Middle East Partnership Initiative
Encyclopedia
The Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) is a U.S. State Department program that supports reform efforts in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Founded in 2002, the program has five stated goals that it pursues in the region:
To achieve these goals, MEPI provides direct support to both international and MENA-based NGOs, educational institutions, local governments and private businesses to implement projects designed to directly engage and invest in the people of the MENA region. Through these partnerships, MEPI helps build the capacity of those that serve as the region’s most successful agents of change - local civil society and business leaders, activists, scholars, students, and lawmakers.
MEPI’s agenda includes everything from voter education programs in Egypt
, judicial reform seminars in the Persian Gulf
, women’s literacy campaigns in Yemen
, and a region-wide partnership program between U.S. and Middle Eastern universities. Two of MEPI’s most prominent programs are its annual Student Leaders program that brings students from all over the region to participate in a summer-long seminar, and its Middle East Entrepreneur Training program, which assists aspiring young business and civil society leaders.
MEPI’s budget has been steadily increasing. After initially receiving $29 million, its budget in FY2005 was $75 million. As of 2009, MEPI has granted roughly $530 million to over 600 projects in 17 different countries, including the Palestinian Territories
. In support of this Bush Administration's signature program, President Obama continued his support for MEPI and received a requested increase of $86 million from Congress targeted towards the Governing Justly and Democratically (GJD) objective. This program develops civil society in key locations in volatile regions covered by the State Department's Bureau of Near East Affairs(NEA).
, serving under President George W. Bush
, announced the creation of MEPI in a December 2002 speech at the Heritage Foundation
in Washington, DC, declaring that the goal of MEPI was to create “a long-term prospect” for reform, “not something that is going to be done in one year or five years.”. MEPI was designed to target areas not served by USAID, the United States’ main foreign aid and development program. Initially dependent on USAID in support of its mission, MEPI has come into its own and targets short-term programs addressing political change in order for USAID longer-term development programs to be successful.
In 2002, Elizabeth Cheney
, known as Liz, and daughter of Vice-President Dick Cheney
, was appointed U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs and tasked with supervising MEPI. Cheney explained that under MEPI, the US administration funded programs as diverse as training Arab journalists to revising current teaching methods from rote learning to more child-oriented teaching methods. Additionally, MEPI supported countries seeking to sign Free Trade Agreements with the United States to meet President Bush’s goal to establish a joint Middle East Free Trade zone by 2013.
In March 2003, William Joseph Burns
, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, U.S. Department of State, and Wendy Chamberlin, Assistant Administrator for Asia and the Near East, U.S. Agency for International Development, testified before the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia on the operational aspects of MEPI and how they reflected U.S policy of the War on Terrorism
. Rep. Steve Chabot
, R- OH and Rep. William Janklow, R-SD, questioned how reforms would be enacted to deal with textbooks that taught Arab children “anti-Jewish sentiment” and “racist” hatred. Burns responded that “detoxification” would be encouraged by MEPI, particularly in the Palestinian school system. Chamberlin stated that USAID would attempt to address this through teacher training programs. A February 2, 2010, article in the Jerusalem Post reported that a UK watchdog group, The Taxpayer's Alliance, has tracked European taxpayer-funded aid to the Palestinians. In recently released reports, the Alliance found that anti-Semitic and anti-Israel narratives continue to persist in Palestinian textbooks in violation of the 1994 Oslo Accords
.
In a November 2003 speech given at the National Endowment for Democracy
,also known as the NED, President Bush stressed the need to spread democracy to the Arab and Muslim-majority countries of the Middle East to address the deficits of freedom. Carl Gershman, president of the NED, in his remarks delivered at the December 12, 2003 Conference on Mideast Regional Security V, reinforced President Bush’s words with his own, “By any category that is meaningful in the world today, there is only one set of countries that is completely undemocratic: the Arab world.” Mr. Gershman stated further that “democracy will not come about if people dwell on the past or are obsessed with blame-placing, but only if they seek practical solutions to real problems. If this is true, it follows that a change in political culture – replacing attitudes of victimization with a readiness to engage in self-criticism and to take responsibility for one’s own fate – can only come from within the Arab world.” MEPI’s original mandate was to address four deficits in the Arab world identified by the 2002 Arab Human Development Report
—deficits in political freedom, economic freedom, knowledge, and women's rights. In that same U.N. report, Arab scholars wrote that a choice had to be made between ‘inertia…[and] an Arab renaissance that will build a prosperous future for all Arabs.”
Today, MEPI’s programs increase the capacity of civil society organizations in the region to advance political participation, foster economic reform, support quality education, and empower women and youth in the Middle East and North Africa, areas identified as critical by President Barack Obama
in his June 4, 2009 speech at Cairo University
. MEPI advances the cause of democracy and women’s rights in the Middle East by promoting female literacy and health programs, as well as business and political training. MEPI can serve as a model for women’s advocacy programs globally. This U.S. foreign policy, in turn, encourages economic growth, thereby contributing towards the development of democratic institutions and countering extremism.
in the U.S. State Department. In addition to its Washington, D.C.
headquarters, MEPI has regional offices in Tunis
and Abu Dhabi
. MEPI regional offices administered through Abu Dhabi are Bahrain
, Jordan
, Kuwait
, Oman
, Qatar
, Saudi Arabia
, UAE, and Yemen
. MEPI regional offices administered through Tunis are Algeria
, Egypt
, Israel
, Lebanon
, Libya
, Morocco
, Palestinian Territories, and Tunisia.
MEPI also works with coordinating representatives at U.S. Embassies and Consulates throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
Since 2008, Tim Andrews has served as MEPI’s Director. Andrews, a graduate of the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., directs policy for MEPI’s Washington, D.C. headquarters and MEPI regional offices in Tunis and Abu Dhabi.
Karen Volker serves as MEPI’s Deputy Director. Volker has a Masters Degree from George Washington University
in Washington, D.C. and served in the area of assistance coordination in Washington and overseas in the Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs and Western Hemisphere Affairs.
MEPI Regional Grants are administered by the Washington MEPI office. The Tunis Regional Office awards and administers MEPI local Grants and Civil Society Grants. Grants are provided in Middle East/North African countries supporting political and democratic processes, education, and women’s empowerment, and applications are made directly to the U.S. Embassy in the listed country. See the website for eligible criteria.
, a phrase coined by political theorist and author, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., is used as a complement to America's military strength, or hard power
, in a post 9-11 world. Nye believes that by incorporating soft power in U.S. national strategy, America is able to utilize "the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments. It arises from the attractiveness of a country's culture, political ideals, and policies. When our policies are seen as legitimate in the eyes of others, our soft power is enhanced.".
In a June 2007 article for The Stanley Foundation, Francis Fukuyama
and Michael McFaul
endorsed American soft power as a means to implement democracy in foreign policy, “The war in Iraq has fostered the false impression that military force is the only instrument of regime change, when in fact it is the rarest used and least effective way to promote democratic change abroad. A wiser, more effective, and more sustainable strategy must emphasize nonmilitary tools aimed at changing the balance of power between democratic forces and autocratic rulers and, only after there has been progress toward democracy, building liberal institutions.”
MEPI's small grant programs are part of routine embassy efforts by U.S. political officers to connect with activists in the region to further effect democratic reform and support human rights. In 2008, MEPI issued a grant to the Maccabim program, a community service project serving inner-city, at-risk youth in the impoverished Israeli Arab neighborhood of Lod, Israel. The program, endorsed by the Lod Municipality, provides soccer training, warm meals, tutoring, and counseling for neighborhood children. Asaf Toledano, Maccabim Program Director, noted that since the area had been plagued by violence and drug dealers, the Tel Aviv police department approached Maccabim to establish the community service project in 2005. Today the program includes 225 children, 3 schools and a staff of 30, including soccer coaches and coordinator. The U.S. Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission, Luis G. Moreno, praised the program at a 2009 festive soccer match between the police department and neighborhood teams.
One of MEPI’s pillars is women’s empowerment. In a March 13, 2010, U.N. speech, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an international women’s conference of more than 2,000 women activists, “The subjugation of women is a direct threat to the security of the United States. The status of the world’s women is not only a matter of justice. It is also a political, economic, and social imperative.” Secretary Clinton stated that this principle was at the heart of U.S. foreign policy.
On September 25, 2009, the State Department announced a pilot program where MEPI will be soliciting proposals from five organizations that will be awarded between $500,000 and $2.5 million for the expansion of social network technologies for new media capabilities in the Middle East. As part of Secretary of State Clinton's efforts to connect young people in closed socieities for greater involvement in civic participation and open political discussions online, she stated, "We stand for a single internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas."
In the War of ideas
, there are risks to online activism in authoritarian regimes because countries that receive U.S. aid, like Egypt, have detained and jailed the bloggers and online activists like Ahmed Maher, who try to hold their government accountable. Expectations about how effective social networking is in encouraging political change is part of the global conversation the State Department is promoting. Although global connectivity can be dangerous for activists in closed societies, the most significant change is in the realm of public sphere bloggers who write about social issues that change their expectations about the societies where they live. MEPI's investment in promoting greater connectivity in the Middle East can shift the status quo through this more sophisticated, long-lasting approach supporting activists in authoritarian regimes.
MEPI critics in the Arab world saw the initiative as the U.S. means to impose reforms on the Middle East following 9-11 and complained that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Arab territories and the U.S. occupation in Iraq needed to be resolved before reforms could be introduced. Liz Cheney refuted those critics by stating that the U.S. administration believed without reform, the region would continue to generate “ideologies of hate and violence.” Cheney believed that reforms as well as resolutions to regional issues could occur concurrently. Economic and political reforms would have an impact on molding the future of the Middle East. Cheney offered that court systems needed to be reformed in order to instill investor confidence in the region.
Although there is increasing debate over the need for Arab countries to reform politically and economically, most of these Arab countries are suspicious when such reform is called for by the U.S. government. Thomas Carothers
, an authority on democracy promotion at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
, suggested in February 2005, that MEPI should be reestablished as the Middle East Foundation (MEF), a private foundation that would be eligible for funding in a line-item grant in the foreign affairs account of the federal budget. If freed from the constraints of an aid program affiliated with the State Department, Carothers argued, such a foundation would enjoy the autonomy necessary to develop political reform projects that would be viewed as separate from the U.S. government. Moreover, it would be more likely that MEPI would increase the possibility of attracting funding from sources outside the U.S. government.
- Strengthen civil society and the rule of law
- Empower women and youth
- Improve and expand education
- Encourage economic reform
- Increase political participation
To achieve these goals, MEPI provides direct support to both international and MENA-based NGOs, educational institutions, local governments and private businesses to implement projects designed to directly engage and invest in the people of the MENA region. Through these partnerships, MEPI helps build the capacity of those that serve as the region’s most successful agents of change - local civil society and business leaders, activists, scholars, students, and lawmakers.
MEPI’s agenda includes everything from voter education programs in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, judicial reform seminars in the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
, women’s literacy campaigns in Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
, and a region-wide partnership program between U.S. and Middle Eastern universities. Two of MEPI’s most prominent programs are its annual Student Leaders program that brings students from all over the region to participate in a summer-long seminar, and its Middle East Entrepreneur Training program, which assists aspiring young business and civil society leaders.
MEPI’s budget has been steadily increasing. After initially receiving $29 million, its budget in FY2005 was $75 million. As of 2009, MEPI has granted roughly $530 million to over 600 projects in 17 different countries, including the Palestinian Territories
Palestinian territories
The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...
. In support of this Bush Administration's signature program, President Obama continued his support for MEPI and received a requested increase of $86 million from Congress targeted towards the Governing Justly and Democratically (GJD) objective. This program develops civil society in key locations in volatile regions covered by the State Department's Bureau of Near East Affairs(NEA).
History
U.S. Secretary of State Colin PowellColin Powell
Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
, serving under President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, announced the creation of MEPI in a December 2002 speech at the Heritage Foundation
Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation is a conservative American think tank based in Washington, D.C. Heritage's stated mission is to "formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong...
in Washington, DC, declaring that the goal of MEPI was to create “a long-term prospect” for reform, “not something that is going to be done in one year or five years.”. MEPI was designed to target areas not served by USAID, the United States’ main foreign aid and development program. Initially dependent on USAID in support of its mission, MEPI has come into its own and targets short-term programs addressing political change in order for USAID longer-term development programs to be successful.
In 2002, Elizabeth Cheney
Elizabeth Cheney
Elizabeth Cheney Perry , commonly called Liz, is an American attorney. During the George W. Bush administration years, she held positions in the State Department of the United States...
, known as Liz, and daughter of Vice-President Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
, was appointed U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs and tasked with supervising MEPI. Cheney explained that under MEPI, the US administration funded programs as diverse as training Arab journalists to revising current teaching methods from rote learning to more child-oriented teaching methods. Additionally, MEPI supported countries seeking to sign Free Trade Agreements with the United States to meet President Bush’s goal to establish a joint Middle East Free Trade zone by 2013.
In March 2003, William Joseph Burns
William Joseph Burns
William J. Burns , an American diplomat, is the current Deputy Secretary of State and the highest ranked Foreign Service Officer in the United States. He is only the second serving career diplomat in U.S. history to become Deputy Secretary...
, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, U.S. Department of State, and Wendy Chamberlin, Assistant Administrator for Asia and the Near East, U.S. Agency for International Development, testified before the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia on the operational aspects of MEPI and how they reflected U.S policy of the War on Terrorism
War on Terrorism
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
. Rep. Steve Chabot
Steve Chabot
Steven Joseph "Steve" Chabot is the U.S. Representative for . He is a member of the Republican Party. He previously represented the district from 1995 to 2009.-Early life, education and career:...
, R- OH and Rep. William Janklow, R-SD, questioned how reforms would be enacted to deal with textbooks that taught Arab children “anti-Jewish sentiment” and “racist” hatred. Burns responded that “detoxification” would be encouraged by MEPI, particularly in the Palestinian school system. Chamberlin stated that USAID would attempt to address this through teacher training programs. A February 2, 2010, article in the Jerusalem Post reported that a UK watchdog group, The Taxpayer's Alliance, has tracked European taxpayer-funded aid to the Palestinians. In recently released reports, the Alliance found that anti-Semitic and anti-Israel narratives continue to persist in Palestinian textbooks in violation of the 1994 Oslo Accords
Oslo Accords
The Oslo Accords, officially called the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements or Declaration of Principles , was an attempt to resolve the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict...
.
In a November 2003 speech given at the National Endowment for Democracy
National Endowment for Democracy
The National Endowment for Democracy, or NED, is a U.S. non-profit organization that was founded in 1983 to promote US-friendly democracy by providing cash grants funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress...
,also known as the NED, President Bush stressed the need to spread democracy to the Arab and Muslim-majority countries of the Middle East to address the deficits of freedom. Carl Gershman, president of the NED, in his remarks delivered at the December 12, 2003 Conference on Mideast Regional Security V, reinforced President Bush’s words with his own, “By any category that is meaningful in the world today, there is only one set of countries that is completely undemocratic: the Arab world.” Mr. Gershman stated further that “democracy will not come about if people dwell on the past or are obsessed with blame-placing, but only if they seek practical solutions to real problems. If this is true, it follows that a change in political culture – replacing attitudes of victimization with a readiness to engage in self-criticism and to take responsibility for one’s own fate – can only come from within the Arab world.” MEPI’s original mandate was to address four deficits in the Arab world identified by the 2002 Arab Human Development Report
Arab Human Development Report
The Arab Human Development Report is an independent report sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme , providing leading Arab scholars a platform through which to analyze the challenges and opportunities for human development in the Arab Region...
—deficits in political freedom, economic freedom, knowledge, and women's rights. In that same U.N. report, Arab scholars wrote that a choice had to be made between ‘inertia…[and] an Arab renaissance that will build a prosperous future for all Arabs.”
Today, MEPI’s programs increase the capacity of civil society organizations in the region to advance political participation, foster economic reform, support quality education, and empower women and youth in the Middle East and North Africa, areas identified as critical by President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
in his June 4, 2009 speech at Cairo University
Cairo University
Cairo University is a public university located in Giza, Egypt.The university was founded on December 21, 1908, as the result of an effort to establish a national center for educational thought...
. MEPI advances the cause of democracy and women’s rights in the Middle East by promoting female literacy and health programs, as well as business and political training. MEPI can serve as a model for women’s advocacy programs globally. This U.S. foreign policy, in turn, encourages economic growth, thereby contributing towards the development of democratic institutions and countering extremism.
Organization
MEPI is located within the Bureau of Near Eastern AffairsBureau of Near Eastern Affairs
The Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs is an agency of the Department of State within the United States government that deals with U.S. foreign policy and diplomatic relations with the nations of the Near East.-Duties:The Bureau handles U.S...
in the U.S. State Department. In addition to its Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
headquarters, MEPI has regional offices in Tunis
Tunis
Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....
and Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...
. MEPI regional offices administered through Abu Dhabi are Bahrain
Bahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
, Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
, Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
, Oman
Oman
Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...
, Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, UAE, and Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
. MEPI regional offices administered through Tunis are Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, Palestinian Territories, and Tunisia.
MEPI also works with coordinating representatives at U.S. Embassies and Consulates throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
Since 2008, Tim Andrews has served as MEPI’s Director. Andrews, a graduate of the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., directs policy for MEPI’s Washington, D.C. headquarters and MEPI regional offices in Tunis and Abu Dhabi.
Karen Volker serves as MEPI’s Deputy Director. Volker has a Masters Degree from George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
in Washington, D.C. and served in the area of assistance coordination in Washington and overseas in the Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs and Western Hemisphere Affairs.
MEPI Regional Grants are administered by the Washington MEPI office. The Tunis Regional Office awards and administers MEPI local Grants and Civil Society Grants. Grants are provided in Middle East/North African countries supporting political and democratic processes, education, and women’s empowerment, and applications are made directly to the U.S. Embassy in the listed country. See the website for eligible criteria.
Public diplomacy
Soft powerSoft power
Soft power is the ability to obtain what one wants through co-option and attraction. It can be contrasted with 'hard power', that is the use of coercion and payment...
, a phrase coined by political theorist and author, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., is used as a complement to America's military strength, or hard power
Hard power
Hard power is a term describing political power obtained from the use of military and/or economic coercion to influence the behavior or interests of other political bodies...
, in a post 9-11 world. Nye believes that by incorporating soft power in U.S. national strategy, America is able to utilize "the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments. It arises from the attractiveness of a country's culture, political ideals, and policies. When our policies are seen as legitimate in the eyes of others, our soft power is enhanced.".
In a June 2007 article for The Stanley Foundation, Francis Fukuyama
Francis Fukuyama
Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama is an American political scientist, political economist, and author. He is a Senior Fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford. Before that he served as a professor and director of the International Development program at the School of...
and Michael McFaul
Michael McFaul
Michael Anthony McFaul is a Stanford University professor and the nominee for United States Ambassador to Russia. Prior to his nomination to the ambassadorial position, McFaul worked for the U.S. National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of Russian and...
endorsed American soft power as a means to implement democracy in foreign policy, “The war in Iraq has fostered the false impression that military force is the only instrument of regime change, when in fact it is the rarest used and least effective way to promote democratic change abroad. A wiser, more effective, and more sustainable strategy must emphasize nonmilitary tools aimed at changing the balance of power between democratic forces and autocratic rulers and, only after there has been progress toward democracy, building liberal institutions.”
Foreign policy
MEPI’s gradual, “bottom-up” public diplomacy approach is a process to create conditions where the pressure for change will come from Arabs themselves. A rapid transition to democracy risks destabilizing autocratic regimes and unintentionally empowering anti-U.S. Islamists who would exploit their position to oppose the existing regime. Critics of this rationalization have suggested that autocrats in some cases, like Egypt, inflate those fears as a way to maintain their power.MEPI's small grant programs are part of routine embassy efforts by U.S. political officers to connect with activists in the region to further effect democratic reform and support human rights. In 2008, MEPI issued a grant to the Maccabim program, a community service project serving inner-city, at-risk youth in the impoverished Israeli Arab neighborhood of Lod, Israel. The program, endorsed by the Lod Municipality, provides soccer training, warm meals, tutoring, and counseling for neighborhood children. Asaf Toledano, Maccabim Program Director, noted that since the area had been plagued by violence and drug dealers, the Tel Aviv police department approached Maccabim to establish the community service project in 2005. Today the program includes 225 children, 3 schools and a staff of 30, including soccer coaches and coordinator. The U.S. Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission, Luis G. Moreno, praised the program at a 2009 festive soccer match between the police department and neighborhood teams.
One of MEPI’s pillars is women’s empowerment. In a March 13, 2010, U.N. speech, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an international women’s conference of more than 2,000 women activists, “The subjugation of women is a direct threat to the security of the United States. The status of the world’s women is not only a matter of justice. It is also a political, economic, and social imperative.” Secretary Clinton stated that this principle was at the heart of U.S. foreign policy.
On September 25, 2009, the State Department announced a pilot program where MEPI will be soliciting proposals from five organizations that will be awarded between $500,000 and $2.5 million for the expansion of social network technologies for new media capabilities in the Middle East. As part of Secretary of State Clinton's efforts to connect young people in closed socieities for greater involvement in civic participation and open political discussions online, she stated, "We stand for a single internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas."
In the War of ideas
War of ideas
The War of Ideas is a clash of opposing ideals, ideologies, or concepts through which nations or groups use strategic influence to promote their interests abroad...
, there are risks to online activism in authoritarian regimes because countries that receive U.S. aid, like Egypt, have detained and jailed the bloggers and online activists like Ahmed Maher, who try to hold their government accountable. Expectations about how effective social networking is in encouraging political change is part of the global conversation the State Department is promoting. Although global connectivity can be dangerous for activists in closed societies, the most significant change is in the realm of public sphere bloggers who write about social issues that change their expectations about the societies where they live. MEPI's investment in promoting greater connectivity in the Middle East can shift the status quo through this more sophisticated, long-lasting approach supporting activists in authoritarian regimes.
Critics
Critics have charged that MEPI hinders reform by working too closely within the limitations set by the Arab governments in the regions it serves. MEPI has addressed these concerns through its small grants programs shifting away from Arab government agencies to work directly with civil society activists.MEPI critics in the Arab world saw the initiative as the U.S. means to impose reforms on the Middle East following 9-11 and complained that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Arab territories and the U.S. occupation in Iraq needed to be resolved before reforms could be introduced. Liz Cheney refuted those critics by stating that the U.S. administration believed without reform, the region would continue to generate “ideologies of hate and violence.” Cheney believed that reforms as well as resolutions to regional issues could occur concurrently. Economic and political reforms would have an impact on molding the future of the Middle East. Cheney offered that court systems needed to be reformed in order to instill investor confidence in the region.
Although there is increasing debate over the need for Arab countries to reform politically and economically, most of these Arab countries are suspicious when such reform is called for by the U.S. government. Thomas Carothers
Thomas Carothers
Thomas Carothers is one of the most noted international experts on international democracy support, democratization, and U.S. foreign policy. He serves as vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he founded and currently directs the Democracy and Rule of...
, an authority on democracy promotion at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is a foreign-policy think tank based in Washington, D.C. The organization describes itself as being dedicated to advancing cooperation between nations and promoting active international engagement by the United States...
, suggested in February 2005, that MEPI should be reestablished as the Middle East Foundation (MEF), a private foundation that would be eligible for funding in a line-item grant in the foreign affairs account of the federal budget. If freed from the constraints of an aid program affiliated with the State Department, Carothers argued, such a foundation would enjoy the autonomy necessary to develop political reform projects that would be viewed as separate from the U.S. government. Moreover, it would be more likely that MEPI would increase the possibility of attracting funding from sources outside the U.S. government.
External links
- http://mepi.state.gov State Department webpage for MEPI
- http://www.medregion.mepi.state.gov MEPI office in Tunis
- http://www.abudhabi.mepi.state.gov MEPI office in Abu Dhabi
- http://mepi.state.gov/alumni/index.htm MEPI alumni network