Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy (CSID)
March 24, 2012
Dear Friends and Colleagues: 
 
Please SAVE THE DATE for the CSID 13th Annual Conference.  It will be an event not to be missed and we look forward to seeing you there!
 
The Arab Spring:  Getting It Right

 

CSID 13th Annual Conference

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Crystal Gateway Marriott 

1700 Jefferson Davis Highway

Arlington, Virginia 22202 USA




The Middle East is not the only thing being rocked by the "Arab Spring."  So are preconceptions about Arab and Muslim-majority countries in general.  For years, political analysts accounted for the lack of representative governance in many Arab and Muslim countries with alleged incompatibilities between Islam and democracy, and affinities between Arabs and authoritarianism.  Time and events are proving them wrong....



Main themes of the conference:
  • Analyses and corrections of misperceptions about Arab and Muslim notions of governance, freedoms, and democracy;
  • Unique challenges faced by specific countries;
  • Specific challenges faced by multiple countries, such as economic development, developing mechanisms of democratic governance, developing notions of citizenship and citizenship, foreign policy, regional alignment; and other aspects of the Arab Spring.
  • Challenges facing governments in transition
  • The role of the international community in supporting democratic transitions;
  • Promoting human rights and transitional justice;
  • The role of women and youth in democratic transitions.  

Confirmed Speakers and Panelists:

  • H. E.  Mohamed Saleh Tekaya, Tunisian Ambassador to the United States
  • Congressman Keith Ellison, U.S. Representative from Minnesota's 5th Distrtict
  • Carl Gershman, President, National Endowment for Democracy
  • John Obert Voll, Georgetown University
  • Radwan Ziadeh, Director of Foreign Relations, Syrian National Council; Visiting Scholar, Carr Center for Human Rights, Harvard University
  •  Marc Lynch
  • Caryle Murphy
  • Tamara Sonn
  • Asma Afsaruddin
  • Tony Sullivan
  • Radwan Masmoudi
  • Daniel Brumberg 
  • Shadi Mokhtari
  • Elizabeth Shakman Hurd
  • Jocelyne Cesari
  • Brian J. Grim
  • Anwar N. Haddam
  • David Warren  
  • Jon Kurtz  
  • Daniel Serwer
  • Khalil al-Anani
  • ... and many others....  

 

Invited Speakers and Panelists (not confirmed yet):  

  • Secretary Hillary Clinton
  • Former President Bill Clinton
  • Senator John Kerry 
  • Rached Ghannouchi - President of the Nahdha Party
  • H. E. Saadeddine Othmani, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Morocco
  • H. E. Rafik Abdessalem - Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tunisia   
  • Najib Ghadhbian
  • ... and many, many others....     


More details about the program, the speakers, and online registration for the conference will be announced by March 31
.

We look forward to seeing you in Washington DC, on Thursday, May 3, 2012.

For more information, please contact:

Tamara Sonn,
Conference Program Committee Chair
[email protected]

Brahim Rouabah,
Conference Logistics Committee Chair