"A Forward Strategy for Democracy Promotion in 2008 and Beyond: Regaining the Momentum"
4pm, 21st January 2008 - Committee Room 16, House of Commons
Carl Gershman, President, National Endowment for Democracy, Washington DC, USA
To attend, please RSVP to alan.mendoza@henryjacksonsociety.org.
'Democracy Promotion' is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the political and international relations world today. Frequently confused as consisting simply of military intervention in foreign countries, the reality is more prosaic, centred around the creation of civil societies where they do not exist and the strengthening of democratic institutions around the world. The central belief being that freedom is a universal human aspiration that can be realised through the development of democratic institutions, procedures, and values. But after two decades of upheaval following the collapse of Communism and its sphere of influence, and with more recent democratic transformations in the Middle East and Africa not running according to plan, what should the democracy promotion agenda consist of today? And how important should it be for Western foreign and overseas development policy?
By kind invitation of Bruce George MP, the Henry Jackson Society and Westminster Foundation for Democracy are delighted to welcome Carl Gershman, President of the National Endowment of Democracy, Washington DC - the USA's leading democracy promotion organisation, established by Congress in 1983 as a grant-making body to fund democracy programmes overseas - to answer this question and explain why democracy promotion should remain a central focus of our overseas efforts.
DATE: Monday 21st January 2008
TIME: 4pm
VENUE: Committee Room 16, House of Commons, London
To attend, please RSVP to alan.mendoza@henryjacksonsociety.org
Carl Gershman is President of the National Endowment for Democracy, a private, congressionally supported grant-making institution with the mission to strengthen democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts. In addition to presiding over the Endowment's grants program in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and Latin America, he has overseen the creation of the quarterly Journal of Democracy, International Forum for Democratic Studies, and the Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program. He also took the lead in launching in New Delhi in 1999 the World Movement for Democracy, which is a global network of democracy practitioners and scholars. Mr. Gershman is currently encouraging other democracies to establish their own foundations devoted to the promotion of democratic institutions in the world.
Prior to assuming the position with the Endowment, Mr. Gershman was Senior Counselor to the United States Representative to the United Nations, in which capacity he served as the U.S. Representative to the U.N.'s Third Committee that deals with human rights issues, and also as Alternate Representative of the U.S. to the U.N. Security Council. Prior to his assignment at the United States Mission to the United Nations, Mr. Gershman was a Resident Scholar at Freedom House and Executive Director of Social Democrats, USA.
Mr. Gershman has lectured extensively and written articles and reviews on foreign policy issues for such publications as: Commentary, The New Leader, The New Republic, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times Magazine, Democratization, The Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Washington Quarterly, and the Journal of Democracy.