The Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) hosted a panel discussion on President Bush’s fiscal year 2009 budget request and the funding increase in democracy and governance programs across the Middle East. The speakers discussed the budget request’s potential impact on U.S. efforts to support democracy in the region; the changes in the international affairs budget request as compared to past fiscal years; and how the request might affect President Bush’s “freedom agenda” legacy. Ambassador Edward Gabriel, President and CEO of The Gabriel Company, LLC, Stephen McInerney, Director of Advocacy for POMED, and Jennifer Windsor, Executive Director of Freedom House, spoke to these issues. POMED’s Executive Director, Andrew Albertson, moderated the event.
Panelists:
Amb. Edward Gabriel, President and CEO of The Gabriel Company, LLC, where he advises multinational corporations on international affairs and domestic policy, and former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco.
Stephen McInerney, Director of Advocacy for the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) and author of the April 2008 article “The Bush Administration’s Budget and Democracy in the Arab World” in the Carnegie Endowment’s Arab Reform Bulletin.
Jennifer Windsor, Executive Director of Freedom House and former Deputy Assistant Administrator and Director of the Center for Democracy and Governance (now the Office of Democracy and Governance) at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Moderated by Andrew Albertson, Executive Director, Project on Middle East Democracy