Politics and Governance

The EastWest Institute will create a policy study group on “Alternative Futures for Afghanistan and the Stability of South West Asia”. The group will include specialists and officials with strong knowledge of the region, especially the current situation and the detail of the political power structures at local, regional and national levels.

The first activity will comprise from a series of three policy seminars Brussels based, from September to November 2008, with a view to issuing a strategy paper. The strategy paper will be presented to a high level seminar in Washington DC and be published in early 2009 based on subsequent consultations. 

Themes

• Political Power and Control: Local Politics in 2009/2010
• Selected Province Case Studies: State of the Insurgency in 2010
• Religious and Secular Society in Afghanistan
• Pakistan’s Border with Afghanistan in 2010? (Afghanistan’s neighborhood policy)
• After Karzai? Religious Conservatives in Power?
• Roles for China and Russia (the Shanghai Cooperation Organization), India and Iran

Can the major global policy think-tanks of the world work together to address the challenges facing humanity? From July 14-17, the East West Institute convened more than a dozen thinktanks from Beijing to Brasilia to address this timely question. The think-tank leaders gathered in Oxford, England, where they developed an eight-point plan for collaborative action and agreed to form a “Global Leadership Consortium” to implement this plan.

Even before the meeting began, a series of teleconferences between the participants made clear that think-tanks around the world were facing a similar challenge of “going global.” For this reason, Mark Gerzon and Dale Pfeifer, who coordinated EWI’s global leadership programs, encouraged EWI to explore convening a worldwide think-tank network. The goal of the GLC is to serve as a learning and action network of solutionsoriented leaders and their institutions to address the new reality that no single nation — and no single think-tank — can be an effective global problem-solver. The difference between a single institute undertaking this effort versus a network of well-established and highly respected partners doing so, may ultimately make the difference between success and failure.

The EastWest Institute, in partnership with the Turkish/European Coordination Council, TUDEV (Turkish Speaking World Foundation), and AIMEE (Aider une Maman a l'Education de ses Enfants), convened a conference in Brussels on May 3rd on the “Sociography of the Turkish community living in Europe and the implications in the relations between the European Union and Turkey

The full day event, held at the Palais d’Egmond thanks to the support of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign affairs, covered the problems related to women, youth, education and school drop-off, integration, the extreme right, and social discrimination as well as the impact of migration in European countries and on EU-Turkey relations.

Speakers at the conference included Sait YAZICIOGLU, Turkey’s Minister of Immigration, Brigitte GROUWELS, Belgian Minister for Equal Opportunities, Dr. Yusuf Ziya İRBEÇ, AKP Deputy and member of the commission for Turkey's integration to the EU, and Fuat TANLAY, Turkish Ambassador to Belgium.

The outcomes of the event will soon be published in a report that will be distributed to European parliamentarians.

Media Coverage:

Turkish Press Review - Office of the Prime Minister

Belcikahaber

Gundem

Binfikir

Yenihaber

On April 11, 2008, the CVE, the Council for America's First Freedom and Virginia Commonwealth University will organize a session on violent extremism with Ambassador Randolph Bell. The Conference will take place in Richmond, VA.

The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the global phenomenon of violent extremism in the three Abrahamic faiths.

On January 11th, the EastWest Institute held a high-level meeting on “Asymmetries of Science and Power” in Brussels. Ambassadors from Africa, Asia, and Latin America gathered to share their views on the long-term impact of science and technology on global security. The importance of technology transfer, education, and the effects of health and poverty were among the key issues raised by the participants. This discussion, the first of a series of meetings in advance of EWI’s 5th Worldwide Security Conference (WSC5), underlined the correlation between scientific developments, power relations, and future security threats.

Participants discussed the importance of improved bi-lateral relations and the formation of a common EU policy towards Russia. Peter Mandelson, the Commissioner of the European Union for Trade, stated that "both parties should seek to make these relations bigger than any individual issue". The conference was attended by more than 300 people.

Participants crafted approaches to avoiding further deterioration of EU-Russia relations and outlined roles for the Russian-Western European Diaspora.

On October 1-2, 2007, EWI co-sponsored the first European-Russian Forum in Brussels. Held in the European Parliament headquarters, the Forum was attended by more than 150 representatives of the Russian-speaking community living outside Russia in Europe as well as high-level Russian and EU officials, MPs, foreign policy experts, religious leaders and entrepreneurs. The two-day series of plenary sessions and workshops crafted approaches to avoiding further deterioration of EU-Russia relations and outlined key roles for the 10 million Russian-Western European diaspora in facilitating strategic partnership between the European Union and the Russian Federation.

On the first day of the Forum, EWI’s Founder, President and CEO John Edwin Mroz presented his views on Russia’s capacity to play a role of a major problem-solver in multilateral cooperation in Europe to address the 21st security challenges such as political radicalization, violent extremism and terrorism, energy, migration issues, cross-border cultural gaps and regional conflicts. He specifically highlighted the Russian G-8 initiative on public-private partnerships to counter terrorism and the need to further promote specific model projects in this area such as “countering of precious metals trafficking” advanced by Norilsk Nickel company, “global remittances” led by Citigroup and others.

EWI’s upcoming 5th Worldwide Security Conference in February 2008 at the World Customs Organization is EWI's next milestone in making such initiatives a vital part of its worldwide security network.

EWI's Ortwin Hennig, Greg Austin and Vladimir Ivanov served as panelists for the workshop on “EU-Russia Political Dialogue and Security Priorities in Europe” and presented EWI’s experience and recommendations for global security and conflict prevention issues.

The recommendations resulting from the Forum will be submitted to Russian and European government officials ahead of the EU-Russia Summit scheduled for the end of October in Portugal. Forum participants agreed to set up permanent expert groups, under the aegis of the European-Russian Forum, to tackel political dialogue and security issues, as well as the protection of human rights, migration, economic cooperation and to help consolidate Russian-speaking communities. EWI will be an active player in theese working groups, engaging the Forum and its participants in order to broaden its worldwide security network.

Ambassador John D. Negroponte, US Deputy Secretary of State, delivered the keynote address at the 2007 Awards Dinner on April 25 in Washington, DC.

The dinner was attended by dignitaries from business and government, including members of Congress and diplomats, media and civil society. It was part of EWI's US-Russia Constructive Agenda Initiative, a dynamic multi-year project bringing together leaders from various professions from both nations to craft new approaches to bilateral and global challenges. The initiative also includes public and private meetings, policy papers and conferences.

The EastWest Institute (EWI) convened a roundtable of Middle East experts on April 16, 2008, to discuss the Arab Islamic Renaissance Initiative, a project led by the Strategic Foresight Group (SFG), to formulate a strategy to restore the intellectual and economic prominence of the Middle East on the world stage. The initiative highlights the necessity of finding a strategy rooted in the region’s own cultural and historical traditions and that addresses the threat of an emerging ‘dignity gap. Speakers were:

• John Edwin Mroz (chair), president and CEO of the EastWest Institute
• Sundeep Waslekar (presenting), president of the Strategic Foresight Group
• Shamil Idriss (respondent), acting director of the UN Office of the Alliance of Civilizations

The roundtable was held in conjunction with EWI’s Global Security Program, which partners with key thought leaders around the world to explore new solutions to pressing regional and international security dilemmas.