democratic agenda and human rights emergencies in exchange for a more forceful U.S. commitment to the Millennium Development Goals, and more funding for food, ener..

Obama’s freedom agenda?

Barack Obama’s new Administration should adopt a more modest approach to promoting democracy, one that realizes that nurturing democratic institutions is an “extremely long-term process that, ultimately, is the responsibility of the peoples and leaders of the countries that it’s attempting to assist.”..

Egypt: ‘clinically dead’ regime fumbles reform, harasses cyber-activists

Egypt’s ruling National Democratic Party concluded its annual conference today with most commentators agreeing that it had failed to meet the meeting’s declared purpose of offering ‘New Thoughts for Egypt’s Future’...

What Arab democrats want is…

What do Arab democrats want from the next U.S. President? The next Administration should address Arab youth’s demographic predominance, support local democrats’ home-grown efforts, and tailor country-specific democratization efforts to reflect the region’s diversity and ensure that democracy delivers socio-economic benefits in ordinary people’s lives...

Funding GONGOs against democracy

One of the characteristics of the anti-democracy backlash is that while some states are openly repressive towards independent NGOs, others maintain a more ambiguous position, allowing civil society groups to operate under restrictions and the threat of arbitrary interference or dissolution. Regimes are also being more proactive, forming tame, government-organized NGOs or GONGOs...

Democracy assistance - what works?

Academic analyst Arthur Goldsmith questions some of the premises of “undifferentiated democracy promotion”, highlighting the security risks of partial democracies and the limitations of external actors as agents of change. Rather than making the world safe for partial democracy, he argues, democracy assistance should be customized to suit countries’ particular circumstances:..

Economic crisis could turn democracy’s stagnation into retreat, report warns

Democracy’s forward march has halted, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index 2008. The third wave of democratization has given way to stagnation and regression. The EIU cautions that if the global financial crisis generates a protracted recession, “the recent halt in democratization could turn into a retreat”, as fragile non-consolidated democracies deteriorate...

Demanding Arab democracy

The demand for democracy in the greater Middle East may currently be weak. But, notes analyst Mark Katz, “If and when the demand for democratization does grow in the Middle East, American support will also be crucial for transforming it into actual democracy.”..

Syrian democracy activists face 15 years in prison

Twelve Syrian democracy activists are currently facing up to 15 years in prison for demanding democratic reform and human rights. The activists have been detained since December 2007 and January 2008..

Arab democracy needs ‘Islamist revision’

Muslim societies typically divide into three broad blocs, suggests Bret Stephens: a “pre-modern” element of tribesmen, peasants, nomads, and the like; a “modern” element - the Arab Center - the urban, educated middle-class; and an “anti-modern” elements, comprising Islamists but also members of Baathist and other fascistic groups. ..