Politics and Governance
Women Political Leaders Gather in Rabat to Advance the WPS Agenda
EWI's Parliamentarians Network teams up with Women's Action for New Directions and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in a conference to advance the role of women political leaders in peace and security
In November, Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND) and the EastWest Institute’s Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention (PN), in partnership with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (Rabat), convened 18 female political leaders and legislators from the United States, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt and Morocco for the conference “Advancing the Role of Women Political Leaders in Peace and Security.”
“Bringing together women peacemakers in Morocco, land of tolerance, peace and diversity," said Loubna Amhaïr, member of the Moroccan House of Representatives as well as the Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention, "links the west to the east on common issues and challenges about conflict prevention and peace management.”
In addition to internal working sessions in which participants shared experiences and identified common challenges, the conference included high-level policy meetings with the president of the Moroccan House of Representatives; the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Islamic Affairs, Diaspora, Immigration and National Defense; the director of the Department of the United Nations and International Organizations in the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation; and the minister of Solidarity, Women, Family and Social Development.
Georgia State Senator and President of the Women Legislator's Lobby of WAND Nan Grogan Orrock stated that “the escalating violence and instability in parts of the Middle East lends new urgency to our efforts to convene women leaders in the region and from the U.S. We share views and build trust across national boundaries. We are resolved to act together on our shared commitment to strengthen the role of women across the globe in building sustainable peace."
Participants explored concrete ways to implement the principles of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace and Security and to sensitize policy and decision makers about its relevance. Committed to continue their coalition and further strengthen the role of women in peace and security, participants also discussed potential activities for 2015, when UNSCR 1325 will celebrate its 15th anniversary.
Click here to read the full report.
For more photos from the conference, see our album on flickr.
Afghanistan Reconnected: Businesses Take Action to Unlock Trade in the Region
Fifth Abu Dhabi Process Meeting takes place in Istanbul.
The EastWest Institute convened the fifth Abu Dhabi Process Meeting, “Afghanistan Reconnected: Businesses Take Action to Unlock Trade in the Region,” in Istanbul on November 26-27, 2014. The Abu Dhabi Process is a series of high-level consultations that address regional economic security issues in Afghanistan post-2014.
EWI’s Istanbul consultation was held in cooperation with The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB). Over 40 high-level representatives of private sector and Chambers of Commerce and Industries, CEOs of transport and logistic companies and Members of Parliament from the region and beyond were jointly welcomed by TOBB’s President, M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu and EWI’s Vice President Martin Fleischer.
The aim of this meeting was to assess trade and transit challenges, as well as opportunities in the trans-Afghan transit and trade corridors, and to agree on a list of policy actionsrequired to unlock regional trade. The conference also assessed regulatory frameworks for investment, and highlighted potential economic gains for the region in the Afghan economy.
Haifa Al Kaylani Appointed to the Board of Directors at the Arab British Chamber of Commerce
EWI Board Member Haifa Fahoum Al Kaylani is the newest board member of the Arab British Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) in London, after being formally nominated by the Palestinian Chamber of Commerce on December 5th. Al Kaylani will look to help the ABCC continue to enhance Arab British trade and business ties, while also pushing to improve the economic and social environment in the Palestinian territories.
Reconnecting Afghanistan
EWI Board Member Ikram Sehgal, in an article published in The Express Tribune, discusses the need for economic resurgence in Afghanistan. Sehgal highlights EWI's recent Istanbul conference, which encouraged businesses in South and Central Asia to take necessary initiatives to unlock trade and kick-start the war-ravaged Afghan economy.
The lack of economic opportunities for the populace in Afghanistan is a major impediment to peace and stability. Without an adequate industrial base and/or agriculture infrastructure, guns-for-hire in abundance as a means to finding income is neither conducive for foreign direct investment nor for domestic entrepreneurial initiatives. That a small elite cabal with fixed mindsets returned after the fall of the Taliban to occupy seats of power in Kabul, does not help.
Economic resurgence for land-locked countries requires facilitating trade to and through their territory. The EastWest Institute (EWI), a New York-based leading US think tank, headed by Ross Perot Junior, initiated the “Abu Dhabi Process” — a cross-border trade dialogue co-funded by Abu Dhabi and Germany — between Afghanistan and the countries on its periphery. Hosted by the EWI, the recent Istanbul conference encouraged businesses in South and Central Asia to themselves take necessary initiatives to unlock trade and kick-start the war-ravaged Afghan economy.
For the short-term, the recommended ways forward included: a) a regional business council comprising influential business leaders from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iran, CARs, Turkey and Iran; b) one-window custom clearance systems by Afghanistan and improved border sources at Torghundi, Hairatan, Torkham, Chaman, Wagah and Sher Khan Bandar and other border points to reduce time and cost of crossing; c) a generous visa regime to enable businesses to move around easily (under Saarc for the short-term and the Economic Cooperation Organisation for the long-term); d) regional entrepreneurship exchange programmes to promote trade and investment opportunities.
The mid-term recommendations included: a) a unified transaction mechanism system and a regional banking framework; b) standardising the Afghan tax structure to entice business investment; and c) a free trade zone Fata. The long-term recommendations were: a) a regional infrastructure trust fund, with India, Turkey, China, Russia, Pakistan and Afghanistan as donors to invest in designing, developing and expanding transport means, such as railways; and b) the implementation of CASA-1000, TAPI projects and other regional energy projects (without mention by name of the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline). The threat of US sanctions remain, and while Pakistan has no intention of bucking that, the Iranian portion is in place at the border at two places, 70 kilometres from Gwadar and 250 kilometres to connect into the extensive Pakistani gas pipeline infrastructure, with planned connections into Fata and Swat.
Recent significant and symbolic events confirm that Ashraf Ghani is a game-changer in the context of the Pakistan-Afghanistan relationship. To quote a recent article of mine,“Throwing aside diplomatic norms, the Afghanistan’s President visited GHQ immediately after landing at Islamabad. A foreign Head of State heading straight towards a military HQ on arrival carries a lot more than ceremonial importance, the Afghan President means business because he well understands where the real power concerning national security rests. Ashraf Ghani described his discussions later with the Pakistani PM as ‘a shared vision to serve as the heart of Asia, ensuring economic integration by enhancing connectivity between South and Central Asia through energy, gas and oil pipelines becoming a reality and not remaining a dream. The narrative for the future must include the most neglected of our people to become stakeholders in a prosperous economy in stable and peaceful countries, our faiths are linked because terror knows no boundaries. We have overcome obstacles of 13 years in three days, we will not permit the past to destroy the future’.” How will the Afghan president overcome the ‘hate Pakistan’ mindset of a few Kabul diehards, some of these ingrates even born and educated in Pakistan, who must even now be conspiring to cut him down to size?
That the future would not be held hostage by the past was symbolised by the US repatriating (with Afghan consent) Latif Mehsud along with two other militant commanders from Bagram into Pakistani custody. In another one of my articles, I had said, “The capture of the senior leader of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Hakeemullah Mehsud’s No 2, by US Special Forces represents the ‘smoking gun’ about the Afghan regime’s sustained involvement in terrorism in Pakistan. In the company of the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) agents taking their prized asset to Kabul to meet senior government officials, Latif Mehsud was simultaneously on the American ‘most wanted list’. India’s RAW is using the NDS as a proxy to sustain and support the TTP’s brutal campaign within Pakistan. To its credit, despite Karzai’s fury at the US for his capture (Daily Telegraph, October 13, 2013), this cut no ice with the US, and it signalled that as its enemy, Latif Mehsud would remain in its custody.” The act of handing over this terrorist is a confidence-building measure that will reduce the trust deficit and build on the excellent fast developing working relationship.
Realpolitik is the product of cold, calculated pragmatism based on economics. Afghanistan will make billions of dollars from system-collected royalties from the Central Asian Corridor passing through its geographical location. Without a continuous flow of gas and power, economic resurgence in Pakistan will remain moribund. The EWI’s Abu Dhabi Process emphasises that the entire region stands to gain exponentially from constructive trade and commerce engagement.
Afghanistan has finally found its man of destiny in Ghani. How long before a leader in Pakistan rises above selfishness and greed for the sake of the country?
8th U.S.-China High-Level Security Dialogue
EWI Speaker Series: Two States, One Land: Is It Possible?
EWI’s Speaker Series highlights provocative approach to Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Watch the full event here:
As part of the New York Center’s EastWest Institute’s Speaker Series, Dr. Mathias Mossberg and Mark LeVine discussed Two States, One Land, on November 20. In the center’s packed conference room, the editors discussed their new book, a compilation of essays from leading Palestinian and Israeli experts, which puts forth a parallel state solution to this deep and seemingly intractable conflict. The far-ranging essays discuss the concept of two distinctive states, one Israeli and one Palestinian, sharing and governing over the same land. This solution, according to Mossberg and LeVine, would offer an answer to the failures of previous attempts at a two-state solution at Oslo, for example.
Also speaking on the panel were Hiba Husseini, Managing Partner of the law firm Husseini & Husseini and legal advisor to the Palestinian negotiations team in the Oslo, Stockholm and Camp David peace processes, and Dr. Dror Ze'evi, a visiting scholar and instructor at Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University, Bosphorus University and on the faculty at Ben Gurion University since 1992 and one of the founders of The Department of Middle East Studies at Ben Gurion University.
“It is incumbent upon us to think of a new solution, because of the long-standing nature of the stalemate.” Ze’evi said.
Mossberg is a retired Swedish ambassador, the president of the Swedish North-African Chamber of Commerce and senior fellow, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, Sweden. Mossberg was also a vice president of EWI and responsible for its Middle East Program. LeVine is Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine, a co-editor a contributing editor for Tikkun and a senior columnist for Al Jazeera. With recognizable members of both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conversation, as well as a number of dialed-in listeners from around the world, the speakers began by explaining what they called the “Parallel States Project.”
“The Parallel States Project is a way to think outside the box.” Mossberg explained. “It is an intellectual provocation to Israelis and Palestinians.”
The Parallel States Project, by proposing the sharing of one land and integrating many areas of both the Israeli and Palestinian state systems, would require widespread cooperation and confidence from both camps. Furthermore, a system of two states sharing one land requires careful consideration of the basic needs of both sides: security, identity and access to land. A two state-one land system would need a high-level of cooperation between both peoples, on a common Israeli-Palestinian security structure, widespread economic integration and the preservation of the national identities of both states.
"Challenges would be enormous, but the proposal would also address many of the biggest issues." Husseini stated.
Another important aspect needed to make this system viable is the concept of separating statehood from land. This radical way of thinking, a negation of our traditional notion of statehood introduced many centuries ago by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, is absolutely integral to the success of any system that attempts to create two distinctive but integrated and cooperative nationalities in one land. Any success of Mossberg and Levine’s idea of a two-state system sharing the same land could set a precedent for avoiding future conflicts around the globe.
“This plan would not only work in Israel-Palestine,” LeVine stated. “Perhaps it could be applied to eastern Ukraine."
In places where previous attempts of a two-state solution have failed, two separate national states sharing the same land offers a challenging but viable solution to the Israel-Palestine question. All speakers emphasized that if there is a genuine will to work and live together, necessitating security and economic cooperation, there can indeed be two distinctive national identities sharing, peacefully, the same land on the same terms.
“If we have provoked leaders to think in a new way, we have succeeded in some way.” Mossberg said.
A Post-Snowden Cyberspace
Piin-Fen Kok Discusses U.S.-China Cooperation
EWI's director of China, East Asia and the United States Piin-Fen Kok talked to People's Daily China about the growing possibilities for cooperation between the U.S. and China.
Translation by Andi Zhou and Cathy Zhu. Read the original article in Chinese here.
New York—U.S. President Barack Obama will conduct a state visit to China in November to participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Meeting. People’s Daily reporter Li Bingxin recently interviewed Piin-Fen Kok, director of the China, East Asia and United States program at the EastWest Institute, about the status of U.S-China relations. Kok argued that the two powers have an opportunity to develop broad cooperation in several key areas.
Strategic trust promotes regional cooperation
Kok stated that China and the U.S. must first build strategic trust in order to develop cooperation in a number of areas. In recent years, China has been suspicious of the U.S. “pivot” towards Asia, and the two U.S. initiatives of strategic rebalancing in the Asia-Pacific and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). China views these policies as methods to contain China’s rise. On the other hand, the U.S. sees China as taking an assertive stance on its maritime disputes, especially through military activity seemingly aimed toward U.S. allies. This aggression, coupled with recent unusually close encounters between U.S. and Chinese military planes, has left the U.S. unable to decipher China’s intentions. Despite the latter’s proposal for a new major-power relationship without conflict and confrontation, China’s behavior is perceived by the U.S. as raising the risk of conflict. Kok suggests that if the two countries can sit down for honest discussions and agree that the parties are not engaged in a zero-sum game and that peaceful cooperation can clear confusions about the other’s true intentions, then the two powers could reach consensus on a number of issues. After all, the U.S. has affirmed that it has no intention to contain China, and China has declared it will not push the U.S. out of the Asia-Pacific region. From this foundation, the two sides could cooperate on a common strategic vision for the Asia-Pacific, and honestly raise their respective concerns. There is a wide range of issues the U.S. and China can work together to address, such as the North Korea nuclear issue, climate change, counter-terrorism and infectious disease control and prevention. Their recent collaboration in training young Afghan diplomats was a good start, and demonstrated that the two sides can find common ground about how to solve bilateral and regional problems. If both sides can maintain that spirit to establish mutual trust, it would be a blessing for the people of Asia, and the Pacific will become more peaceful.
The rule of law benefits economic cooperation
At the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Party Congress, the Chinese Communist Party committed to improving rule of law. This would help attract U.S. investment and contribute to further economic cooperation. In order to accomplish this, the central and local governments have to be consistent in enforcing laws. When China joined the WTO, it committed to implementing policies in line with international rules––such as protecting intellectual property rights––but the key is in uniform enforcement. The central government has established relevant laws and regulations, but they are not always enforced at the local levels. U.S. companies are also concerned about the issue of national treatment in China due to what they view as attempts to target foreign companies. Chinese investments in the U.S. have also faced some setbacks in cases where the U.S. has chosen to protect domestic industries and workers, often in response to the 2009 recession. Both sides have similar issues. China will only be able to solve its problems if it consistently applies the rule of law from top to bottom. The American federal system means states have different laws, priorities and needs when it comes to attracting Chinese investment, and thus several layers of complexity. In short, strengthening the rule of law should be among both countries’ goals—strict enforcement of regulations would encourage foreign investors to invest boldly and confidently, contributing to an all-around increase in economic cooperation.
Political exchanges help cooperation on governance
Kok further remarked that due to differences in the political systems of the U.S. and China, and the absence of organizations focused on promoting exchanges between the U.S.’s political parties, there has been a lack of understanding between Chinese and American political parties for a long time. In 2010, the EastWest Institute’s late president John Edwin Mroz personally opened up a channel for exchanges between the two powers’ political parties, allowing the major parties from both countries to meet face-to-face to discuss their experience in party governance, national governance, military affairs and security issues. The Chinese Communist Party is the ruling party in China, while the U.S. has been governed by both the Democratic and Republican parties, so it is important for both the current and future ruling parties to increase dialogue. Additionally, Mroz worked to increase Chinese understanding of the intricacies of American state politics, for instance, the fact that state governors do not all come from the same party. Mroz passed away from illness in August this year, but Kok emphasized that exchanges between the two countries’ political parties would likely continue to improve
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