KAS International 2/2011
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NuMbER 2 | July 2011 KAS INTERNATIONAl NEWS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF eUrOPeAn AnD internAtiOnAL COOPerAtiOn TAblE OF CONTENTS n Page 2 Editorial n Page 3 Focus n Page 5 POlITICAl ECONOMIC MEDIA DIAlOGuE ON VAl- European Policy DIAlOGuE AND SOCIAl The KAS kick-off event uES AND RElIGION n Page 6 German Chancellor GOVERNANCE for "E-lection Bridge The KAS office in Media Angela Merkel met in The KAS organised Africa" took place in Ramallah supported n Page 8 Berlin with the Chilean an international con- the presence of CDU the 5th annual Wasatia Rule of law Christian Democrat ference on the G20 general manager, conference, titled n Page 10 Ignacio Walker and process in Seoul at Dr. Klaus Schüler. "Moderation, Charity, KAS Panorama KAS chairman, Dr. the end of May. Volunteer Work: That’s n Page 12 Hans-Gert Pöttering. What Islam Stands For." Economic and Social Governance n Page 14 Political Dialogue n Page 16 Democracy and Development n Page 17 Dialogue on KAS ObServeS ChAngeS in Values and Religion n Page 18 nOrth AfriCA Environment, Climate and Energy following his trip to Cairo at the beginning n Page 19 of March 2011, the chairman of the Konrad- News from the Adenauer-Stiftung, Dr. hans-gert Pöttering, Department of European and travelled to tunis for talks from 23 to International Cooperation 26 March. n Page 20 Newly Published He met in the capital with interim president, Fouad Mebazaâ, as well as Prime Minister béji Caïd Essebsi, Foreign Minister Mouldi Kéfi (on the right, speaking with Pöttering) and the pres- ident of the Commission for Political Reforms, yadh ben Achour. "We express our solidarity with the Tunisian people," Pöttering said after his meeting with the president. In his talks, he A further high point of the trip was his partici- stressed the importance of the Tunisian revolu- pation in an international conference on "Political tion for the entire Arab world and the future of Change in Tunisia and the Effects on the Mediter- Euro-Mediterranean relations. He offered the ranean Region," which the Konrad-Adenauer- support of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in the Stiftung co-organised with the Centre for Mediter- reform process and help in guiding the political ranean and International Studies(CEMI). process. Continued on page 3 2 | KAS INTERNATIONAl 2/2011 n eDitOriAL DeAr reADer, Since January of this year, events have occurred in North Africa and PublICATION the Middle East that hardly anyone ever thought possible. Presidents INFORMATION were ousted; the younger generation rose up; the legitimacy of the ruling class – which had mostly been built upon strong internal securi- Publisher Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V. ty and party structures – was called into question. The turmoil, which European and International began with Tunisian President Zine el Abidine ben Ali fleeing to Saudi Cooperation Arabia on 14 January 2011, has since changed the face of the entire Klingelhöferstraße 23 10907 Berlin Arab world. The demonstrations and protests in Arab countries are Germany directed at governments who – in the eyes of their people – can no longer adequately deal with and solve economic, social and most of all political problems. but editor in Chief Dr. Gerhard Wahlers mostly they target the perverted mechanisms that allow leaders to cling to power. Oppression, corruption and patronage were – and in many cases still are – widespread. The most important editorial team words uttered in these protests are the calls for dignity and freedom. n Dr. Helmut Reifeld (Overall coordination) n Silke David After a few euphoric weeks in the face of the truly historic events, a sense of disillusionment n Valentin Pitz has set in. Tunisia and Egypt first celebrated a huge movement for freedom and democracy. n Dr. Céline Caro (European Policy) but now people must organise and implement that democracy given the political reality of a n Gisela Elsner difficult transformation process. The election of a constitutional assembly planned in Tunisia (Rule of Law) in October is a key moment for a political clean slate; in Egypt parliamentary and presidential n Christian Hübner (Environment, Climate elections are also scheduled in autumn. The polls are a litmus test for Egypt. but we have also and Energy) seen how other countries are trying to violently put down the Arab Spring. Regimes that are n Dr. Patrick Keller unwilling to learn still rely on the same approaches to guarantee stability and order the way (Political Dialogue) n Dr. Angelika Klein they think it should be. So it is all the more important that countries such as Tunisia and Egypt (Media) can show success in their efforts to embark on a path of democratic governance based on the n Dr. Michael Lange rule of law. (Democracy and Development) n Dr. Helmut Reifeld In the run-up to this year’s G8 summit, Chancellor Angela Merkel said guarantees were needed (Dialogue on Values so "this initial political progress is not jeopardised by economic instability." The KAS has had and Religion) n Susanna Vogt offices in the North African and Middle Eastern regions for more than 30 years. We, and our (Economic and partners, have contributed to increasing the reach of freedom despite often difficult and repres- Social Governance) sive conditions. We must profit from these new opportunities – with the planned constitutional Contact: ballot measures, the founding of new political parties, the establishment of real parliamentary [email protected] systems, as well as a free and responsible press along with transparent economic structures oriented along Social Market Economy principles. We will continue to intensify our involvement Design SWITSCH in the region. KommunikationsDesign, Cologne berlin, July 2011 translated by Thomas Marzahl, Berlin fotos KAS, fotolia.com (background Dr. Gerhard Wahlers image on page 4) Deputy Secretary General, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung © 2011 Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V. KAS INTERNATIONAl 2/2011 | 3 www.kas.de fOCUS n KAS ObServeS ChAngeS in nOrth AfriCA Continued from Page 1 ̈ Pöttering opened the conference along with Tunisian Education Minister Tayeb baccouche. The participants and speakers included researchers, scholars, profes- sors and politicians, among them Michael Gahler, member of the Foreign Policy committee in the Euro- pean Parliament and chairman of the delegation for relations with the Pan-African Parliament (PAP), who gave the closing address. The conference resulted in proposals on how to deal with political change and developments in the future. Tunisian TV, print and on- line media all reported extensively on Pöttering’s visit. Dr. Hans-Gert Pöttering met with protesters on Cairo’s Tahrir Square during his trip to Egypt in March 2011. THESENPAPIER ZUR POLITISCHEN ZUSAMMENARBEIT MIT DEN LÄNDERN DES NAHEN OSTENS/ NORDAFRIKA gerMAn eXPertiSe in egYPt: UMBRUCH IN NAHOST BEGLEITEN DeALing With the SeCret POLiCe ArChiveS Already at the beginning of 2011, the department of in early March, activists stormed the building hous- At the end of March, the KAS invited an expert from European and Inter- national Cooperation ing the hated egyptian national security services, the East German secret police, or Stasi archives published a research confiscating a wide variety of secret police files. the office (bStu) to Cairo to speak about German experi- paper called Observ- pictures reminded many of the events in 1989/90 ences in dealing with Stasi files. Herbert Ziehm, the ing Change in the Middle East, in which in germany – and similar questions were raised. deputy head of information at the bStu, gave two it presented a com- What would happen to the files? What kind of speeches and held discussions with activists, journal- plete strategy for treatment should the people working for egypt’s ists, lawyers and officials. It became clear that while the region. secret police receive? there was a great deal of interest in how Germany dealt with its past, Egyptians still had many reserva- tions. Officials were especially sceptical about a public debate about the Egyptian state security services. Egyptian civil society representatives however under- lined the need for a public discussion on the issue. Many of those participating in the discussions said Egyptians wishing to deal with political history could learn from Germany’s own experiences. The KAS office in Cairo is planning to hold further events at which reforms of the police force will be on the agenda. Herbert Ziehm of the office on Stasi documents speaking to Egyptian journalists in Cairo 4 | KAS INTERNATIONAl 2/2011 From left to right: Dalia Mogahed, Shadi Hamid, Moderator Matt J. Duffy, Assistant Professor at the College of Communications and Media Services, Zayed University in Abu Dhabi, Abdel Bari Atwan and Dr. Tarik Yousef n fOCUS reAChing the WOrLD thrOUgh tWitter, fACebOOK AnD Cnn KAS regiOnAL PrOgrAMMe gULf StAteS OrgAniSeS DUbAi DebAteS On the ArAb SPring the KAS regional Programme gulf States in cooper- "The most recent developments in the Arab world ation with bridgemedia and Cnn launched a new have shown us that an increasing number of people era of debates with the newly established Dubai follow world events via the new media such as Twitter, Debates. More than 120 people, among them top Facebook and blogs, and help shape the events analysts and journalists, attended a lively discussion themselves," said Thomas birringer, head of the on 31 May, called "After the Arab Awakening: Oppor- KAS Regional Programme Gulf States. "With these tunities and Challenges for a new Arab World." channels we were able to reach an audience that Attendees and participants in the high-calibre panel would have never fit into one room." Seventy percent used twitter to report on the events in real time, of the audience present had already registered through reaching some 15,000 users. Facebook on the DubaiDebates.com webpage.