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View a list of events in this series.

To nurture individual Arab voices;
To challenge the establishment on a local level;
To promote a diversity of ideas for the political and economic future of each society in the Arab world; and
To enable reform, democracy, and dissent, and to inform and educate Western nations.

The Arab world has become the testing ground for democracy and its allied institutions of individual rights, free markets, and the rule of law. Throughout the Cold War and for a decade thereafter, American policy in the region aimed to preserve "stability" even at the cost of allying with repressive dictatorships. That policy faced mounting criticism throughout the 1990s. But it was the events of September 11, 2001, and the war on terror that produced the fundamental shift announced by President George W. Bush on November 6, 2003:

Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe--because in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty. As long as the Middle East remains a place where freedom does not flourish, it will remain a place of stagnation, resentment, and violence ready for export. And with the spread of weapons that can bring catastrophic harm to our country and to our friends, it would be reckless to accept the status quo. Therefore, the United States has adopted a new policy, a forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East.
  
In the years since the September 11 attacks, hundreds of individuals have spoken out from the region, calling for a self-critical look at why terrorists have been allowed to stigmatize the Arab identity. They have demanded accountable governance, and the political and civil society institutions that support it, to counteract the stagnation and corruption that have allowed extremist ideologies to go unchallenged.

But regional reformers face enormous obstacles. Arab nations lack practical experience with democratic self-government; radical Islamist movements in their midst are defined by their violent opposition to individual liberty and civil rights. Decades of tyrannical rule--theocratic and secular--have suppressed the institutions of commerce and trade that once flourished in the region. Within the West, the idea of a "forward strategy of freedom for the Middle East" faces skepticism, counter-pressures, and outright sabotage. Many Western nations--including the United States--have close ties to Middle Eastern regimes that have much to fear from the advance of democracy and freedom. President Bush has rightly condemned the "cultural condescension" of assuming that Muslims are incapable of democratic self-government, but that condescension remains prevalent among Western elites. Bringing these reformers together and giving them a way to make their views heard will help solidify the belief that widespread democracy in the Middle East is possible.