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August/September 2004
Vol. X, No. 3
Senior Fellow Projects
The 2003–2004 class of senior fellows have completed their residencies at the Institute and presented the results of their research in various publications and public events. The fellows, whose projects spanned the world—from the crisis in education in the Muslim world to the politics of memory and forgetting in Sierra Leone to the challenges to stability and peace in Kashmir—introduced a wealth of new insights and perspectives to bear on some of the most vexing issues facing the U.S. foreign policy community and generated considerable media attention. The Institute's two visiting Iraqi experts, Faleh Jabar and Amatzia Baram, were in near-constant demand as commentators for television and print journalists, while Gabriel Weimann's research on terrorist usage of the Internet has been featured prominently in the Los Angeles Times, ABC News, the BBC, NPR's Talk of the Nation, CNN's Wolf Blitzer Reports, and The New Yorker.
A few highlights from the senior fellow reports: Amatzia Baram focused on the various ways Saddam Hussein attempted to co-opt the Shia and Sunni communities during his decades of dictatorship and warned about the destabilizing potential of the "Sunni Triangle," whose inhabitants, he said, are "furious, frightened, and alienated, a combination that provides a fertile soil for extremism." Mamoun Fandy argued that while too many educational systems in the Muslim world promote a "jihadist" ideology, the United States had relatively little capacity to help reform these systems: "It would take only one demagogue to accuse America of wanting to undermine Islam for the whole project to collapse." Faleh Jabar examined the formative influences in the development of the modern Iraqi state and proposed a host of recommendations for managing the social and institutional forces that Iraq's newfound freedom has unleashed.
Rosalind Shaw critiqued the universalist human rights model of truth commissions, arguing that—in Sierra Leone's case, at least—they fail to take into account local modes of healing and reconciliation. Jill Shankleman examined standards of corporate social responsibility in the oil industry and argued that the largest firms are beginning to do their best to avoid catalyzing or exacerbating violent conflict. Yo'av Karny proposed that renascent independence movements in small countries, such as the Palestinians, the Chechens, and the East Timorese, should switch to nonviolent forms of protest as the most effective means of achieving their goals. Wajahat Habibullah, who has worked in many senior positions in the Indian government, argued that the way forward on the Kashmir problem is to focus on economic development and political reform; were such to occur, he argued, much of the tension that makes Kashmir such a potential flash point would dissipate.
Horacio Boneo untangled the history of monitoring elections from the 1980s on and discussed how such intuitively appealing notions as "free and fair" elections have come to be defined and standardized. Ceslav Ciobanu examined "Frozen and Forgotten Conflicts in Post-Soviet States," and explained how the enlargement of NATO and the EU to include former Soviet republics and Soviet Bloc countries has created new opportunities to manage conflicts within these states and to build security and stability among the states of the Black Sea, South Caucasus, and Caspian Sea regions. Albert Cevallos focused on "Nonviolent Revolution and the Transition to Democracy in Serbia."
Although the fellows have left the Institute, many continue to work on special reports and books that the Institute hopes to publish in the near future. In the meantime, the 2004–2005 class of fellows has been selected and will be arriving at the Institute in October:
Dr. Zachary Abuza
Department of Political Science, Simmons College
"The Future of the MILF: Internal Dynamics and the Implications for
Terrorism and Security in Southeast Asia"
In Residence: January-September 2005
Commander
George Adams
Chaplain Corps, United States Navy
Project To Be Announced
In Residence: October 2004-July 2005
Professor
Benedicto Bacani
Dean, College of Law, Notre Dame University, Philippines
"Autonomy and Peace: Lessons from Southern Philippines"
In Residence: October 2004-July 2005
Ms. Betty
Bigombe
Senior Consultant, World Bank
"Child Soldiers: Preventing Recruitment and Facilitating Demobilization
and Reintegration"
In Residence: October 2004-July 2005
Professor
Daniel Chirot
Professor of Sociology, University of Washington
"The Muslim/Christian Divide in West Africa: Can a Religious War Be
Prevented?"
In Residence: October 2004-July 2005
Mr. Touqir
Hussain
Ambassador (retired), Pakistan
"Re-engagement with Pakistan: Issues for U.S. Foreign Policy"
In Residence: October 2004-July 2005
Professor
Melvyn Leffler
Edward R. Stettinius Professor of History, University of Virginia
"Why the Cold War Lasted as Long as It Did"
In Residence: September-December 2004; July-December
2005
Professor
Moshe Ma'oz
Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Hebrew University of
Jerusalem
"Washington vs. Damascus: Quo Vadis?"
In Residence: October 2004-July 2005
Dr. Phebe
Marr
Research Professor (retired), National Defense University
"Envisioning Iraq's Future: Developing an Alternative View"
In Residence: October 2004-July 2005
Mr. Anthony
Regan
Fellow, Australian National University
"Sustainable Conflict Resolution and Post-Agreement Peace-Building in
an Apparently Intractable Conflict -- Lessons from the Bougainville
(Papua New Guinea) Peace Process"
In Residence: December 2004-September 2005
Colonel Michael
K. Seidl
United States Army
"Provincial Reconstruction Teams: A Strategy for Stability in Afghanistan"
In Residence: August 2004-May 2005
Dr. Jacob
Shamir
Senior Lecturer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
"Public Opinion in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict"
In Residence: October 2004-July 2005
Mr. Donald
Steinberg
Director, Joint Policy Council, Department of State
"Internally Displaced Persons: Caring for the Stepchildren of Conflict"
In Residence: December 2004-September 2005
Mr. Praveen
Swami
Special Correspondent, Frontline Magazine, India
"Islam, Ethnicity and Nationalism: A History of Terrorism in Jammu and
Kashmir"
In Residence: October 2004-July 2005
Other Institute Resources:
