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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS | DECEMBER 2004
SIPA
news
Elections Around
the World
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S I PA
news
VOLUME XVIII No. 1 DECEMBER 2004
Published biannually by Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs
From the Dean
T
his issue of SIPA News is devoted to elections. I
wrote this brief message on November 2, 2004,
after fulfilling my civic duty at my polling place
on Riverside Drive and long before any of us
knew the outcome of the most hotly contested
and closely watched U.S. presidential election in generations.
The campus was quiet because, as readers who are alumni may
recall, Columbia University closes on Election Day in order to
permit faculty, staff, and students to return home to vote, to
help efforts to bring voters to the polls, and otherwise contribute to the political life of this country. This year dozens of
SIPA students traveled to what were known as the “battleground states,” determined to ensure large turnouts. Several of
the faculty at SIPA spent the day downtown at the television
studios; almost all the major U.S. television networks drew on
Columbia faculty for analysis of the polling data and election
returns.
No doubt the heightened interest in this year’s U.S. presidential campaign reflected the importance of the questions at issue
in the election. The country was at war, the federal budget was
in deficit, and many Americans were worried about their security. Yet I like to think that, after years of low voter turnouts,
Americans have come to see the intrinsic importance of this
small gesture of commitment to public life and the public
interest. The pictures of voters in Afghanistan lined up for
what seemed like miles, waiting to exercise their franchise only
a month earlier, were an impressive display and set a perhaps
surprising standard for American voters.
Elections are complicated affairs, as Americans and Afghans
alike have come to realize, and they certainly do not solve all
of a country’s problems. They are, however, indispensable
institutions for democracy, the political system that Winston
Churchill once famously described as “the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried
from time to time.” While democracy itself is a contested
notion in many places, it is difficult to dispute the power represented by the opportunity to publicly debate and personally
participate in public affairs.
It is, once again, a testament to the remarkable commitment
and intelligence of the SIPA community that we deploy our
knowledge, about elections as about so many things, to the
improvement of our societies around the world. This issue of
SIPA News is but a sampler. I hope it impresses and heartens
you as much as it has me.
Lisa Anderson
Dean
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contents
p. 2
p. 14
p. 24
p. 38
Indonesia: Elections
without a Political
Party?
Democracy 101:
Afghanistan
Four More Years:
Perspectives by
World Leaders Forum
at Columbia University
By Rachel Martin
Lisa Anderson
William B. Eimicke
Albert Fishlow
Robert C. Lieberman
Sharyn O’Halloran
Robert Y. Shapiro
p. 42
By John Bresnan
p. 5
The European Union
and Its Ten New
Members
By Glenda G. Rosenthal
p. 8
The Hong Kong
Paradox
p. 16
By Rafis Abazov
p. 18
Is Algeria Getting It
Right?
By Wiliam B. Eimicke and
Hocine Cherhabil
By Maria Ma
p. 20
p. 12
Power Politics:
Oaxacan Style
The Damascene
Debating Society
By Arvin Bhatt
Class Notes
Misreading Elections
p. 28
p. 46
Yemen’s Uncertain
Transition
Donor List
By Geoff Craig
p. 32
On Observation:
Experiences in Election
Monitoring
By Thomas R. Lansner
By Mica Rosenberg
p. 35
The Enduring Cigar
By Eric Cantor
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Indonesia:
ELECTIONS WITHOUT A POLITICAL PARTY?
By John Bresnan
an democratizing nations
manage well without strong
parties? It is commonly said
that political parties, as they
are known in the industrial
democracies, are not to be
expected in systems still in
transition from authoritarian pasts. Southeast
Asia has seemed to conform to this view. In the
Philippines and Thailand, parties are loose coalitions put together to contest elections. In both
countries, the parties do not create candidates;
the candidates create parties. Now Indonesia has
joined the Philippines and Thailand as a nation
in transition. Do the same observations apply?
There has been some evidence that they do
not. It has long been observed that Indonesian
political parties were deeply rooted in religious
and ethnic groups that divide the society.
Recent studies have concluded that the social
composition of parties in the 1999 parliamentary elections reflected little change from that of
parties in the 1955 parliamentary elections. But
first reports of the 2004 elections suggest that
our view of political parties in Indonesia might
need to be revised. They have even raised the
question of whether a political party is essential
for election to the presidency.
Indonesia is famously heterogeneous and
overwhelmingly Muslim. There is no ethnic
C
Supporters of former
Indonesian security minister Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono and his vicepresidential candidate
Yusuf Kalla rally through
the streets of Makassar, in
Sulawesi on September
22, 2004.
majority, and Muslims are also divided among
differing traditions of religious thought and
practice. The country elected a parliament in
1955 that lasted 18 months, collapsing in the
face of rebellions in Sumatra and Sulawesi
against the first president, Sukarno. He fell after
a bloodbath in 1965–66, in which perhaps half a
million communists and other leftists were
killed. His successor, former general Suharto,
fell from power at the height of the Asian financial crisis in 1998, after riots in which more than
1,000 lost their lives. The democratic legacy is
thus extremely thin. But voting is hugely popular in Indonesia; the first two nationwide rounds
in 2004 drew 84 percent and 78 percent of registered voters. In terms of percentage, more people now vote in contested national elections in
Indonesia than in the United States.
The 1999 elections produced a parliament
that was broadly representative, but not a government able to meet popular expectations.
Traditional party leaders, who controlled the
selection of the president, first chose
Abdurrahman Wahid, who was fated to be
impeached by the parliament. Vice President
Megawati Sukarnoputri, a daughter of Sukarno
whose party had just won a plurality in parliament, became president but had only limited
success in moving the legislature to action.
Public opinion polls reported declines in popular
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A supporter displays a leaflet depicting Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri during a mass
prayer staged to bless Megawati for the her victory in the September 20 presidential election runoff
in Jakarta.
regard for politicians and their parties. It was an
environment that gave reformers a window of
opportunity. After more than 55 years of independence, party leaders were finally obliged to
agree that the president and vice president should
be elected directly by the voting population – in
two rounds if necessary to assure a majority.
Megawati’s limited success as president
resulted in a sharp drop in her party’s public support in the voting for the national legislature last
April: from 34 percent in 1999 to less than 19
percent in 2004. Even more surprising was the
rise of a small party that would have national
significance. The votes for the brand-new
Supporters of presidential candidate, former General Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, wave posters during a campaign rally in Jakarta, September 16,
2004.
According to a national sample of 2,000 voting stations, Indonesian voters elected SBY to
the presidency by roughly 60 percent to 40 percent. Megawati had faced too sizable a task; she
had to double the share of votes cast for her in
July in order to win in September. She also
needed to widen her support geographically;
her support in the first round was heavily concentrated in Central Java and Bali, where her
father had his roots. She adopted a strategy of
coalition building with the leaders of two other
large parties, both well organized on the
ground in other regions. Some analysts doubted, however, that party members would vote in
Voting is hugely popular in Indonesia;
the first two nationwide rounds in 2004
drew 84 percent and 78 percent of
registered voters.
Democratic Party, designed as an election vehicle for former general and cabinet minister
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (or SBY as he is
commonly called), immediately projected him
into serious contention for the presidency. In
July, voting directly for president among a field
of five, Indonesians gave SBY an extraordinary
33.59 percent and Megawati 26.61 percent of
their votes, enough to put these two in a run-off
that took place on September 20.
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conformity with the views of party leaders, and
in the end many did not. After three years in
office, Megawati had restored macroeconomic
stability and been a moderating influence on
inter-ethnic and inter-religious relations. But
she did not do much about corruption or mount
much of a campaign against Islamist terrorism.
And the economy was still failing to produce
jobs. She was felt by many to be aloof and
uncaring.
SBY needed to attract only 50 percent more
votes than he did in July in order to win in
September. Even this was a sizable task, as his small
party lacked any organization in many parts of the
country. The former general therefore adopted an
electoral strategy of appealing directly to voters via
television, which is the primary source of political
information for most Indonesians. Analysts noted
that his support was well distributed among most
parts of the archipelago. Polls showed he was considered photogenic, a good communicator, and
likely to get things done.
SBY has said he will build a coalition cabinet
in cooperation with other parties. What will this
mean? Three of the country’s largest parties not
only supported his opponent in the September
election, but are badly divided internally after
the past year of continuous electioneering.
Constructing parliamentary majorities on major
issues will be even more difficult than in the
past. Thus Indonesia seems to have moved closer to the politics of its neighbors in Southeast
Asia. Parties are weak; government will depend
on coalitions of the willing. Not only that: the
right candidate for president or prime minister
might even be able to be elected with virtually
no party at all, which is a good deal less appealing.
Can democratizing nations manage well
without strong parties? The question continues
to bedevil the Thais and Filipinos. Now
Indonesians confront the question, too.
John Bresnan is an adjunct senior research scholar at
Columbia’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute.
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EU
+10
The European Union and Its Ten New Members
The first half of 2004 marked two historic events for
Europe. On May 1, eight Central European countries
(Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic,
Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia) and two Mediterranean
island states (Cyprus and Malta) became full members of
the European Union. Then, on June 17–18, the 25 EU
heads of government reached agreement on the
European Union’s first-ever constitution.
By Glenda G. Rosenthal
The 2004 enlargement was the largest and most
complex in the EU’s history. It represents, after
years of debate and delay, the reunification of
Europe and the removal of the barriers created
by the Cold War. This is part of a process, not
only of elimination of frontiers and the broadening of markets, but also of what is hoped to be
the spread and deepening of a set of values—
democratic governance, the rule of law, respect
for human rights, and market economy. It also
represents an historic step toward the goal of a
Europe “whole, free, at peace, and growing in
prosperity” called for by successive U.S. presidents and “the realization of the dreams of many
generations” of European citizens (Polish
President Aleksander Kwasniewski).
The enlargement of the EU increased its
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population by 77 million to more than 450 million, doubled its territory to two and one half
million square miles, and nearly doubled its official languages from 11 to 20. Even though it has
been only 15 years since the Berlin Wall fell, the
face of the European continent has changed fundamentally. Nonetheless, although the new
members represent about 20 percent of the
existing EU population, they account for only 5
percent of the GDP of those already there. With
enlargement, the gap in income distribution
within the EU25 has risen by about 20 percent—twice as much as when Greece, Spain,
and Portugal became members in the 1980s. The
EU has already spent the current dollar value
equivalent of two Marshall Plans on the acces-
11to20
languages
The number of languages has increased from 11 to 20.
sion process and will continue to provide funds
to assist the new members and other candidate
countries like Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia,
Macedonia, and Turkey.
With entry into the EU, the 10 new members
are represented in all the European institutions
through members in the European Parliament
(directly elected this past June by citizens of all
25 member countries). The 25 are also members
of the European Commission and have seats and
votes in the European Council of Ministers and
in all the functional ministerial councils. They
have thus become, in theory at least, an integral
part of the EU decision-making process, enjoying the same rights and obligations as the original 15 members. We all know, however, that
some member states, particularly the “old” ones,
claim to be more equal than the others. Even
though Poland, for example, is roughly the same
size as Spain, it had to negotiate long and hard
to obtain the same number of votes in decisions
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requiring a qualified majority vote. Even among
the smaller states, the “old” members tend to get
more recognition than the “new.”
The new European Parliament, the one institution directly representing the European citizenry, was elected by a pitifully small percentage
of the electorate in both old and new member
countries, in some cases not much more than 30
percent. Most Europeans do not know who their
member of Parliament is or what he or she is
supposed to do. This does not bode well for
future harmony or for reducing what has been
dubbed the “democratic deficit.”
Beyond the May 1 expansion to 25 members,
the EU is continuing negotiations with Romania
and Bulgaria. It is expected that these two countries will be in a position to join in 2007. The
door to eventual membership is also open to the
Balkan countries. Negotiations are due to start
with Croatia in 2005, and Macedonia has submitted its application for membership. Finally, a
decision has been made to start membership
negotiations with Turkey.
Even though leaders in the new member and
applicant countries paint a rose-colored picture
of the future for their people, there is another,
more daunting, side to this picture. The task of
making a much larger EU function effectively is
difficult. Both the old and the new members will
have to engage in a process of adaptation. The
new members have been used to this since the
early nineties; the old ones are just beginning to
realize that they will also have to change, and
many of their citizens and governments do not
like the idea very much. As has been pointed out
many times, enlargement is likely to be expensive and painful for the rich Westerners, too.
“The danger is that they will refuse to adjust
enough to make the enlarged EU a success and
cause deep disillusion in the east”(Quentin Peel
in the Financial Times, April 29, 2004).
If the long-standing problems of the EU15—
distance from the voters, lack of transparency,
gridlock in decision making, and lowest common denominator compromises—are not
addressed, the whole structure may collapse.
One can even argue that the European project is
looking increasingly troubled. It has often been
suggested that “widening” must take place at the
expense of “deepening.” The EU is nowhere near
the so-called Lisbon economic goals slated for
2010. The stability pact rules that supposedly
manage the much-vaunted monetary union have
been made a laughing stock and flouted by one
country after another. One hardly needs mention the nasty row that developed over Iraq and
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One can even argue that
the European project is
looking increasingly
troubled. It has often been
suggested that “widening”
must take place at the
Europe’s relations with the United States, a row
that is still a source of deep divisions. Indeed, the
very deepening of European integration has
caused some to question the EU’s newly gained
powers and claim they threaten deeply rooted
national traditions. This is particularly the case
in the former Soviet bloc countries, where no
one wants to exchange the hegemony of
Moscow for that of Brussels.
This is the chief reason why all EU members
and prospective members have struggled for the
past two and a half years to bring the draft of the
Constitutional Treaty to a successful conclusion.
This constitution represents an effort to preserve
and deepen European unity. The convention that
drafted the constitution was a democratic innovation. It brought together representatives of
member and applicant state governments and
parliaments (28 in all), along with delegations
from the European Parliament and the European
Commission. Now that the draft constitution
has been approved unanimously, it still has to be
ratified by each of the member states, and in at
least 11 after a popular referendum. It is possible
that it will be defeated in some countries. In that
event, no one is willing to venture what will happen. It could easily tear the whole EU apart. I
suggest that there will be some kind of compromise that will be marginally satisfactory or
slightly unsatisfactory.
As it stands now, the Constitutional Treaty is
intended to bring about a significant change in
the overall structure of the EU, although many of
its provisions are taken directly from the treaties
that it will replace. It is supposed to create a more
coherent and comprehensible EU and clarify the
roles of its institutions, thus eliminating the socalled democratic deficit that has bedeviled the
EU since its earliest years. New provisions on
participatory democracy and good governance
have acquired constitutional status, and fundamental rights will be protected through the integration of the Charter for Fundamental Rights
into the Constitution. “This is a dream come
true,” said Commission President Romano Prodi.
“This is an important day for Europe,” said French
President Jacques Chirac. “A success for Britain
and a success for Europe,” according to British
Prime Minister Tony Blair. And German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called it “an
important signal being sent out that shows the
capacity of Europe to unite.” These comments are
overstatements not unfamiliar in European rhetoric. Now we have to wait approximately two and
a half years to see whether the Constitutional
Treaty is ratified, so that it can be implemented
and European integration can proceed.
Glenda G. Rosenthal is an adjunct professor at the
School of International and Public Affairs and director of
the EU Program at the Institute for the Study of Europe,
Columbia University.
expense of “deepening.”
450
The enlargement of the EU increased its population by 77 million to more than 450 million.
million
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Character: vote
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The Hong Kong Paradox
By Maria Ma
High Stakes
I
n today’s topsy-turvy world of
Hong Kong politics, capitalist tycoons are aligned
with the Chinese Communist Party, those who fly the
Liberal Party banner are actually political conservatives,
and more than half a million residents of a territory
once stereotyped as caring less about politics than
making a buck have participated in the biggest
political protests on Chinese soil since the 1989
Tiananmen Square demonstrations.
Paradoxes, strange bedfellows, and other surprises are common in times of political transition, and Hong Kong is no exception. Once
economist Milton Friedman’s favorite example of
successful laissez-faire governance, Hong Kong
is experiencing upheaval as pro-democracy and
pro-Beijing forces spar over the territory’s political future. At stake, both sides say, is the nature
of Hong Kong’s relationship with Beijing, and
the very future of democracy in the territory
itself. Will Hong Kong claim its autonomy from
Beijing and propel itself toward full democratization, perhaps inspiring similar movements on
the mainland? Or will an atavistic Beijing, citing
the need for economic security and incremental
change, clamp down on its increasingly assertive
Asian Tiger and renege on its promise of “One
Country, Two Systems?”
The current battleground issue concerns
direct elections of the representational Legislative
Council (also known as LegCo) and the Chief
Executive, Hong Kong’s highest office. Under the
present rules, only half of the 60-member LegCo
is voted in by the public, while the other half is
chosen by blocs of business leaders known as functional constituencies. The catering industry, for example, holds one LegCo seat; so does the real estate
sector, in which there are only 757 voters.
Similarly, the Chief Executive is chosen by
an 800-member committee of prominent Hong
Kong figures, many of whom hold pro-Beijing
sentiments and, not coincidentally, business
interests on the mainland. While the idea of
wealthy businessmen standing shoulder-toshoulder with Communist party cadres may
seem odd to some, those in the business community fear that political tumult could jeopardize
their interests in Hong Kong and on the mainland. Good relations with China and maintaining the status quo for the near future is essential,
they say, now that the local economy has begun
to recover after a long slump aggravated by
increased competition from the mainland and
last year’s SARS crisis.
Nevertheless, pro-democracy advocates are
crying foul, charging that the current electoral system is stacked against them. “It has to be up to the
people to choose who is going to represent them,”
says legislator and former Democratic Party chairman Martin Lee. “But Beijing is afraid of losing
control of Hong Kong, so it wants to make sure
that the majority of legislators and the Chief
Executive are going to be people it trusts, even
though they are not trusted by the Hong Kong
people.”
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Still, even Beijing’s allies in Hong Kong say that
democracy is their ultimate goal. And though Beijing
may have ruled out direct elections in the next few
years, it has not dismissed the idea completely.
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rapid democratization. Despite—or because
of—the popular outcry, Beijing so far has
remained unmoved.
“Beijing is not comfortable with the idea of
free elections, within China and outside,” says
Columbia University political science professor
Thomas P. Bernstein. “The leaders fear that a fully
free election could lead to dominance of the
democratic forces, which might have a contagion
effect within China and which would certainly
make dealing with Hong Kong more difficult.”
But Everyone Wants
Democracy
Hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy supporters
march in the streets of Hong Kong, July 1, 2004.
Those who side with Beijing argue that limiting political freedom now while strengthening
political and economic ties with the mainland
will ensure a smoother and more prosperous
transition to democracy. But Beijing ratcheted
up tension levels last spring when it unilaterally
decided to deny Hong Kong complete suffrage
in the next round of elections in 2007 and 2008.
In response, more than half a million people
took to the streets on July 1 to demand the right
to elect their own leaders and to call for more
Still, even Beijing’s allies in Hong Kong say
that democracy is their ultimate goal. And
though Beijing may have ruled out direct elections in the next few years, it has not dismissed
the idea completely. Hong Kong’s constitution,
the Basic Law, clearly gives the territory the
right “to exercise a high degree of autonomy”
with universal suffrage—though the how and
when are left up to Beijing.
What the players disagree on, then, is the
timing and structure of democratic elections.
Beijing’s advocates favor the gradual introduction of universal suffrage, claiming that Hong
Kong, having only emerged from colonial rule
under Britain in 1997, is not yet politically
mature enough to handle the freewheeling
nature of government by the people.
Democracy proponents scoff at the idea. “I
do not subscribe to the view that a country has
to be ready for democracy,” says Lee. “All countries in the world are ready. And if there are to
be qualifications, I cannot see why the Hong
Kong people are said to be unready. People
watched us demonstrate on July 1, and this must
have been the most dignified and peaceful
demonstration the world has ever seen.”
Other democrats openly question the proBeijing camp’s commitment to even incremental
democratization. “Sadly, some people in the
business community who have access to the corridors of power are unfriendly to democracy
because it’s against monopoly and collusion,”
says LegCo member Emily Lau, who has been
accused of treason by political opponents for her
outspoken and unrelenting advocacy of direct
elections.
Lau says she has also received anonymous
death threats. “As for freedom of expression,”
she says, “it’s only free if you say something
Beijing likes.”
People Power: Ready . . .
or Not?
Though the people returned both Lau and
Lee to LegCo in elections this past September,
democrats were disappointed with the overall
results; despite capturing 18 of 30 open seats,
more than they held in the previous council,
prodemocracy legislators remain thwarted in
their efforts to gain a majority.
Nevertheless, democrats won three-fifths of
the popular vote, as record numbers of people
went to the polls. Turnout was high despite a
charm offensive mounted by Beijing and its allies
in the weeks leading up to the election, which
included a heavily-publicized visit by China’s
Olympic gold medalists and a scandal involving
a prodemocracy candidate jailed on charges of
soliciting a prostitute while on a recent trip to
the mainland.
Christine Loh of the Hong Kong–based
think tank Civic Exchange believes that voter
turnout, which hit an all-time high of 56 percent
in the September elections, would have been
even larger with universal suffrage. “It’s a good
turnout rate for not electing the government,”
she says. “The main thing to note is that over the
years, more and more people have gone to vote.”
Hong Kong’s thirst for democracy, then, is
far from dying out. In the meantime, Beijing is
walking a tightrope. Allowing too much democracy in Hong Kong might ignite democratic
sentiments on the mainland. Too little democracy might provoke more mass protests and negative publicity, and Hong Kong could become
Exhibit A in Taiwan’s case against reunification
with China. The last thing Beijing wants or
needs is turmoil as it prepares for the glare of the
world’s spotlight during China’s great comingout party—the 2008 Olympics.
Ironically, the democrats’ so-so results in the
September elections may help their cause in the
long run. With twelve pro-Beijing candidates
winning LegCo seats by direct vote, Lee, for
one, says he hopes Beijing will feel less threatened and relax a little.
“I would tell them, ‘Look, you have nothing
to fear,’” he says. “You’ve got to leave it to the
people of Hong Kong to run this place.”
Maria Ma, MIA ’05, is concentrating in International
Media and Communications.
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The Damascene
D E B AT I N G
Society
By Arvin Bhatt
M
uch ink—and blood—have been spent in recent years in trying to
bring democracy and liberalism to the Middle East. In a quiet, upscale
neighborhood in Damascus this summer, an important evolution was
taking place without the need for force or sanctions.
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Every other Saturday afternoon, a group of
Syrians, both Christian and Muslim, along with
a handful of interested foreigners, get together
to talk at the British Council. The British
Council is an organization that teaches English
to students around the world and introduces
them to British culture. Along with the works of
Shakespeare and Graham Greene and books on
British history, you can check out your favorite
Fawlty Towers video or keep up to date with the
latest UK pop sensations. In recent years, the
Damascus branch has also taught Arabic to foreign students, which is what brought me to
Syria. As a first-time visitor to the Middle East, I
was prepared for a lot of surprises. The last thing
I expected to find in Damascus was a debate
club.
Reda Muhajer is the leader of the group and
the moderator of the debates. A tall, thin man,
he is fond of making jokes in his British-accented English and tends to refer to me and other
foreign students as “chaps.” Muhajer had been
studying English at the British Council for more
than five years. He, along with the administration of the Council, came up with the idea of
starting a debating society as a way for advanced
students of English to improve their language
skills. But the club has also allowed Syrians to
express themselves in a way they haven’t necessarily been able to before.
“We could never have such a club at the
University of Damascus,” he told me one
evening after a debate. “The administration
would have too much control, and people would
be afraid to speak. At the British Council, things
are different.”
The existence of the debate club seems to
reflect incremental changes in Syrian society
that several of my Syrian friends had noticed.
“In the 1980s, everything was banned,”
Muhajer told me. “Now things have changed a
lot.” Others mentioned that cell phones, rare
only two years ago, are now everywhere. The
guidebook I took with me to Syria, a 2001 edition, warned of blocked Web sites and censored foreign newspapers as being common.
Oddly, during my two-month stay in Syria, the
only Web site I had trouble accessing was
Columbia University’s, while magazines like
The Economist were freely available and without
missing pages.
Of course, Syria is not Switzerland, and the
creation of the debate club was not without risk.
Mehbub Hussain, a British expat from London
and teacher at the British Council, is one of the
staff members who helped get the debating society started. He explained the delicate position
that the debate club puts the Council administration in with the Syrian government. While
the people at the Council want to encourage
free expression, their primary mission is to teach
English and provide Syrians with an opportunity
to learn about British culture.
“If it came to choosing between the debate
club and keeping the Council open, obviously
the club would be dropped,” Hussain said. He
also commented on the relatively open atmosphere of the Council, which has encouraged
some of his students to express opinions—both
positive and negative.
“I was surprised at the bigotry, homophobia,
Syrians and foreigners participated in the
debates, and there was a wide range of opinions.
Surprisingly, the hijab (head scarf) debate was
the most contentious of the three I observed and
sharply divided the Syrians. One side criticized
the French ban and denounced it as hypocritical
in a society that defends freedom. Another
group felt the ban, while distasteful, should be
respected by Muslims in France, as it was a democratically and legally enacted law. As the discussion grew more heated, the conversation
shifted to the role religion should play in society, as well as what defines a “good Muslim.”
Unfortunately, at this point the moderator
stepped in to remind everyone that they were
getting off topic, and this fascinating tangent
was cut short.
“We could never have such a club at the University of
Damascus,” he told me one evening after a debate. “The
administration would have too much control, and people
would be afraid to speak.”
and anti-Semitism some of my students felt free
to express in class,” he said.
The members suggest topics for the debate
club, but there are limits to what is allowed. Any
subject that relates at all to the Syrian government or President Bashar al-Asad is strictly forbidden, and a Council staff member is always
present to make sure the discussions do not veer
too far off topic. The scope of this ban is sometimes difficult to define. For example, several
foreign students suggested discussing whether
oil has been a blessing or a curse to the Middle
East. After pondering the subject for several
days, the staff decided this topic could lead to
references to the Syrian government—which
produces a modest half-million barrels plus of oil
a day—and rejected it. A discussion of oil would
inevitably result in examining the way individual
governments have decided to spend oil revenues.
Given these limitations, it was surprising how
far the debates actually went. The topics of the
three debates I attended included, “Should the
French Ban on the Hijab Be Adopted in the U.K.
and U.S.?” “Arab Views of the West,” and “Does
Learning English Colonize the Mind?” Both
The fact that the debates are held in English
and are open to foreign visitors creates a unique
opportunity for non-Arabs to get to know
Syrians better and vice versa. Nadia and
Dareen, two Syrian women who regularly participated, agree that one of the best aspects of
the debates was the ability to meet and talk
with foreign students. Nadia said it was her
impression that Americans were uneducated
about the Middle East, but attending the
debates made her realize that they have a range
of knowledge and opinions about the region.
Dareen said the debates allowed both Syrians
and visitors to express themselves in their own
words, offering a perspective that is interesting
and informative.
The debate club, involving 20 people at
most, may be limited in its scope, but it is an
example of the kind of small, gradual steps on
which real and lasting change is built over time.
As one Syrian participant said in the first debate
I attended, “You must let us change by ourselves.”
Arvin Bhatt, MIA ’05, SIPA News co-editor, is
concentrating in International Security Policy.
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DEMOCRACY 101:
A F G H A N I S TA N
By Rachel Martin
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Karzai’s Afghan Challenge
As Afghanistan prepared for the presidential elections held in
October 2004 and as the country anticipates the parliamentary
elections, currently scheduled for spring 2005, there is a new
push by aid organizations to help develop the country’s
political parties. From Kabul, Rachel Martin reports on one
program designed to give political groups the information,
tools, and tactics they need to become viable parts of the
country’s nascent democratic process. The following report
originally aired on National Public Radio on August 10, 2004.
A
lthough the rhetoric is close to the
real thing, the candidates and their
political parties are not. They’re part
of a two-day election simulation in
Kabul set up by the American-run
National Democratic Institute, or NDI.
Workshop participants are divided into three
political parties—green, red, and black, the colors
of the Afghan flag. Forty-something Abdul Jafar
from the Pansheer Valley is the leader of the black
party. An architectural engineer by trade, he says
he’s here to learn the ins and outs of campaigns so
that he can teach the members of his political
party back home.
“Only a few people are educated and most people are illiterate, so we have to train them,” says
Jafar. “We have to have more of these kinds of
workshops so people can make their vote count.”
And that’s the goal, says NDI Campaign
Training Director Kit Spence. After listening to
their nominees pitch their promises, Spence and
the half dozen Afghan trainers help the group file
into the Election Training and Information
Center to cast their votes. With the help of the
U.S. government, NDI has set up six of these
training centers around the country and will soon
open up more. The centers are meant to be places
where political parties can gather to talk strategy,
research candidates, and walk through the election process through simulations like this one.
Trainers explain how to clearly mark an “X”
next to the preferred party candidate. Then, one
by one, the participants enter a makeshift voting
booth made private by a green cloth curtain.
Twenty-two-year-old Huma Nasseri is one of
three women at the workshop. Nasseri belongs to
the National Unity for Afghan Youth party that
promotes unity among the various ethnic groups
in Afghanistan. According to the Ministry of
Justice, more than 30 groups like hers have registered, and dozens more are waiting for approval.
Many of the parties today are centered on a
strong party leader or personality like Abdul
Rashid Dostum of the National Islamic Movement
or the political party set up last month by supporters of slain Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah
Massoud. For generations, political parties in
Afghanistan have served as the front for military
regimes. Members were often forced to support
the parties for little or nothing in return. Today, as
Afghanistan fights its way to democracy, political
parties are trying to reconstitute themselves as
legitimate vehicles for social change.
But U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay
Khalilzad says this won’t be easy. “Parties have not
had a good history in Afghanistan,” according to
Khalilzad. “People have been skeptical of them
because they have been extremist or Communist in
the past. The challenge is whether they can change
themselves—can they seize this new moment of
opportunity and behave according to the requirements of a successful democratic polity?”
Back outside the Election Training and
Information Center, the group becomes quiet as
the trainers start to count the votes on a small
wooden table. Though it is a mock election, there
is a real sense of anticipation in the air.
While the presidential elections this fall included both party candidates and independents, the
big season for Afghanistan’s political parties is next
spring, when parliamentary and local elections
take place. And although elections come down to
winners and losers, election officials emphasize
that the real victory won’t belong to the party that
wins, but to the parties that participate.
Rachel Martin, MIA ’04, is working as a full-time freelancer with NPR in Kabul.
Afghan men line up to vote outside the Jamee Sunni Mosque in Herat, October 9, 2004, as polls open for the first direct
presidential election in the country's history.
Afghanistan held its first democratic presidential election on October 9. Despite the
increased threat of attacks by Taliban and al
Qaeda factions to undermine the elections,
millions of Afghans went to the polls. Interim
leader Hamid Karzai faced 15 other presidential candidates, including Karzai’s former education minister, Younus Qanouni, and the first
Afghan woman to run for president, Massouda
Jalal. Many of Karzai’s opponents claim the
election was fraudulent and that Karzai was
getting unfair support from the United States
and the United Nations.
The OSCE, the European organization
charged with monitoring the election, admits
there were problems with the polling
process. The biggest issue was ink meant to
stain voters’ fingers to prevent multiple voting, which in the end proved easy to wash
off. An independent panel monitored by the
UN is conducting an investigation into
claims that the election was not free and fair.
On November 3, Karzai was officially
declared the winner of the country’s presidential election, with 55.4 percent of the vote.
The announcement came after a panel probing
voting irregularities said they would not affect
the outcome. Karzai will now have to prove his
legitimacy by fulfilling his campaign promises
to rid the government of corruption, curb the
illegal drug trade, and give all Afghans clean
water, electricity, and access to health care. If
he can bring some of this to bear at the onset
of his term, he will have an easier time getting
the unified support he needs to build a strong
central government and ensure the future of
Afghanistan’s new, fragile democracy.
Afghan election officials tally ballot papers at a
counting center in Kabul.
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MISREADING ELECTIONS
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R A F I S
A B A Z O V
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azakhstani parliamentary elections on
September 19, 2004,
triggered a new round
of discussions on the
nature of political
transition and democratization in the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in
general and in Kazakhstan in particular. More
than 300 candidates, including representatives
from most of the opposition parties, were competing for seats in the Majlis—the national parliament. In a bold experiment, for the first time in
the Central Asian region, electronic voting was
used, and the election was open to all independent observers. The Kazakhstani government, led
by President Nursultan Nazarbayev, claimed that
the use of these innovations gave all Kazakhstani
citizens equal rights and the opportunity to
express their preferences.
Yet long before the elections, many experts
predicted that the pro-government political parties would win comfortably over the deeply
divided and ill-organized political opposition
parties. Many NGOs and international watchdog
organizations criticized the Kazakhstani government and leaders for “having unfair advantages.”
The criticism included accusations that those in
power raised significantly more resources for preelection campaigning than the opposition, that
the sitting government built an overwhelming
political machine, and that it used Soviet-style
propaganda in the mass media. Many critics have
concluded that the Kazakhstani elections indicate that the country is moving in the wrong
direction, that it is as far from being democratic
as ever, and that the Kazakhstani government is
becoming one of the worst authoritarian regimes
in the former Communist bloc.
In response, many Kazakhstani officials use
the example of the United States to rebut the
charges. Incumbent candidates in U.S. elections
tend to collect far more resources than their challengers, and with significant resources at hand,
they can create powerful political machines. As
for the use of mass media, incumbents tend to
capitalize on their access to the media, emphasizing the positive outcomes of their policies, while
completely ignoring many negative ramifications
of their actions. Kazakhstani officials say this scenario closely resembles their own election.
Every credible comparative political scientist,
however, would dismiss the very idea of comparing these two hugely different political systems.
Their most powerful argument would be that the
two countries have completely different political
traditions and institutions and different histories
of political development. This is the most difficult point in intellectual discourse between
Western and transitional policymakers. Western
scholars and policymakers put too much emphasis on institutions, specifically elections, as a
benchmark of universal democratic values. Since
no government official in Kazakhstan would
challenge the values of the liberal democracies
and none would call for a return to the totalitarian system, these officials do not accept the accusation that the elections in Kazakhstan were
unfair. For them, merely having elections is the
symbol of their democratic progress.
So what makes the two elections different?
closed their eyes to the great hardship and poverty among ordinary people, to the disappearance
of the middle class, to skyrocketing unemployment, and to many other social issues. Thus,
ordinary people simply have no stake in this liberal democratic experiment. Governments
remain advocates of foreign agendas, as Western
donors encourage them to achieve a set of institutional changes. Many liberal opposition political parties, supported by Western donors, do
scarcely better, as they also propose the same
institutional changes, only faster. These parties
often work exclusively in the largest metropolitan areas, seldom venturing into small towns and
cities. Practically all political parties in transitional countries have no solid political base in the
Unfortunately, many policymakers often
focus on the creation of the specific political
institutions more than on the creation of the
conditions for democratic development
and civil society.
Are elections fair in the modern globalized world
after all? Is it enough to accept a set of values and
to have a set of specific institutions that should
be as close to the Western model of democracy
as possible, as many international organizations
and Western donors often insist? Or do we need
to create specific conditions in which these institutions will work?
Unfortunately, many policymakers often
focus on the creation of the specific political
institutions more than on the creation of the conditions for democratic development and civil
society. Paradoxically, the post-Soviet governments have been encouraged by the Western
partners to continue Gorbachev’s “revolution
from above,” working on agendas introduced by
donor institutions rather than responding to
demands of their own people. In turn, this policy
has often created postcolonial political dependency among governments in the region and general political apathy among impoverished populations.
The missing point of the discourse was and
still is a focus on the subjects of the reforms—on
the people and their needs. Donor institutions
and transitional governments have ignored deteriorating social and economic conditions in the
societies. For example, for a long time they have
society, because the middle class, who could have
a stake in the reforms, has practically disappeared.
Kazakhstani parliamentary elections would
not meet many liberal democratic criteria, not
because the democratic institutions are absent
there, but because the conditions necessary for
these institutions to work have not been
developed properly. While Kazakhstan has made
progress, that progress should not be measured
by the number of registered political parties or by
the number of opposition leaders elected to the
Majlis. It should be gauged by bettering the lives
of ordinary people in the country, who after a
decade of “revolution from above” deserve an
improvement in their living standards. Critical to
that improvement is the respect for property
rights. Kazakhstanis must also have equal access
to voting ballots and opportunities to make real
choices. Most importantly, the government and
political parties must begin listening to the voices of the people and earning their votes. Only
these changes can create a proper environment
for political institutions to work.
Rafis Abazov is a visiting scholar at Columbia’s Harriman
Institute and a lecturer at the School of International and
Public Affairs.
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Is Algeria
Getting It
Right?
By William B. Eimicke and Hocine Cherhabil
A woman passes by electoral posters for Ali Benflis,
secretary general of the National Liberation Front (FLN),
in March 2004.
n April of 2004 Algerians voted overwhelmingly to re-elect incumbent
President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika to a second term. The 2004 presidential elections
marked the country’s third successive multiparty
competition and can be characterized as among
the most free and open in the Arab world. The
army, which has long dominated political decisions in Algeria, promised to stay out of the 2004
campaign and, based on the reports of international monitors, it seems to have honored that
commitment. Future historians may come to
identify this election as the turning point in
Algeria’s long struggle for democracy.
Algeria became independent in 1962, after
130 years of French control and a brutal eightyear war of independence. More than one million French citizens living in Algeria at the time
returned to France, leaving behind little administrative experience among Algerians and a history
of political violence, military rule, and human
rights violations that continues to haunt the
Algerian republic.
Independent Algeria was ruled by the movement that led the national struggle, the National
Liberation Front (FLN). The first president,
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Ahmed Ben Bella, was removed in 1965 by
Minister of Defense Col. Houari Boumedienne in
a bloodless coup. Boumedienne was formally
elected in 1976 and led the country until his
death in 1978. His successor, Col. Chadli
Benjedid, was elected in 1979 and re-elected in
1984 and 1988. In 1988 major riots prompted the
government to call on the army to quell unrest
for the first time since independence and begin a
period of significant reform. A new constitution,
adopted in 1989, authorized parties other than
the FLN and ended the privileged role of the
armed forces in running the government. Among
the many parties created under the new constitutional freedom was the militant Islamic Salvation
Front (FIS), which was committed to the adoption of a Muslim government in Algeria.
FIS won more than 50 percent of the vote in
the municipal elections of 1990 and a similar percentage in the first round of the national elections in 1991. Faced with the prospect of a FIS
victory, the president dissolved the assembly,
resigned under pressure from the military, and
was replaced by a five-member High Council of
the State. A violent civil war between government loyalists and FIS forces broke out in 1992
and continued throughout the decade. More
than 100,000 Algerians are estimated to have
died during the conflict.
In 1994, former Minister of Defense Liamine
Zeroual was appointed head of state for a threeyear term by the High Council. Zeroual, nevertheless, called for elections the following year
(excluding the FIS) and was elected with 75 percent of the vote. In 1998, Zeroual announced he
would resign early in favor of new, more competitive, and fair elections in 1999. Former Foreign
Minister Abdel Aziz Bouteflika was elected president, as all of his opponents withdrew from the
race shortly before the election.
Before his resignation, President Zeroual,
however, had created the National Independent
Commission for the Supervision of the
Presidential Election (CNISEP), headed by
Judge Mohammed Bedjaoui, a justice of the
International Court of Justice at The Hague.
Bedjaoui also headed the Constitutional
Council, which qualified the six presidential
candidates for the 2004 elections. More than
130 international observers monitored the 2004
elections and found little evidence of fraud or
manipulation.
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Algerian President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika speaks at an election meeting.
The 2004 campaign was characterized by the
international press as “lively with large attendance at rallies.” There were televised debates
and accusations of fraud and lying among the
candidates. Negative incidents were relatively
minor, including the tearing up of posters, disruption of rallies by opponents, and some burglaries of candidates’ local offices.
Unofficial polls had President Bouteflika in
fourth place during the campaign. While
Bouteflika was identified by some as the military’s
choice, all six of the opposition candidates
stayed in the campaign through the election.
According to official government estimates, the
2004 election turnout was 59.3 percent, and
Bouteflika ultimately received about 84 percent
of the vote. Ali Benflis, his former prime minister
and secretary of the powerful National
Liberation Front (FLN), received only 6.4 percent. Finishing third was Abdallah Jaballah, a
moderate Islamist leader who received 5 percent.
Jaballah’s campaign was said to suggest evidence
that Muslims seeking a greater role for religious
values in public policy can follow a democratic
path. Louisa Hannoun, running on the
Communist Workers Party line, finished fifth
with one percent of the vote. It is worth noting
that Hannoun is the first woman to run as an official candidate for president in the Arab world.
Critics pointed to the exclusion by the
Constitutional Council of Ahmed Taleb Ibrahimi,
a former government minister with strong ties to
the FIS, as evidence that the elections were not as
free as they appeared. However, the Council
found that Ibrahimi failed to secure the required
75,000 signatures, and it did certify six other presidential candidates.
Critics also argued that the military still dominates the political process but is just more subtle
than it used to be. The relationship between the
military and Bouteflika has been difficult for
some time, yet Bouteflika won a landslide victory
at the polls. On August 3, General Mohamed
Lamari, Algeria’s armed forces chief of staff, who
was credited with crushing the Islamist rebel
movement and rumored to be the real power
behind the regime, resigned and was replaced by
Bouteflika’s choice, General Salah Ahmed Gaid.
Algeria has made significant strides toward
becoming a free and honest democracy.
However, there is much work yet to be done,
particularly in the realm of freedom of the press.
Throughout the summer of 2004, international
attention was focused on the imprisonment of
two high profile journalists for defamation. The
independent Algerian print media and many
international observers viewed the arrests as part
of the government’s harassment of journalists
who criticize their policies.
Nevertheless, the exceptional vitality of the
independent press is evidence of a remarkable
evolution of freedom of expression in Algeria,
although in their enthusiasm Algerian journalists
sometimes involve themselves a bit too directly
in politicians’ battles, tarnishing the objective
work of professionals in the media.
Hocine Cherhabil is director of the École nationale
d’administration (ENA), Algeria’s university for the training of professional civil servants.
William B. Eimicke is the director of SIPA’s Picker
Center for Executive Education and administrator of a
grant from the U.S. Department of State to build an academic partnership between SIPA and ENA.
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POWER
POLITICS:
Oaxacan Style
By Mica Rosenberg
I
n the town of El Tule, in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca,
stands the largest tree in the world. At 130 feet tall, 178 feet
around, and more than 2,000 years old, the tree, which is also
known as “El Tule,” is the prize of this small town, and all important
events take place in the central plaza under its shadow.
On a warm evening in July 2004, several men in red shirts arrived
in the plaza to set up folding chairs and hang a screen from the façade
of the municipal government building. Children from the area trick-
PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party)
candidate for governor Ulises Ruiz
holds up ballot returns at a news
conference in the southeastern state
of Oaxaca August 2, 2004.
led in, and teenagers hung back on bikes waiting for sunset when the
popular movie Shrek would be projected. But before the animated
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People walk over a bridge draped with political posters in Oaxaca City.
characters could sing, an advertisement rolled for the Institutional
Revolutionary Party, the PRI—Mexico’s ruling political party from 1929 to
2000, and an institution in Oaxaca. The “Kiddy Movie Night” was part of a
campaign strategy designed to help PRI candidate Ulises Ruiz win Oaxaca’s
gubernatorial election this past August. The PRI has controlled Oaxaca for
75 years, which, for El Tule, may only mean another curve in a gnarly knot
on one of its branches, but in politics is an eternity. When President Vicente
Fox and his National Action Party (PAN) won the presidency in 2000, many
thought the reign of the PRI had finally come to an end. But in states like
Oaxaca, not much has changed. With patronage events like those in El Tule,
the party is fortifying its strong networks in an effort to win back the presidency in 2006.
In July 2004, the PRI won governorships in Durango and the former
In Oaxaca, one of the poorest states in the country,
buying political support is a common practice.
“During the PRI’s campaigns, they go to communities and bring people handouts,” said Ricardo
Magon, a 61-year-old farmer. “They’ll give two or
three kilos of rice or beans to every person or agricultural tools, like hoes and pickaxes.”
PAN stronghold of Chihuahua. In August, the controversial PRI candidate
Jorge Hank Rhon, a millionaire race track owner with alleged connections
to nefarious drug traffickers and corrupt politicians, won the mayoralty of
Tijuana.
The PRI is calling its recent success across Mexico the “Red Wave,” since
supporters wear red T-shirts and caps at all party events. “We think of the
elections as an electoral battle, and our party militants decided to wear uniforms for this battle,” Carlos Enrique Garcia Sauceda, a PRI functionary, told
Proceso magazine. “This is not only for the party organization but also for all
the sympathizers; it’s a show of cohesion.”
The recent election for governor in Oaxaca was the most competitive
race in decades and pitted the PRI’s candidate Ruiz against Gabino Cue
Monteagudo, the mayor of Oaxaca City since 2002. Both candidates cob2 2
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The Red Wave: Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) supporters of candidate for governor Ulises Ruiz cheer after their party claimed victory in the local election in
Oaxaca, August 2, 2004.
bled together unlikely coalitions for the race, with Ruiz running under the
banner of Nueva Fuerza Oaxaquena (the New Oaxacan Force), an alliance
of the PRI, the Greens, and the Socialists. Cue was backed by the conservative PAN, the leftist Revolutionary Democratic Party, and Convergencia,
which was formed several years ago by lapsed PRI loyalists.
According to state election officials, Ruiz won 47.6 to 44.3 percent, but
the Cue campaign claims there was fraud on election day, when computers
went down in the middle of the night.
“What I know is, that there was a quick count that went off the air on the
[Internet] page for about an hour,” Cue told the press. “That seems strange,
because before these inconsistencies occurred, we were leading by two to
three percent.”
Mexicans have been suspicious of vote-counting glitches since 1988,
when computers crashed with an opposition candidate leading the presidential race. When they were restored, the ruling PRI was ahead.
During the Oaxaca campaign, state officials received some 100 complaints of campaign irregularities—more than double that of past elections—ranging from the destruction of political propaganda to the distribution of money or food to potential voters. Days before the election, a violent skirmish between Cue and Ruiz supporters left one person dead and 20
others injured
In Oaxaca, one of the poorest states in the country, buying political support is a common practice. “During the PRI’s campaigns, they go to communities and bring people handouts,” said Ricardo Magon, a 61-year-old farmer
from the indigenous village of San Juquila Vijanos in Oaxaca’s northern
mountains. “They’ll give two or three kilos of rice or beans to every person
or agricultural tools, like hoes and pickaxes.”
Cue’s campaign, however, was also accused of wooing supporters with
cash—one charge claimed the party was handing out 1,000 pesos to potential voters in Santa Maria Colotepec, a town near the coast.
Some fear these practices are reminiscent of an old style of Mexican politics that was supposed to have been transformed with the end of the PRI’s
hold on the presidency.
“The whole world says that to modernize you have to change. I don’t
believe it,” said Jorge Hank Rhon, Tijuana’s new mayor. “They say reinvent
yourself or die, but this doesn’t mean that there’s a need to change.”
The PRI is looking to capitalize on Fox’s sliding popularity in its bid for
the presidency in 2006, said Alfonso Zarate, a political analyst in Mexico
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Interview with
Luis Carlos Ugalde ’92
President of the Federal Election
Institute of Mexico
Amalia Garcia, Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) gubernatorial candidate for the
Mexican northern State of Zacatecas, smiles during a meeting with bean producers
in Villa de Cos town Monday, June 28, 2004.
City. “They think they can return to the presidency because of the enormous ineptitude of Fox’s government. There is still nostalgia for the PRI.”
The recent successes of the party, and especially the win in Oaxaca, will
strengthen the position of Roberto Madrazo, the PRI’s national leader.
Madrazo is vying for the presidential nomination in 2006, and Ruiz is one
of his closest allies. “I’ve come to Oaxaca eight times, and I plan on three
more visits before the end of the campaign,” said Madrazo at a campaign
rally in Ejutla, Oaxaca, before election day. “Oaxaca is strategic because
whatever party wants to win the presidency of Mexico has to win the state.
What we are seeing is that here in Oaxaca the next presidential administration is being defined.”
Ruiz was hand picked by the previous powerful PRI governor Jose
Murat, another Madrazo supporter. Under the mantra Oaxaca en Marcha
(Oaxaca on the March), Murat launched a massive publicity campaign
hailing the accomplishments of his five-year tenure. Lining the roads of
the state are billboards with his name and pictures of sewage pipes constructed, universities and hospitals opened, and roads built.
Cue and his supporters criticized Murat’s heavy-handed leadership style
and accused him of interfering in the campaign.
Most sensationally, the governor’s car was attacked by men armed
with machine guns in Oaxaca City this March. One policeman was
killed, but Murat emerged from the incident unscathed. Accusations
arose that he staged the assassination attempt to garner sympathy for his
government and Ruiz’s gubernatorial campaign.
“Jose Murat’s style of government evokes the old caciques,” said Zarate,
using the Latin American term for local party bosses. “He ruled with a great
authoritarianism, with carrots and sticks. It is difficult in that atmosphere to
create alternatives.”
The upcoming presidential poll is sure to be hotly contested, but
recent election results may signal that the old PRI dinosaurs, as the party
functionaries are often called, have a serious chance to win. But the “Red
Wave” will have to overcome infighting to support Madrazo as the candidate. Party operators are confident that community events like the Shrek
screening under the old branches of El Tule will keep people in line
behind the PRI.
Mica Rosenberg, MIA ’05, is doing an independent concentration in Media and Human
Rights.
Luis Carlos Ugalde received his MIA from SIPA in 1992 and his PhD
from the Columbia Department of Political Science in 1999. He served as
chief of staff at the Embassy of Mexico to the United States for several
years and later became director of Political Science and International
Affairs at Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas (CIDE) in Mexico
City, where he also taught. Dr. Ugalde is the president of the Columbia
University Alumni Club of Mexico. Mica Rosenberg interviewed Mr. Ugalde
by telephone in late October 2004.
Rosenberg: How do you think crime and corruption affect the electoral
process?
Ugalde: Many people have suggested that democracy tends to reduce corruption, but evidence does not show that to be true. In the short term, new
democracies will sometimes even stimulate corruption. After the 2000
election in Mexico, many people assumed corruption would decrease automatically, but that has not happened yet, and Mexico is in the same position it was a few years ago. The electoral system alone cannot reduce corruption; you need to have second generation reforms —an independent
judiciary, a consolidated legislature, a more responsible media, and
informed citizens. In the middle term we will see that more democracy
means less corruption, but that transition does not happen right away.
Rosenberg: What do you think about allowing migrants living abroad to vote
in Mexican elections?
Ugalde: Expanding political rights is always a good thing. The question is,
what means do you use to realize this goal? There are 10 million Mexicans
living abroad, 98 percent of them live in the U.S., but they are quite dispersed. Out of that 10 million, only 4 million have an ID voting card, which
is required in Mexico to cast a ballot. It is also unclear what proportion of
Mexicans would be interested in voting. Implementing voting abroad would
cost a lot of money, and although President Fox has always been interested in the issue, there are people within each party cautioning against such
a risky logistical exercise.
Rosenberg: Considering the election irregularities reported in Florida during the 2000 U.S. presidential race, what advice would you give to
American policymakers about how to reform our voting system?
Ugalde: One problem in the U.S. is the level of decentralization of electoral
authority, which leads to a lack of coordination. You have several county
and state level electoral systems, each with its own voting machines and
registries, and you have a lot of variation in how each country or state
counts its votes. To remedy this you would have to make Constitutional
amendments centralizing the system, and that would be very difficult to do.
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FOUR MORE YEARS
Beyond Red and Blue
by Lisa Anderson
hat was the biggest surprise in the 2004
Presidential election? I was surprised and
somewhat disappointed that the “youth vote” was
hardly higher than it had been in 2000, especially after hearing from my eighteen-year-old son, a
first-time voter, that he waited four hours to exercise his franchise in Ohio.
I was also, I must admit, a bit surprised and
disappointed by the reaction to the outcome in
this most “blue state” of cities. New York went
overwhelmingly for Senator Kerry and reelected a
full slate of Democratic representatives. A display
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of some measure of bitterness and dismay in the
day or so after the election was therefore to be
expected. What surprised me were the uncomprehending, mystified reactions among people whose
professional lives depend on being willing and
able to offer analysis and explanation. Too much
of the instant analysis on the morrow of the election was dismissive, even contemptuous, of the
motives and purposes of red state voters. I heard
few reactions that credited red state voters and
the politicians who appeal to them with a coherent world view, a set of principles, or even much
good will. Yet the notion that the victors are merely cynical manipulators of dim-witted citizens
insults not only the 51 percent of the electorate
that supported the president but also the audi-
ence to whom such analysis is offered up.
Perhaps the red state voters did betray their
class interests—certainly a fair number of wealthy
liberals did so—and perhaps the president’s supporters did make decisions based on faith as
much as on reason, on intuition rather than on evidence. Why do we expect otherwise? Perhaps our
analytical approaches mislead us. Most public
policy analysts and practitioners employ social
scientific methods that privilege material interests, stress what we call rational action, and treat
most people as data points. For individuals who
believe that their souls exist in eternity, however,
our definitions of the parameters of interests or
rationality—and often the conceptions of justice
and liberty they imply—may seem cramped,
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superficial, and small-minded.
Moreover, for many red state voters, the
Republican campaign had an appealing vision
indeed, one that harked back to the early days of
democracy in the French and American
Revolutions. Instead of emphasizing equality, long
the preserve of the Democrats, the Republican
campaign accented instead the other elements of
the French Revolution’s battle cry: liberty and fraternity. George Bush himself proclaimed that “we
believe that liberty is the design of nature” and
promised it both at home, in his support of tax
cuts and opposition to gun control, and abroad, in
his mission to liberate Iraq. This, entwined with
the religious right’s fraternity of faith and family,
evidently had considerable allure.
The Bush Administration now faces the task of
balancing its sometimes contradictory commitments to liberty and to fraternity, and it will not be
easy. Violations of civil rights in the name of the
community of patriots are but one of many examples of the paradoxical and inconsistent policies
this balancing act has already produced. The job
will not be made any easier by the daunting
prospect of trying to pay for these policies without
the taxes customarily assessed for such purposes.
Nonetheless, it does neither them nor their opponents any favor to describe their supporters as simply reflexive or contrarian or to characterize their
victory as merely the triumph of cunning strategists. We at SIPA will be seizing this opportunity to
not only engage in politics but to reflect on it, to
try to understand, as well as change our world.
Lisa Anderson is dean of the School of
International and Public Affairs and a professor
in the Department of Political Science.
The Outlook for State and Local
Governments
by William B. Eimicke
resident Bush talked about his next four years
frequently during the 2004 campaign. Tax
reform, Social Security reform, and health savings
accounts are at the top of the president’s second
term agenda. This may or may not be good for segments of the general public, but regardless, these
“reforms” will not address the fiscal problems
faced by state and local governments. More
important, the huge federal budget deficit, the
war in Iraq, terrorism, soaring energy prices, and
a sharply divided electorate will likely top the
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president’s agenda in 2005 and perhaps the
remainder of his days in office.
The most pressing issues for state and local
governments—the rapidly rising costs of health
care, elementary and secondary education, and
public safety—were mentioned in the president’s
“Plan for a Safer World and More Helpful
America.” He promised “250 million dollars annually to extend state assessment of student reading
and math skills.” His health savings accounts will
do nothing to offset the burgeoning state and local
share of Medicaid costs, however. And, there are
no additional federal funds for first responders in
the president’s plan to defend American lives and
liberty. Rather, he promises to fight terrorism
abroad and use the Patriot Act as the primary
weapon against terrorism here at home.
President Bush will attempt to mitigate the
already substantial budget deficit by privatizing
Social Security, increasing Social Security and
Medicare contributions, and further reducing the
federal share of public assistance and job training
programs. However, unless there are dramatic
improvements in the security situation in Iraq, the
federal deficit will continue to grow. Under these
conditions, it is likely that President Bush will
seek to reduce federal assistance to state and
local governments, worsening an already severe
fiscal crisis.
William B. Eimicke is founding director of the
Picker Center of Executive Education at the
School of International and Public Affairs.
Prospects for Latin America
by Albert Fishlow
t was only a long, long night lasting into the
morning this time around. The final outcome did
not await a 5–4 Supreme Court vote.
President Bush won re-election on Tuesday
with a clear majority of votes and a narrow margin
in the Electoral College. Kerry’s concession avoided a tortuous (and unnecessary) wait for Ohio to
recount its provisional ballots.
The country remains divided, however, perhaps
more deeply than since the Civil War. Contrary to
what newly elected Senator Obama suggested in
his keynote address at the Democratic convention
this past summer, there is a difference between
the red and blue states. This disparity is less
about policy in Iraq and the domestic economy’s
performance—of which a majority of the population does not approve—and much more about
I
moral values. Fundamental issues like abortion,
homosexuality, gun control, and separation of
church and state divide rather than unite. These
are questions on which there is no compromise
possible, and around which Bush constructed his
popular majority.
Foreign policy, apart from Iraq, entered the
electoral contest indirectly at best. That was
unfortunate. The United States, now a solitary
power, is moving closer to a new isolationism. We
may speak of democracy as a universal value,
which we support, but our real willingness to provide long-run commitment and economic assistance is continuously declining. We have a weakened United Nations that is unable to resolve the
Darfur question, let alone the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. We exempt ourselves from international
environmental regulation, as well as from decisions at the World Court. Congressional support
for the World Trade Organization is on the decline
after recent negative rulings.
In recent years, with the absence of U.S. commitment, Latin America has become a nonentity.
There are Mexico and Central America, on the one
side, and South America, excepting Chile, on the
other. With the former, the Bush Administration
has moved ahead economically with NAFTA and
the new Central American agreement. I foresee a
more serious attempt to deal with the problem of
illegal migration, which comes primarily from this
first set of countries. Attention will be focused
there, by force of proximity.
With South America, the present policy of limited engagement is likely to continue. There will
be bilateral agreements for freer trade with
Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador, and efforts to
restrain production of drugs. Venezuela and
Mercosul will go their own way. Brazil will find no
U.S. support for its long cherished permanent
seat on the Security Council and will continue its
attempts at closer ties with China, India, and
South Africa. For President Lula, Bush’s continuation provides a useful justification of Brazil’s current strategy.
This is not an optimistic scenario for better
regional policy. But the beauty of American
democracy is the guarantee of another presidential election four years from now.
Albert Fishlow is a professor in the Department
of International and Public Affairs, director of the
Institute of Latin American Studies, and director
of the Center for Brazilian Studies at Columbia
University.
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The Values Divide
by Robert C. Lieberman
s there a deep cultural divide separating red and
blue America? In his recent provocative book,
Culture War?, Stanford political scientist Morris
Fiorina suggests that there is not. Fiorina shows
that in the aggregate, voters in Bush states and
those in Gore-Kerry states are surprisingly similar
to each other in their political beliefs and issue
positions.
So why does the country seem locked into the
now familiar red vs. blue political pattern, with
Democrats winning the coasts and the upper
Midwest and Republicans everything in between?
The answer that is beginning to emerge from this
year’s election is that, for all their apparent similarities, “red” and “blue” voters see the world of
politics and policy very differently and expect very
different things of their president.
People who inhabit schools of public policy
like SIPA tend naturally to think of politics and
government as means toward solving problems in
the world. They (or perhaps I should say “we”)
tend to choose candidates who, they think, will
effectively oversee policymaking to solve the prob-
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lems that they see as most pressing. Among such
people, John Kerry won big. Voters who said that
the economy, the war in Iraq, health care, or education was the most important issue in the election supported Kerry 3 to 1. In New York State,
people in this government-as-problem-solver category were a slight majority of voters; nationally,
they were a slight minority.
For many voters, however, these issues were
not central to their choice of candidate. When voters were asked which issue was most important to
them, the single most common answer in the
country was “moral values.” Nearly one-quarter of
voters said this, and they voted for Bush at an
even higher rate than policy-based voters supported Kerry: more than 4 to 1. Even in New York,
these “values” voters strongly backed Bush,
although not quite as strongly as elsewhere; it was
just that they were scarcer here than elsewhere.
But, tellingly, in the pivotal state of Ohio, there
were at least as many values voters as in the rest of
the country (23% in Ohio compared to 22% nationally), and in Ohio they voted even more strongly for
Bush (6 to 1) than in the country as a whole.
So, even though Americans don’t really
approve of Bush’s job performance, think things
are going badly in Iraq, and worry about the economy and health care, they still chose—decisively—to reelect the president. Why? Because he
seems, to many Americans, to embody and
express the right values.
Even if tales of a cultural divide among
Americans may be exaggerated, there seems to be
a real political divide between policies and values
as the driving force of politics, a state of affairs
that poses a serious challenge not only for the
SIPA community—students, alumni, and faculty
alike—but for all those who share the conviction
that public policy is best shaped by knowledge
and not by faith.
Robert C. Lieberman is an associate professor
in the Department of International and Public
Affairs and in the Department of Political Science;
he is also director of the MPA concentration in
Social Policy.
Down to the Count
by Sharyn O’Halloran
ew doubted that the 2004 presidential elections between incumbent President George W.
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Bush and the Honorable Junior Senator from
Massachusetts John Kerry would be a tight race.
Indeed, the day before the election the final
CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll showed that if all registered voters actually turned out, John Kerry
would defeat George W. Bush by two points.
Among likely voters, the race was dead even, at
49 percent for each candidate. No matter how you
looked at the data, the two major-party candidates
were neck and neck.
The prediction proved right on the mark. By
the early hours of Wednesday, November 3, no
clear winner could be announced. Although Bush
had a slight edge in electoral votes, 254 to 252,
no candidate garnered the requisite 270 electoral
votes necessary to declare victory. Uncertainty
loomed and the specter of the newly elected
House of Representatives choosing the president
and the Senate choosing the vice president
became a disconcerting prospect. Moreover, the
numerous complaints of election irregularities,
malfunctioning polling equipment, and provisional ballots, brought to the fore the nightmare of the
2000 elections with recounts and hanging chads,
the outcome of which was finally decided by the
least democratic institution in America, the
Supreme Court.
Besides the high drama, what can be gleaned
from the election results? Here the map says it all,
with the solid swath of red demarking Republican
strongholds, bordered by bands of blue Democratic
support in the northeast corridor and along the
western seaboard. This geographic divide reflects a
deeper political divide that is the cumulative result
of two historic trends: (1) the consolidation of the
solid South into the core of the Republican Party,
and (2) increasing polarization of the electorate
along economic and racial lines.
What about 2008? Expect more of the same.
Unless a candidate can be found that unites the
moderate wings of both the Democratic and
Republican parties, crossing social, economic,
and racial lines, we will see increased polarization
in the electorate, very little coalition building in
Washington, and another presidential election
that comes down to the count.
Sharyn O’Halloran is a professor in the
Department of International and Public Affairs
and in the Department of Political Science.
The 2004 Election—What Happened
and What Didn’t?
by Robert Y. Shapiro
everal months ago, I predicted that in the
2004 election President George Bush would
win the electoral vote and John Kerry would win
the popular vote, with the election coming down
to the votes in Ohio or Florida. This was not far off
the mark. Why did it make sense that the election
would look like the 2000 election?
The same long-term forces were at work: the
Republican Party has been ascending, reaching
parity with the Democratic Party among voters.
Both parties are evenly matched now in competing not only for the presidency but also for control
of the Senate and, most significantly, the House
of Representatives, which the Democrats, up until
1994, had controlled for half a decade. Moreover,
the Republicans have become highly effective in
mobilizing their conservative (and especially
Christian religious) mass base of support, and
there was no reason to expect this to diminish in
2004, as these efforts mobilized around President
Bush’s leadership in combating terrorism and
upholding conservative values and morality. In
their political parity, the two parties have solidified their geographic and increasingly ideological
bases—the Republicans in the once-Democratic
South and in parts of the Midwest and West, and
the Democrats in the East and far western
states—leaving the outcome to what happened in
the remaining political battleground states.
The Democrats attempted to intensify their
own mobilization efforts focusing on the Iraq war
and the economy and jobs. They expected that
with a concerted effort, the Democratic Party and
the Kerry campaign could surpass the
Republicans by engaging young adults, voters who
supported the Democrats weakly and Democraticleaning citizens who voted intermittently, and
Latinos and other groups whose members were
becoming new voters. The Democrats dismissed
the pre-election polls that showed that their
efforts were not succeeding, arguing that the polls
were not interviewing a large number of young
adults and other strong supporters who had only
cell phones in place of land line phones and
therefore could not be reached (due to legal
restrictions) by telephone surveys.
What didn’t happen? This great mobilization
did not occur at the level needed to exceed the
Republicans’ efforts. Exit poll data showed that
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young adults were the same proportion of voters in
2004 as they were in 2000—their increase in
numbers was matched by an increased turnout by
the rest of the electorate. Further, to the extent
that voters were contacted and mobilized by the
candidates’ campaigns, both campaigns were
equally successful—the Kerry campaign had no
significant edge. Moreover, while more young
adults did vote for Kerry over Bush, the margin
was only 54 percent to 44 percent, and the margin was about the same for all first-time voters.
So why does the country seem
locked into the now familiar red
vs. blue political pattern, with
Democrats winning the coasts
and the upper Midwest and
Republicans
everything
in
between? The answer that is
beginning to emerge from this
year’s election is that, for all
their apparent similarities, “red”
and “blue” voters see the world
of politics and policy very differently and expect very different
things of their president.
Latinos were not a significantly greater proportion
of the electorate in 2004 than in 2000, and their
support for the Democratic presidential candidate
dropped 6 percentage points. Regarding phone
access, given the small proportion of cell phone
only users and of voters with no telephone—with
only modest majorities of these preferring Kerry to
Bush—their exclusion from pre-election polls
could not have led to more than a one percent
overestimate of Bush’s support. The Democrats
had their work cut out for them. Despite their
enormous efforts, they did not do more than keep
up with the Republicans, and they were unable to
forestall Republican victories in the battle for the
presidency and control of the Senate and House of
Representatives.
Robert Y. Shapiro is a professor in the
Department of Political Science.
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YEMEN’S
UNCERTAIN
TRANSITION
BY GEOFF CRAIG
everal days of unanswered phone calls to a friend,
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Jamal Al-Hawadi, who heads Yemen’s National
Center for Human Rights and Democratic Development,
had gone by, so I decided to stop by his office, which is
on the edge of Sanaa’s Old City. After I knocked for a
few minutes, the door opened slightly. It was Jamal, but
I barely recognized him.
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Yemeni journalists gather during a sit-in in front of the House of Representatives (Parliament), calling for the freedom of their colleague Abdul Karim al-Khewani, editor-in-chief of
al-Shoura weekly, September 18, 2004, in Sanaa. Khewani was sentenced on September 5, 2004 by a court in Sanaa to one year in prison on charges of supporting rebel Muslim
preacher Sheikh Hussein Badr Eddin Al-Huthi and insulting the president.
It’s not surprising that some people see the
election process as a means of legitimizing the
ruling party, rather than a way of holding the
government accountable, kicking those out of
power who are not doing their job.
Often dressed in a dark suit with a crisp white
shirt, not a hair out of place, he falls into that
echelon of society usually reserved for news
anchors. It was around noon, and he had just
woken up, eyes half-open, and voice raspy. “Let’s
get some coffee,” he said. I was thinking the
same thing.
It was the first sleep he’d gotten in days, after
just returning from Sa’ada, a city tucked in the
Murran Mountains along the Saudi border.
Government forces were mired in fighting there,
trying for the past month to root out a young rebel
cleric by the name of Hussein Al-Huthi, along with
his followers. The government accused Al-Huthi of
dispatching his “Believing Youth” group to
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mosques throughout the country to foment antiU.S. riots following Friday prayers and to beat up
preachers who resisted. The military arrived in
Sa’ada to arrest Al-Huthi but underestimated the
cleric’s forces and a stalemate soon set in.
Jamal was part of the negotiating team sent to
Sa’ada to resolve the conflict. Unsuccessful, his
thoughts now turned to the government’s own
actions and possible abuses against civilians.
“It’s an absolute mess. There’s real suffering.
Civilians can’t leave, and many are caught up in
the fighting. The people’s homes are in the mountains, and the military, which isn’t well trained,
can’t distinguish between the two,” he said.
In early September, about a week after I left
Yemen, government forces killed Al-Huthi in a
predawn raid, marking an end to a three-monthold saga. Al-Huthi was young and held little
standing in the Zaydi community, the dominant
Shi’a sect found in Yemen. It was unlikely from
the beginning that the conflict would spread, but
in a country unified for only 14 turbulent years,
including a civil war in 1994, where power still
resides with tribal sheikhs who command small
armies, the government realized that a figure like
Al-Huthi—only a bit more influential and popular—could tear Yemen apart at the seams.
Al-Huthi may be dead, but the struggle with
extremists is hardly over. A vital question that
Yemen faces over the coming years is how to
respond to this threat. Will it clamp down on any
sign of dissent, curtailing individual freedoms
and human rights in the name of security, or will
it attempt the high-wire act of promoting an
open, free society while still addressing terrorism
head on?
It may be a testament to Yemen’s own, albeit
limited, success with democracy that it even
faces such a challenge. Yemen is the only country on the Arabian Peninsula that could claim to
be a multiparty democracy. The constitution, ratified by the people in 1991, affirms Yemen’s
commitment to free elections, a multiparty polit-
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ical system, the right to own private property,
equality under the law, and respect for basic
human rights.
Since unification in 1990, there have been
three parliamentary elections and one presidential election, deemed fair by international election monitors. People routinely criticize the government in public, and the Ministry of
Information is in the process of revising the law
to protect journalists from imprisonment, at the
directive of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
President Saleh, who ruled North Yemen
beginning in 1978 and continued as president
following unification with South Yemen,
announced that “democracy is the choice of the
modern age for all people and the rescue ship for
political regimes” before more than 600 delegates from 40 countries and international organizations—including the European Union, the
Arab League, and the Organization of the Islamic
Conference—at the biggest prodemocracy conference ever held in the Middle East, which took
place this past January in Sanaa.
Yemen is an unlikely candidate to come out
ahead of the pack in the race to democratize. For
one, it’s a desperately poor country. In the Arab
world, it ranks ahead of only Sudan in terms of
GNP per capita. Second, it doesn’t have a colonial past like other Middle Eastern countries (it
was never fully colonized, though Britain and the
Ottomans occupied pockets in the south and
north, respectively), so there is no legacy of
Western-style governance.
At the NATO summit in Istanbul this past summer, President Bush cited Yemen as an example
of a Muslim country making positive strides
toward democratization. But question marks still
remain, such as whether any real opposition can
be mounted to challenge the ruling party’s grip on
power—it controls 95 percent of the Parliament
and virtually all government ministries—and
whether power will transfer to the president’s son
when Saleh eventually steps aside.
As for Washington’s kind words, it would be
naive to overlook the fact that Yemen allied itself
with the United States in the “war on terror.” The
Bush administration’s lofty praise may be rooted
less in fact and more in gratitude that Yemen, for
now, cooperates on security matters.
“There are plenty of parties in Yemen, but I
don’t think it is a multiparty democracy. The
1993 and 1997 parliamentary elections were
fairly free and fair, but the parliament isn’t
allowed to do much. The President controls
everything, and he didn’t allow any serious competition when he ran for re-election,” Mark Katz,
a professor of international relations at George
Mason University, wrote in an e-mail interview.
It’s no secret that the General People’s
Congress is in charge here. Traveling around the
country, for instance, one sees painted on rocks
and mountainsides the most prominent roadside
landmark, a white horse, the party’s symbol.
Assuming President Saleh wins in 2006, he
would serve out one more term ending in 2013,
just as his son, Ahmad Ali Abdullah Saleh, turns
40, the minimum age for presidential candidates.
Many people here don’t see it as a coincidence
and believe that Ahmad—in charge of the
Republican Guard—is being groomed to take over.
That may seem a long time away, but few
believe that Saleh will lose power before then.
“It always seems that things in Yemen must
change, and yet somehow they don’t. I remember
that when Saleh first became president in 1978,
there were press reports that the CIA thought
he’d only last six months. It’s been a long six
months. But if he succeeds in handing power
over to his son, his system could last even
longer,” Professor Katz said.
It’s not surprising that some people see the
election process as a means of legitimizing the
ruling party, rather than a way of holding the government accountable, kicking those out of power
who are not doing their job.
“I’ve never seen a leader change by a piece
of paper,” Ali Saif, former deputy secretary of
the opposition Nasserite party, told me at his
home. “Over time, people no longer believe in
elections.”
Geoff Craig, MIA ’05, is concentrating in
International Security Policy.
An undated file photo shows Yemeni rebel Muslim preacher Sheikh Hussein Badr Eddin Al-Huthi (second from right) seated among
supporters during a religious gathering in the province of Sa’ada.
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On Observation: Experiences
in Election Monitoring
By Thomas R. Lansner
W
e gathered in the lobby of one of the better hotels in
Enugu City, the capital of Enugu State in southern Nigeria, on the
eve of the April 2003 legislative elections. There was coffee, cold
drinks, and fans powered by a generator chugging outside.
Around the table sat several observers from the European Union,
a couple from the Commonwealth, and myself, accompanied by a
Congolese politician and a woman from a Sierra Leone nongovernmental group, we three being sent by the Washington, D.C.–based
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.
We exchanged information, impressions, and
a few anecdotes. Where was the voting likely to
be problematical? Had logistical bottlenecks
been spotted? Were claims of intimidation and
warnings of violence credible? How was the local
media reporting the election? Which satellite
phones were working? Whose police escorts
seemed most reliable?
We agreed on a plan to disperse throughout
different areas of the state and to check in by
evening to share experiences as we prepared
independent reports to our delegations in
Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. We each had detailed
checklists to assess voting day conduct and
would be speaking to poll workers, politicians,
local activists, and voters throughout the day.
One of the Commonwealth observers seemed
familiar, and I wracked my brain across years and
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continents until I placed him: Uganda 1980, one
of the Commonwealth’s very first election observation missions. I reminded him, with some
rekindled resentment, of how his Commonwealth team had slipped from the country as gunfire raged through its capital, Kampala, leaving
behind only a statement that described the blatantly stolen election as “relatively free and fair in
a Ugandan context.”
The double qualifier fooled no one, least of all
the Ugandans. I was then living in Uganda as a
correspondent for the London Observer, and for the
next year witnessed the country’s descent into
murderous repression and civil war. Yet, the
diplomatic endorsement of a fraudulent victory
offered the brutal regime of President Milton
Obote an international legitimacy it never
deserved and surely lengthened the bloody war
that eventually toppled him.
Illegitimate elections very rarely produce
peace or stability. It was a lesson I would not forget over years of reporting on elections, as well as
serving as an official observer and occasional
campaign consultant in more than a dozen countries. Most countries offer people a chance to
vote in some form, paying at least minimal deference to the “periodic and genuine elections”
guaranteed in Article 21(3) of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. But even the bestadministered election means little if fundamental
respect for human rights is not part of the “electoral landscape” in which people cast their votes.
And absence of respect for the rule of law and
minority rights can produce a majoritarian tyranny that has been properly elected.
A second lesson was that despots and per-
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A woman votes during the elections in Katsina, Nigeria.
ceived “lesser evils” sometimes garner international support despite dubious election practices.
President Ferdinand Marcos’ outright electoral
hijacking in 1986 was endorsed by conservative
American election observers guided by the
Reagan administration’s apparent preference for a
Marcos victory. “The goons with guns backing
Marcos are bad,” one observer admitted to me in
Manila, then added with a straight face, “but the
nuns who support [opposition candidate] Cory
Aquino are worse, because they threaten you
with eternal damnation.”
Marcos was chased into exile by a popularly
backed military coup within weeks; clear notice
again that bad elections bring bad results. And
another lesson was affirmed—the importance of
maximizing local observation. It was not international observers who exposed Marcos’ fraud most
successfully. A local NGO, the National
Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL), compellingly detailed the scale of the fraud by conducting a parallel vote count that was more credible than the regime’s tally.
Over the last 25 years, global election observing has grown from brief ad hoc delegations of
Westerners to large, well-organized and longterm international missions that engage local
observer groups heavily and are accepted as an
integral part of the electoral process. The African
Union, Commonwealth, European Union,
Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE), United Nations, and many nongovernmental groups now conduct election
support projects, as well as observe elections.
These range from helping review election laws
and improving logistics, to offering strategies and
training for election officials and independent
poll watchers, to monitoring media. Extensive
materials and manuals to guide observers have
been developed from the experiences of hundreds of election observation missions.
Political actors around the world covet the
imprimatur of international observers to enhance
a government’s domestic and international legitimacy. In some countries, such as Cambodia in
1992 and East Timor in 2002, the United Nations
ran the entire election process in hopes of
smoothing the transition to democratic government. And elsewhere, as in South Africa in 1994,
or Venezuela in 2004, large and high-profile
observer missions encouraged divided nations
that voting would be honest. Conversely, refusal
to honor 1990 election results has helped keep
Burma’s army junta a global pariah.
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SIPA’s Tom Lansner monitors election proceedings in Nigeria.
Well ahead of Nigeria’s 2003 legislative and
presidential polls, the world community saw that
an election broadly accepted by Nigeria’s diverse
peoples would be crucial for peace and development in Africa’s most populous—and enormously
oil-rich—nation. Thousands of people had been
killed in recent ethnic strife. Unrest in petroleumproducing areas threatened the country’s prime
export. Teams of international election experts
and observers spread throughout the country.
In Enugu, our team left at dawn to visit some
spots where people feared voting might go badly.
In many polling places, we found eager voters
queuing, dedicated NGO poll watchers ready, but
no officials or voting materials for that day’s legislative and gubernatorial elections. At one site,
old peasant women in their colorful best dress
offered their strong and calloused hands. They
believed their vote was important, they told me,
but could wait only for a few hours before returning home to tend to their farms and families.
Later in the day, violence flared nearby and
elsewhere in the state. Several people were killed.
But by midday, balloting was underway in most
places. We visited polling stations at schools and
community centers, speaking to scores of people,
carefully completing observation forms. Often,
things seemed to be going well. In the early
evening, though, we witnessed local politics at a
raw level. At a primary school polling place, we
found ballot boxes stuffed with more ballots than
there were people registered, most marked with
nearly identical Xs for the ruling party. An NGO
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poll watcher nervously whispered that “thugs”
were nearby. Then in a sudden flurry of fists and
shoves and shouting, and despite a warning round
fired by our police escort, a group of young men
wrestled the ballot boxes from poll workers and
drove off with them.
Our experience was just one on a very complicated election day in a very large country. In
many places, voting went smoothly. Allegations
of fraud wove part of a tapestry that domestic
and international observers examined to assess if
the elections could be endorsed as a genuine
expression of the will of Nigeria’s peoples. The
resulting declarations were, unsurprisingly,
ambivalent. Nigerians had demonstrated support
for the democratic process by turning out to vote
in large numbers . . . but . . . .
Democracy support groups will doubtless
continue working to improve elections in
Nigeria. In China, the Carter Center is helping
promote open village elections. The European
Union sent a large election observation mission
to Indonesia in 2004. And the UN is hoping to
conjure a semblance of genuine elections in Iraq
in January 2005.
All these efforts recognize that sustained popular participation is the key to legitimate governance. Performed properly, election support and
observation is an important tool to promote the
basic right to representative government and
encourages respect for other rights. But it will
never be a science, as it is by definition wrapped
in both the art and possibilities of politics, local
and global. And it must be remembered that even
the most developed electoral democracies sometimes fall far short of the ideal of genuine elections, and that many nations in transition still
have far to travel on the often rough road to free
and fair elections.
For more information:
Carter Center www.cartercenter.org
European Institute for the Media www.eim.org/
MaDP.htm
European Union Indonesia Mission, 2004
www.id.eueom.org/
International Foundation for Election Systems
www.ifes.org/elections/description.html
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance www.idea.int/
International Republican Institute www.iri.org
National Democratic Institute for International
Affairs www.ndi.org
United Nations Electoral Assistance Unit
www.un.org/Depts/dpa/ead/ea_content/ea_
typesof_assist.htm
Thomas R. Lansner, SIPA ’91, teaches international
media and policy at SIPA. He has served as a consultant on
elections, human rights, and democratization issues to numerous nongovernmental organizations and political parties.
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D
N
URIN
E
E
H
G
T
Cigar
A woman smokes in the Partagas cigar factory in
Havana, Cuba.
By Eric Cantor
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Two smoking gentlemen pose with their cigars,
symbols of Cuban life.
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I
n a four-story, sand-colored building, with wide
colonial balconies outlined in red trim and a
decorative roof dwarfed by the grand dome of
Havana’s Capitol Building, workers buzz
about, crafting, rolling, pressing and smoking.
The Partagas tobacco factory, a fixture of
Cuban cigar production since 1845, is a hive of
industrial efficiency. The 22,000 cigars it produces daily generate much-needed hard currency.
Its 750 employees are skilled and specialized, and
rewarded for their individual efforts. In short, it is
everything that the rest of Cuba is not.
While Partagas hums with productivity, the rest
of the economy has been distorted by 45 years of
socialist revolution. Government enterprises control every sector, stripping supply, demand and
price of any meaning. After the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991 cost Cuba its annual $6 billion subsidy, the economy fell into ruin. In what Cuban
officials call the “Special Period,” only the toleration of the U.S. dollar and an opening to the world
enabled a recovery. But in a system increasingly
divided between those who have dollars and those
who do not, enterprises like Partagas offer salvation to the isolated regime, while at the same time
representing its greatest threat.
Enjoyed by executives skipping out for a day on
the golf course, sported by a politician involved in
an amorous liaison, or dangled from lips under a
visor in a high-stakes poker game, the Cubano is
much grander than the five ounces of tobacco from
whence it comes.
Before he quit smoking,
President Fidel Castro was rarely seen without a
long, heavy Cohiba Lancero perched in his mouth
and credited the cigar with making his country
famous. And John F. Kennedy is rumored to have
arranged a delivery of 1,200 of his favored Petit
Upmanns the night before authorizing the embargo of Cuba.
Outside the cramped gift shop in Partagas’
lobby, where tourists steadily snap up cigars and a
young Cuban serves them coffee, Lorenzo Leiva
waits patiently. The spry 65-year-old with soft features is clad in a white guayabera, Cuba’s traditional short-sleeve, four-pocket dress shirt. Formerly
an accountant, he spends his days guiding tourists
through the factory.
Smiling and at ease, Leiva explains the production mechanisms of Cuba’s third-largest export, an
industry which generates annual revenues of $240
million, produces more than 280 million cigars,
and employs more than 250,000. What he does
not explain is that, like all large businesses in
Cuba, the factory is government-owned, and that
its earnings feed the state’s bloated bureaucracy
and strengthen its all-seeing security apparatus.
Entering one of Partagas’ grand salons reveals
an orgy of sight and sound. The workrooms are
open with high ceilings, and sparsely decorated.
Young, casually dressed Cubans, mostly women,
toil away at individual desks. Sunlight filters in
through large windows. Smoke rises from idle cigarettes. Carts stacked high with wooden boxes roll
by rapidly.
Plying their trade with a laser-like focus,
employees rarely glance up from their workbenches. But they listen intently. In keeping with a tradition that pre-dates the socialist revolution, the
steady voice of a reader educates workers by reading newspapers and novels over a loudspeaker.
Partagas’ laborers are paid 400 Cuban pesos
per week, a standard local wage roughly equal to
$16 per month, along with two cigars and a subsidized lunch. But the reason the job is so desirable
and the entry exam so competitive, is the bonus
plan. Each employee has an opportunity to earn
an additional $30-40 by surpassing quota.
“Tobaconeras,” says Leiva, referring to those
who manufacture cigars, “make more than doctors.
What do you think of that?”
Indeed, Cuba is undergoing a mass exodus
from professions like teaching and accounting as
its most skilled professionals seek membership in
the new dollar class. Traditional professions,
though prestigious, pay in pesos. And despite government policy, which holds pesos as equivalent to
dollars, peso buying power and the state’s ability to
control prices are evaporating. Peso stores are
notorious for inferior goods and threadbare
shelves, while dollar stores overflow with luxury
items like flat-screen televisions and abundant,
fresh food. Understandably, Cubans seek dollars.
The major source of dollars is the more than
one million travelers that visit Cuba annually.
These tourists are provided for by a state-controlled industry that employs 200,000, offering
many an opportunity to earn tips in dollars. But
the government, which partners with foreign firms
in joint ventures to build each new hotel, reaps the
bulk of the benefit. It does so by extracting half of
the profits from each venture, and by contracting
labor to the firms at a huge markup.
Popular state-owned restaurants also provide
opportunity to Cubans while tapping tourists for
currency. At Bodeguita del Medio, a former Ernest
Hemingway haunt in Old Havana, guests sip mojitos at a wooden bar. Surrounded by portraits of the
author with other luminaries, including Castro himself, guests sign the once-white walls to record
their visits. Packed crowds shell out tips to the
staff.
“Bartender here,” says Victor, the smiling
young man behind the bar and a former professional, “is like being a lawyer in a big U.S. company.”
On the streets of Havana, a neighborhood once
dominated by rows of regal colonial homes in
vibrant pastels, is falling apart. Paint on these
homes is chipping away and the underlying wires
and fillings are becoming exposed. Similarly, the
swelling tides of globalization and class division
seem certain to wash away the delicate foundations of the socialist revolution as more Cubans
join the dollar class. A moment in which the
momentum proves too strong to control and the
turning point is passed seems imminent.
Perhaps the best indicator of the divisions in
the Cuban economy is evident in a visit to the
famous Copelia ice cream parlor. Copelia maintains two separate lines. On one, peso holders wait
patiently in a slow queue that snakes around two
corners. On the other, dollar holders advance
smoothly, snacking blissfully in the hot sun.
Cubans, increasingly attuned to the outside
world by the influx of tourism and wary of a society without doctors and teachers, sense something
missing.
“Many things in the world are changing,” says
Alexander, a taxi driver, “and we are falling behind.
The situation here has to change.”
The cigar has endured since pre-Colombian
inhabitants of Cuba smoked the plant they called
cojiba, and it will likely survive any coming
change. But the original cigar businessman, Don
Jaime Partagas, a Catalan who came to Havana in
1827, met a tragic end. He was felled by a bullet
on one of his own tobacco plantations. Fidel
Castro’s regime might face a similar fate. The
tourism and economic growth that sustained his
government after the Soviet collapse could usher
in the changes that will undo it.
Eric Cantor, MIA '04, is concentrating in Economic and
Political Development.
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World Leaders Forum
at Columbia University
T
his fall, with elections at home and abroad and unprecedented attention focused
on the potential of democracy to transform the lives of the people of Afghanistan
and Iraq, what better way to gain perspective on such issues than to hear about
them first hand from world leaders who deal with them every day?
The second annual World Leaders Forum (WLF), held at Columbia at the end of
September, provided a unique opportunity for the Columbia community to do just that,
as more than a dozen world leaders from around the globe visited the campus to discuss
those and many other salient issues affecting the world’s citizens.
The WLF, a two-week series of events designed to coincide with the fall meeting of the
United Nations General Assembly in New York, is a University-wide initiative developed
through the President’s Office, SIPA, and The Earth Institute. It is open to the entire
Columbia community and includes panel discussions, symposia, and speeches.
The following articles provide a sampling of the events, as reported by SIPA students
who attended them.
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President of Mozambique
Discusses Birth of Free-Market
Economy
K
icking off the 2004 World Leaders Forum on
Monday, September 20, Joaquim Alberto
Chissano, the ex-Marxist president of Mozambique
and first chairperson of the African Union, shared
the story of his country’s successful economic
transformation with the Columbia community.
After decades of ruinous civil war, President
Chissano won his nation’s first multiparty elections
in 1994. His new government faced several daunting challenges, including sluggish economic
growth, high rates of adult illiteracy, weak capacity
among peasant farmers, pervasive unemployment,
and a shattered infrastructure.
His government answered these challenges with
a free-market approach grounded in the belief that
the essence of human development is enlarging
people’s choices. To expand opportunity, his government is improving access to—and the quality
of—education, increasing the availability of health
care, helping farmers become more efficient,
rebuilding infrastructure, and promoting small
business development.
As a result of these initiatives, there have been
significant improvements in Mozambique’s standard of living, the president explained. Since 1997,
the number of people living in poverty has fallen
from 69 to 54 percent. At the same time, the proportion of children who must walk more than one
hour to primary school fell from 25 to 8 percent,
and the proportion of the population within one
hour of a health facility rose from 40 to 54 percent.
President Chissano sees a key role for the
African Union in helping other governments to
replicate Mozambique’s success. Calling the Union
a “new dawn” for Africa, he said that through its
New Partnership for Africa’s Development
(NEPAD), it will enable Africa “to actively participate in the world economy and accrue the benefits
of globalization.”
Vince O’Hara, MIA ’05, is concentrating in
Economic and Political Development and
International Media and Communications.
Columbia Provost Alan Brinkley and Earth Institute
Director Jeffrey Sachs greet Mozambique President
Joaquim Alberto Chissano.
Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger welcomes Latvian
President Vaira Vike-Freiberga before her speech at the
World Leaders Forum.
Chairman of Liberia’s National
Transitional Government
Describes Challenges Facing His
Nation
that none is centered around religion or ethnicity;
rather, they are all integrated and seeking to implement somewhat similar platforms. Bryant declared
that he is certain Liberia will be ready for the
national election currently slated for October,
2005.
Veronika Ruff, MIA ’06, is concentrating in
International Media and Communications.
R
eflecting on 14 years of civil war and speaking
optimistically about Liberia’s future, Charles
Gyude Bryant, chairman of the National
Transitional Government of Liberia, centered his
address on the need to increase private-sector foreign investment in his county.
A former businessman, Bryant is well aware of
the importance of foreign investment in stimulating
a country’s long-term economic growth. “We must
attract foreigners to bring sustainable growth,” he
said, noting that “the Chinese are already coming
in a big way, but we need more.”
He acknowledged that for growth in foreign
investment to occur, he needs to address any “deficiencies” that may deter private investment and
international assistance, such as the instability of
the country’s political structure. “We need government policies that will lead to high economic
growth, but an economy can’t function without stability,” he explained.
Fourteen months after the peace agreement was
signed, Bryant said that Liberians are “well on
[their] way to sustainable peace.” The Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and
a small number of U.S. troops are working with the
transitional government (which represents the former government of ousted leader Charles Taylor, as
well as two major opposition groups) on a massive
disarmament effort. At last count, according to
Bryant, they had disarmed more than 73,000 combatants.
Official disarmament ended October 31, 2004,
at which point Bryant began to focus his efforts on
developing “free, fair, and transparent elections.”
Of the 18 registered political parties, Bryant said
President of Latvia Recounts
Post-Soviet Transformation to
Democracy
V
aira Vike-Freiberga, the first female president
of Latvia, addressed the World Leaders Forum
on September 23 on Latvia’s transformation to a
democracy after achieving independence from the
former Soviet Union.
Speaking without a script, the president outlined the struggles of the Latvian people after
Soviet occupation and praised their determination
to gain their freedom. The struggle for independence was a long one, lasting for half a century. It
was with obvious national pride that she described
the deep emotions of her compatriots when the flag
of Latvia was hoisted at the United Nations on gaining independence in 1991.
In the 13 years since its independence, Latvia
has made considerable progress both politically and
economically. Its most recent success came this
past spring, when its flag was again hoisted proudly, this time above the headquarters of the
European Union.
While the desire to become part of the EU and
benefit from the security umbrella of NATO was a
main impetus behind Latvia’s progress, VikeFreiberga stated that, most of all, it was Latvia’s
past experiences with tyranny and oppression that
pushed its people to take charge of their future and
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Dr. Surakiart Sathirathai, foreign minister of Thailand,
speaks on the effects of globalization.
Professor Albert Fishlow, director of the Institute of Latin
American Studies and Center for Brazilian Studies, with
Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolina Barco
Isakson
Romanian President Ion Iliescu addresses the World
Leaders Forum on “a short and brutal century.”
become masters of their own fate. “Voices in the
post-Soviet Russian empire said ‘these countries
cannot survive without us,’ but they have been, and
they are,” she stated.
Although Latvia is still a work-in-progress,
Vike-Freiberga is hopeful about the future. “Keep
your eyes open and watch out for Latvia,” she
concluded.
Michelle Marston, MIA ’06, is concentrating in
International Media and Communications.
have become more multifaceted, multidimensional,
complex, and interlinked, thereby necessitating a
new, common security and development agenda, he
noted.
Surakiart emphasized that partnerships in security and development are the “natural building
blocks for the multilateral system” and advocated
the use of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) and others to promote multilateralism, bridge economic disparity, and foster strategic economic cooperation among countries.
Quashing the notion that bilateral and regional
partnerships may undermine the multilateral system, Surakiart, who has been mentioned as a strong
candidate to succeed UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan, put forth a clear message: “Partnerships
can be complementary to multilateralism, and both
can lead toward growth and development.”
ed by the drug trade. Barco added that the government has partnered with the communities to cultivate other products such as palm oil, coffee, and
organic sugar.
Although Barco noted significant progress
against narco-terrorism, she admitted that the problems remain large and that Uribe will need to
increase the implementation of initiatives during
his remaining two years in office. She described the
government’s plans to demobilize the narco-terrorism groups by assisting the transition of more than
6,000 members into society with programs for family reunification, skills training, and basic literacy.
To improve its economy, Colombia plans to
establish an Andean Free Trade Agreement with the
United States. Attributing the Andean region’s 50
percent decrease in cocoa plantations partly to
financial assistance from the United States, Barco
emphasized the importance of approaching narcoterrorism as a region, “The problem one finds many
times is that when there’s a decrease in one country, the crops may turn out in another one.”
Because of this, she noted that Colombia is “working closely with our neighbors” on this issue.
Marie Wiltz, MIA ’05, is concentrating in
International Media and Communications.
Foreign Minister of Thailand
Speaks on Globalization,
Partnerships, and Multilateralism
D
r. Surakiart Sathirathai, the Minister of
Foreign Affairs of Thailand, anchored his
speech at the WLF with the themes of globalization,
partnership, and the future of multilateralism.
Surakiart, who began his political career in
1986, pointed out that globalization has been
blamed for many of the world’s ills. He spoke of disillusionment in developing countries where growth
and prosperity are below expectations, with a
widening gap in income and living standards
between countries and within each country and
widespread job insecurity amid intensified economic competition. Even in rich countries, the way
globalization “is being managed or rather, mismanaged” has fueled much discontent, he noted.
“Better for us now to lay the foundation for globalization that empowers and strengthens,”
Surakiart said, underlining the need to reform multilateral institutions to meet the challenges of present day realities. He called for the United Nations
to reinforce its role as the pillar of the multilateral
system and voiced support for the reform and
enlargement of the UN Security Council, employing
a realistic set of criteria in order to enhance the
Council’s effectiveness. Compared to 1945, when
the UN was founded, today’s threats and challenges
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Pui Wing Ho, a graduate student in the Master’s
Program in Regional Studies: East Asia, will graduate in 2005.
Foreign Minister of Colombia
Highlights Battle against NarcoTerrorism
C
olombia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carolina
Barco Isakson, focused on President Alvaro
Uribe’s progress and plans in minimizing narco-terrorism, the country’s main challenge.
Narco-terrorism, or violence against noncombatants executed by an organization involved in drug
trafficking, has declined since Uribe took office in
2002, according to Barco. With a 25 percent
decrease in homicides and 45 percent decrease in
kidnapping, Barco surmised that there is “a sense
of taking over the country again” and “an important
psychological change . . . that things are getting
better.” In particular, she highlighted the progress
of government initiatives focused on developing
economic alternatives for communities most affect-
President of Romania
Contemplates a Century of
Change
A
ddressing his Columbia audience, President
Ion Iliescu of Romania reflected on the Great
Shock at the End of a Short Century, his forthcoming “book-length conversation” with Professor
Vladimir Tismaneanu, which articulates the 89
years that changed the face of Europe and international affairs.
The Great Shock is Iliescu’s attempt to make
sense of an historical period, to chart his participation in a short and brutal century, and to “provide
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Bolivian President Carlos Diego Mesa Gisbert discusses
his country’s “Gas War” in Low Memorial Rotunda.
Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Kristiina Ojuland, Macedonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ilinka Mitreva, Jean
Macagno Bollinger, President Lee Bollinger, SIPA Dean Lisa Anderson, Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dodo
Aïchatou Mindaoudou, and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright pose following the panel “Eliminating
Violence and Discrimination against Women.”
elements for objective judgment” on the decisions
faced by political leaders in the postwar era.
Iliescu argued that the twentieth century should
be viewed as a “short” century spanning the period
from the end of World War I through the Cold War.
This short century was a period of horrors, including genocide, war, and other crimes against humanity. But in Iliescu’s eyes, it was also a century of
“economic and technological progress” that ushered in democracy. According to Iliescu, democracy “came from violence providing the salvation we
[Romanians] were waiting for.”
President Iliescu also turned his attention to the
problems inherited by the twenty-first century.
“Terrorism is not the only enemy of democracy,” he
asserted, listing poverty and the deepening gap
between rich and poor as the most dangerous
threats to stability. And in perhaps the most reflective moment of his address at Low Memorial
Library, he declared: “If democracy tends toward
authoritarianism, it will fail as Communism failed.”
Andre Banks, MIA ’06, is concentrating in
International Media and Communications.
Rights” for women—Albright used the example of
Afghanistan to illustrate how the struggle to end
violence and discrimination against women extends
well beyond legal recognition of women’s rights.
Since 1979, nearly 180 countries have ratified
CEDAW, including Afghanistan in early 2003, but
as Albright emphasized, “Often, even if the laws on
the books are changed, the reality in villages and
communities has not.”
Whether the violence manifests itself physically
through ritual mutilations, honor crimes, or the
killing of female infants, or mentally and socially
through deprivation of education, Albright
described how violence against women is embedded in many cultures. While some label efforts to
end such practices “cultural imperialism,” Albright
wholeheartedly disagrees with this characterization.
“Some say all this is cultural and there is nothing
that anyone can do about it; I say it’s criminal, and
we each have an obligation to stop it,” she proclaimed.
Her comments were echoed by panelists
Kristiina Ojuland, Ilinka Mitreva, and Dodo
Aïchatou Mindaoudou, the respective Ministers of
Foreign Affairs of Estonia, Macedonia, and Niger,
each of whom discussed the importance of education to improving her countrywomen’s lives.
Speaking of the many Nigerian women who are illiterate and ignorant of their rights, Mindaoudou
noted, “I think we have to just continue working
. . . . These women have to be informed; they have
to be given a voice.”
Deirdre Downey, MPA ’05, SIPA News contributing editor, is concentrating in Advanced Policy
Analysis.
Madeleine Albright Moderates
Panel on Violence and
Discrimination against Women
A
t one of the Forum’s best-attended events—a
panel discussion entitled “Eliminating
Violence and Discrimination against Women”—former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
opened her remarks by saying, “If I had to summarize, in one word, the relevance of gender to the
most urgent issues of life and death that we face,
that word would be Afghanistan.”
As moderator of the panel, which focused primarily on the ratification and implementation of the
Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW)—a document adopted by
the United Nations General Assembly in 1979 and
widely recognized as the “International Bill of
President of Bolivia Traces
History of “Gas War”
W
hen Carlos Diego Mesa Gisbert assumed the
presidency of Bolivia in October 2003, he
took charge of a country wrought by civic strife. At
least 70 Bolivians had died in clashes between
security forces and protesters against the sale of
the nation’s gas abroad.
President Mesa explored the roots of this conflict, now known as the “Gas War,” in his address
to the Columbia community, telling the story of
Bolivia’s unfulfilled expectations through decades
of misgovernment, corruption, and coups d’état.
To understand the Gas War, Mesa suggested,
requires retracing recent Bolivian political and economic history. After the collapse of Bolivia’s state
capitalism in the early 1980s and the adoption of
a neoliberal approach to the economy, key Bolivian
industries were sold, including the hydrocarbon
sector, with large shares landing in foreign hands.
When the economy faltered with the 1997 global
financial crisis, a severe recession gripped Bolivia,
and the long-simmering discontent of the poor surfaced. Galvanized by the plan to export gas through
Bolivia’s historical enemy, Chile, and by an unwillingness to allow foreign oil companies to continue
to operate without facing higher taxes, a movement
arose to stop the sale of Bolivian gas abroad.
In September 2003, roadblocks and protests
paralyzed large parts of the country. The government
of President Gonzalo Sánchez de Losada cracked
down violently. Mesa, vice president at the time,
condemned the violence, and, after Sánchez de
Losada was forced to step down, he came to power.
In order to channel the popular discontent,
Mesa held a referendum in July 2004 on the sale
of the nation’s gas. Although he hailed the referendum as a success, it was carefully worded to make
the complete renationalization of the hydrocarbon
sector an impossible outcome, and close to 40 percent of the electorate abstained from voting despite
threatened fines.
It appears that the final chapter of Bolivia’s
history of unfulfilled expectations has yet to be
written.
Vince O’Hara, MIA ’05, is concentrating in
Economic and Political Development and
International Media and Communications.
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SIPA
Rodolfo O. de la Garza Named to List of Influential Hispanics
Rodolfo O. de la Garza, professor of political science, vice president of
research, The Tomás Rivera Policy Institute, and director of SIPA’s MPA
Program, was named one of “The 100 Influentials” by Hispanic Business
(October 2004). The magazine recognized prominent and accomplished Hispanic leaders who have had recent, national impact on
Class Notes
Compiled by Deirdre Downey
Klein Wins State Senate Seat
Jeffrey Klein, MPA 1985
kleinj@assembly.state.ny.us
After ten years of representing the 80th Assembly
District in the Bronx, Jeffrey Klein was elected to the
New York Senate District 34, which covers part of
Westchester County and the Bronx. Klein won a threeway contest for an open seat recently vacated by Guy
Velella, who resigned his seat as the result of a public
scandal.
1975
Dean Harris, MIA, Columbia
Business School, ’75
Dean is the chief marketing
officer of Vonage, a broadband
telephone company.
1978
George Marshall Worthington,
MIA
worthworldtx@sprintmail.com
George was recently chosen to
lead the newly launched
Houston chapter of Net-Impact,
a national network of new business leaders committed to
impacting positively social and
environmental issues. In July
2004, George traveled to
Oxford University to participate
as a hosted guest at the 2004
Law, Justice, and Society
Seminar of the Center for
Socio-Legal Studies, where participants from around the world
discussed democracy, free markets, and the rule of law.
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S I PA
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politics, finance, technology, education, athletics, and nonprofit
organizations. De la Garza was acknowledged for his research on ethnic
politics, with an emphasis on Hispanic public opinion and electoral
involvement. His current research interests include Hispanic voting patterns, immigration, and Hispanics and U.S. foreign policy.
1981
Committee on Foreign
Relations (associated with
ACFR). This past September,
she was ordained into the deaconate of the Episcopal
Church.
Mark Pekala, MIA
Mark and his wife, Maria
Alongi Pekala (MIA ’88), happily announce the birth of their
second daughter, Nora
Madeline, on May 6, 2004.
Mark is chargé d'affaires at the
U.S. Embassy in Tallinn,
Estonia.
developing countries. He is
responsible for implementing
the MCC’s programs in Africa.
Since graduating from SIPA, he
has worked on finance and
development in emerging markets in a variety of capacities.
Before MCC, he co-wrote the
business plan and successfully
raised $30 million in debt
financing for Aegis Capital
Corporation, a merchant bank
that focuses on trade and transportation security for developing countries.
Margot (Berch) Singer, MPA
Andy Grimminger, MIA
margosinger@oasas.state.ny.us
griminger@hotmail.com
Margo was married to Israel
Singer on May 30, 2004, in
Troy, New York. She works at
the New York State Office of
Alcoholism and Substance
Abuse Services in Albany, New
York, as an addictions program
specialist for special populations. In her “free” time, she
serves as a board officer of
Temple Berith Sholom in Troy
and as a co-leader of her daughter Sarah’s third grade Brownie
troop.
1987
Adrienne Edgar, MIA
edgar@history.ucsb.edu
Adrienne is an assistant professor of Soviet and Central Asian
history at the University of
California, Santa Barbara. Her
book Tribal Nation: The Making of
Soviet Turkmenistan was published
by Princeton University Press
in November 2004. She and her
husband, Adebisi Agboola, have
a five-month-old daughter,
Amaya Tatiana.
Andy has moved to Tunisia
with his wife and their three
children, including daughter
Bridget, born this past August.
He will open the Tunis office of
a new development consulting
company based in Amman,
Jordan. He was recently technical director for USAID’s Iraq
program.
1989
Andrew Russell, MIA
andrew.russell@undp.org
1983
1988
Maureen-Elizabeth Hagen,
MIA, Middle East Certificate
Stephen Gaull, MIA
sgaull@hotmail.com
hagengreene@msn.com or
hagenme@netscape.net
Stephen was one of the first
professionals recruited into the
Millennium Challenge
Corporation (MCC), a new
U.S. government agency that
provides financial assistance to
Maureen lives in Portland,
Oregon, with her husband of
19 years, Rob Greene. She is
the chair of the Portland
Andrew and his wife, Judy
Kallick Russell (MIA ’90), first
met as at a rehearsal for the
“SIPA Chorale” at the apartment
of former SIPA dean Alfred
Stepan, in the fall of 1988.
Despite having been quite
taken with one another, they
lost touch after graduation.
Years later, while working in El
Salvador, they reconnected and
eventually got married. This
past August they celebrated
their 11th wedding anniversary.
They have enjoyed many
adventures in Guatemala, New
York, and now Cyprus, where
Andrew is the manager of a
UNDP peace-building program
and Judy is a consultant for
community development organizations. They welcome their
SIPA friends to visit them in
Cyprus, where they live with
their children, Joshua (10) and
Sarah (8), and their dog, Lucky.
Andrew can be reached at the
e-mail above, and Judith at
jkallickrussell@yahoo.com.
1990
Richard Chacon, MPA
chacon@globe.com or
rchacon@nieman.harvard.edu
After spending three years as
deputy foreign editor at the
Boston Globe, Richard was awarded a Nieman Fellowship at
Harvard University for the
2004–2005 academic year. His
study proposal focuses on
exploring the role that religion
and public health play in shaping U.S. foreign policy. After
six-plus years of marriage, he
and his wife Lauren are now the
happy parents of a healthy
seven-month old son, Ricardo
Karl.
Wolfgang L. Mueller, MIA
wolfgang.l.mueller@spdfrak.de
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CLASS NOTES
Wolfgang is coordinator for
World Economy in the German
Parliament (Bundestag). He is
working for the SPDParliamentary Group, the leading party group of Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder, and frequently visits New York and
Washington as part of his
duties. Since the Bundestag
moved from Bonn to Berlin, he
lives in Berlin-Spandau. This
past June, Wolfgang got married. His wife, Anke, a lawyer
from Hamburg, also works in
Berlin.
Kellee Tsai, MIA, Ph.D., ’99
ktsai@jhu.edu
Kellee and her husband, Davis,
are happy to announce the
birth of Felix DeSaussure
Bookhart-Tsai on July 2, 2004.
They are all doing well.
her own international adventure travel business, Worldwide
Escapes, for the past six years.
She lives in Orinda, California
with her husband, Michael, and
their two children, Conor (4)
and Erin (2).
Ann J. Morning, MIA
ann.morning@nyu.edu
Ann is back in New York, having returned this past fall to
begin teaching at NYU as an
assistant professor of sociology.
In spring 2004, she finished her
PhD at Princeton, as did her
husband, Andrea Tambalotti,
an economist who now works
at the Federal Reserve Bank of
New York.
1993
Lyn A. Hogan, MPA
lyn.hogan@yale.edu
1992
Christin M. Driscoll, MPA
christindriscoll@hotmail.com
In the summer of 2003,
Christin accepted a position as
senior director of public policy
at the Association for Career
and Technical Education—an
organization that deals with a
range of education and training
issues. Christin directs the
Association’s government relations, grassroots advocacy,
research, and media activities.
Alfred LaSpina, MIA
ajl115@columbia.edu
Alfred and his wife, Audrey,
welcomed a new daughter, Mia
Grace, on September 18, 2004.
Mia is their second child; their
first, Isabella Noël, is almost
two years old. Alfred is the
director of marketing for Kaz
Incorporated, a consumer products company involved in the
design, manufacture, and marketing of air purification products. They live in Arlington,
Massachusetts, and welcome
e-mail from SIPA friends.
operating officer of Hisense,
USA, located in City of
Industry, California. Hisense is
China’s third largest producer
of appliances and consumer
electronics. Those interested in
learning more about the company can find information at
www.hisense.com.
Lyn recently accepted a position as a senior associate at
Yale University’s Center in
Child Development and Social
Policy. She has held positions
on the White House Domestic
Policy Council under President
Clinton, at the Democratic
Leadership Council, on the
staffs of Senators Edward
Kennedy and Barbara Mikulski,
and, more recently, as a senior
program officer at the Smith
Richardson Foundation based
in Connecticut. Lyn lives in
Westport, Connecticut with
her husband, business author
Stephen Diorio, and her son,
Robert. Lyn can be reached at
the e-mail address listed above.
William Wechsler, MPA
Wechsler@greenwich.com
On October 6, 2004, William’s
wife, Helaine Klasky, gave
birth to their second child,
Daniel Reid Wechsler. Twoyear-old Alexander Hayden
Wechsler is enjoying his new
status as the big brother.
1994
Julie McCormack, MIA
Charles Green, MIA
Julie@wwescapes.com
charles_green@msn.com
Julie McCormack has operated
Charles Green is the new chief
1995
Elena Crescia, MIA
elenacrescia@yahoo.com
After graduating from SIPA,
Elena received a postgraduate
degree in Financial Evaluation
from the Sorbonne’s Institute
for Economic and Social
Development Studies. During
her time in Paris, her daughters
Victoria (8) and Sofia (6) were
born. The family then moved
to Buenos Aires, Argentina,
where, for three years, Elena
worked for NGOs and started a
microcredit project. In June
2002, the family relocated to
São Paulo, Brazil, where Elena
is now working for the Institute
for Social Investment
Development. She reports that
she loves her work.
columbia university
school of international and public affairs
The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Earn your MPA in
Environmental Science and
Policy
The Master of Public
Administration Program in
Environmental Science
and Policy combines
Columbia University’s
hands-on approach
to teaching public policy
and administration with
pioneering thinking about
the environment.This
twelve-month program takes
place at Columbia University’s New York campuses.
For more information,
please call 212-854-3142, e-mail: lar46@columbia.edu,
or visit our Web site.
www.columbia.edu/cu/mpaenvironment
1997
1996
Krista (Eilhardt) Birenkrant,
MIA
Andrew Mwaba, PEPM
krista26@yahoo.com
a.mwaba@afdb.org
Krista and her husband, Marc,
welcomed their first baby, Ella
Janine, in January 2004. Krista
is now consulting for the Raoul
Wallenberg Committee of the
United States.
After graduating from SIPA,
Andrew completed a doctoral
program at Manchester. In
August 2004, he was appointed
adviser to the vice president at
the African Development Bank
(ADB). In this position, he is
able to make a positive contribution to the bank’s member
countries by advising them on
the ADB’s operational program.
Cristina Seckinger, MPA
cristinaseckinger@msn.com
Cristina and Ian Watson
(Columbia College ’89;
Columbia Business School ’98)
welcomed their second child,
Nathaniel (“Nate”) Holbrook
Watson, born May 13, 2004.
They currently reside in
Arlington, Massachusetts.
SIPA
Jennifer Chang, MIA
Jennifer.Chang@ap.jll.com
Jennifer, who is living and
working in Hong Kong, got
married on October 23, 2004.
Recently, she received sponsorship from the Hong Kong
Jockey Club to compete in a
series of international show
jumping competitions in anticipation of the Asian Games in
Qatar in 2006.
Carl Haacke, MIA
carlhaacke@yahoo.com
Carl misses the “good old days”
when he was in the Clinton
Administration, as a member of
the White House National
Economic Council and Chief
Economist’s Office of the Labor
Department. Now he is consulting for businesses and is
excited about the release of his
first book, Frenzy, by Palgrave,
St. Martin’s Press in December
2004. The book, which is
about investment decisions and
strategy during speculative
bubbles, has already received
terrific feedback from notable
business leaders. Carl is even
more excited, however, about
his two 18-month-old sons,
Evan and Matthew.
Tim Sunwoo, MIA
timsunwoo@bigpond.com
After working for the management consulting firm A. T.
Kearney in its Sydney and New
York offices and with a start-up
in Silicon Valley, Tim has relocated to Sydney, Australia,
where he is now a principal in
Group Strategy of Insurance
S I PA
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SIPA
“The Executive MPA program offers a rigorous curriculum and
hands-on approach to public policy and problemsolving for managers working in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.”
months. Ivy reports that while
the jet lag is rough, the work is
fascinating.
Take your career in a new direction.
Concentrations in
• Advanced Management and Finance
• International Economic Policy and Management
July 1 application deadline
212-854-2710
empa@columbia.edu
www.sipa-empa.com
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
School of International and Public Affairs
Group Australia. In this new
position, he is involved in corporate strategy work for some
of the largest financial institutions in Australia.
1998
Margarita Martinez Escallon,
MIA
margmart@yahoo.com
La Sierra, a documentary that
Margarita co-created, won the
award for best documentary feature at the 26th IFP Market held
in New York this past
September. The film, which
highlights the life and death of a
paramilitary leader in Medellín,
Colombia, explores how societal
order breaks down when the
only value that draws respect is
the power of a gun. Margarita,
who has been with the
Associated Press for five years,
developed the documentary
with Scott Dalton, a photographer with the AP. They plan to
submit La Sierra to other film festivals, including Sundance,
Amsterdam, and Berlin.
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Cathy Feingold, MPA, and
Jerry Black, MIA
catitaf@yahoo.com
Cathy and Jerry are enjoying
parenthood with the birth of
their son, Myles FeingoldBlack. They live in
Washington, D.C., where
Cathy continues to work in the
international affairs department
of the AFL-CIO and Jerry is a
consultant on economic development issues.
Ivy Lindstrom Fredericks, MIA
ifredericks@westminstersecurities.
com
Ivy is a managing director in
Corporate Finance at
Westminster Securities, a private investment bank in New
York. The group specializes in
raising capital for small and
mid-cap public companies that
are international in scope, most
of which are based outside the
U.S. but traded on U.S.
exchanges. She is currently
working with four companies
based in China and has made
six trips there in the last ten
Gilbert Remulla, MIA
gcr7@columbia.edu
Ajit Joshi, MIA
The
COLUMBIA
Executive
MPA
1999
AJoshi@usaid.gov
After working in USAID’s
Bureau for Africa for five and a
half years, Ajit received a promotion and joined its Bureau
for Democracy, Conflict, and
Humanitarian Assistance’s
Office of Private Voluntary
Cooperation–American
Schools and Hospitals Abroad.
As a lead program analyst, he
has a portfolio of ten grants
that focus on organizational
development and NGO capacity building. Ajit continues to
live in Capitol Hill in
Washington, D.C., and invites
colleagues to be in touch.
First elected in 2001, Gilbert is
now in his second three-year
term as representative of the
Second District of Cavite to
the Philippine Congress. He is
currently the chairman of the
House Committee on Public
Information and senior vice
chair of the Committee on
Ecology. He has been married
for four years to Georgina Roa,
a graduate of the pediatric dentistry program at Columbia
(’99). They have two daughters, Roxanne and Rocio.
Mtu3@columbia.edu
Maureen’s article on infectious
disease and international security, “Global Public Health
Trumps the Nation-State,” has
been published in the fall issue
of the World Policy Journal. She
continues to serve as director
of Janus Funds in Denver,
Colorado, and is a freelance
journalist and tri-athlete.
Lissette C. Bernal Verbel, MIA
lcbv@go.com
During the past three years,
Lissette has been a technical
program associate for men’s
reproductive health at
EngenderHealth, an international health nonprofit based in
New York, and has enjoyed
working in Africa, Asia, and
Latin America. Her most recent
pursuits include facilitating a
session at the XV International
AIDS Conference in Bangkok,
Thailand, as well as cowriting a
chapter for Oxfam’s new publication “Gender Equality and
Men: Lessons from Practice.”
She sends warm greetings to all
her old EPD friends.
Divya Swamy, MIA
ds331@columbia.edu
Divya is now at a post at the
American Embassy in
Islamabad, Pakistan, covering
the “always fascinating” domestic political scene and “having a
great time.” Divya will be there
for the next year.
Major John Thompson, MIA
cgtjrt2@msn.com
2000
Diego Molano, MPA
diegomolano@presidencia.gov.co
Maureen Upton, MIA,
Columbia Business School, ’98
Florida, last August and have
been enjoying the warm weather and sunshine. She is the
manager of the Environmental
Division for the City of Miami
Beach, where, she happily
reports, “I work in a paradise!”
After graduating from SIPA,
Diego returned to Colombia to
lead initiatives in urban economic development and regulation for public services.
Recently, he was appointed
deputy director for Plan
Colombia in the Presidency of
the Republic of Colombia,
where he leads a process for
implementing social and economic programs in areas affected by cultivation of illicit drugs
and will coordinate the design
and implementation of a new
cooperation phase between the
U.S. and Colombia. He is also
an adjunct professor in urban
management at Rosario
University in Bogotá,
Colombia.
Monique Nardi Roquette,
MIA
John served as team chief for
counterterrorism in Baghdad,
Iraq during Operation Iraqi
Freedom in 2003. Presently, he
is the team chief for Russian
General Purpose Forces at the
Defense Intelligence Agency,
located in Washington, D.C.
2001
Pajarita Charles, MPA
pcharles@email.unc.edu
After meeting at SIPA in
September 1999, Pajarita
Charles and Simeon Alder
(MIA ’00) were married on June
20, 2003. Shortly after, they
both returned to school.
Simeon is a PhD student in
economics at UCLA, and
Pajarita is getting her PhD in
social work at the University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Pajarita can be reached at the
e-mail above, and Simeon at
salder@ucla.edu.
MNardiRoquette@uneca.org
Danielle Garbe, MPA
Monique is now working at the
UN Economic Commission for
Africa in Addis Ababa as development management officer.
She got married in September
2003.
garbedn@yahoo.com
Jordanna Konovitch Rubin,
MPA
jordanna_rubin@bellsouth.net
Jordanna and her husband,
Gideon, moved to Miami,
Danielle finished her diplomatic posting in Indonesia and is
now back in Washington,
D.C., working as a staff assistant in the Bureau for East
Asian and Pacific Affairs at the
U.S. Department of State.
Vasileios Panousopoulos,
PEPM
vpanousopoulos@hotmail.com
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While working as a consultant
to the World Bank for the past
few years Vasileios has had two
papers published by the organization. The first is a technical
study on services trade in the
Balkans, which he wrote in collaboration with Dr.
Constantine Michalopoulos.
The second is a background
paper on international trade in
Kosovo. Both papers are available on the World Bank Web
site. This past summer, he
returned to Greece to see the
Olympic games in Athens.
Currently, he is a freelance
consultant for private Greek
consulting firms.
Trond has moved to Geneva
with his family to start work at
the Permanent Mission of
Norway. His work will focus
on the services negotiations in
the WTO as well as trade in
goods. He hopes to see other
SIPA alumni in Geneva and
says that SIPA alums should
“not hesitate” to contact him.
Nori Katagiri, MIA
yaponorry@hotmail.com
Nori is a doctoral student in
Political science at the
University of Pennsylvania.
His studies focus on IR and
comparative politics. He
expects to complete his degree
in 2008.
Ivan Small, MIA
ivs2@cornell.edu
Leah Yoon, MPA
Ivan is now pursuing a PhD in
Cultural Anthropology at
Cornell University in Ithaca,
New York.
ly140@columbia.edu
2002
Jennifer Barsky, MIA
Jennifer and Pedro Arizti (MIA
’01) were married on
September 3, 2004, in Bermeo,
Spain. They are now living in
Washington, D.C., where
Jennifer is working as senior
adviser with SustainAbility and
Pedro is with the World Bank.
They can be reached at
barsky@sustainability.com or
arizti@worldbank.org.
Leah Yoon recently worked on
the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign as the communications
director for the state of
Washington.
Todd Haiken, MPA
toddhaiken@yahoo.com
Todd’s fellowship with Senator
Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) ended
in June, and he accepted a
position as a federal lobbyist
for the National PTA, located
in Washington, D.C. He was
married on October 17, 2004,
in Maryland.
Sonal Loomba Patney, EMPA
randi817@hotmail.com
Sonal recently got married, and
she informs us that her new
last name is Patney.
Trond Gabrielson, MIA
trond.gabrielsen@mfa.no
School of International & Public Affairs
JOURNAL OF International Affairs
announcing the Fall 2004 Issue
STATE BUILDING
Francis Fukuyama • Joel Migdal • Samuel Issacharoff • Lisa Anderson
Michael Shifter • Sumantra Bose • Rosemary Shinko • Herbert Weiss
Julio Carranza Valdes • Jonathan Goodhand
How are sovereign institutions established
within the boundaries of a state? What
lessons do past experiences offer for current policy decisions in transitional and
war-torn states? These and other questions are addressed through theoretical
analysis and case studies of Afghanistan,
Bosnia, Colombia, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, India, Pakistan,
Palestine, and South Africa.
Available December
For ordering and subscription
information visit our website at:
http://jia.sipa.columbia.edu
Journal of International Affairs
Columbia University, Box 4,
International Affairs Building
New York, NY 10027
Telephone: (212) 854-4775
Fax: (212) 662-0398
2003
Randi Feigenbaum Marshall,
MPA
Randi and Scott Marshall are
thrilled to announce the birth
of their lovely daughter, Julia
Rachel, on February 23, 2004.
Julia weighed in at 6 lbs. 12 oz.
and was 19 inches long. Randi
is currently back at work parttime as a reporter at Newsday
covering the economy. Mom,
Dad, and Julia are doing well
and would love to hear from
classmates and friends at the
e-mail listed above.
Columbia University
SIPA
Spatney@bnysecurities.com
2004
Eduardo Rivas, MIA
erivas@cinemexicano.com
Eduardo is currently in Mexico
City on a Fulbright Fellowship.
He has a Binational Business
Grant and is employed by a
multinational corporation. He
is also working toward a binational business certificate at the
Instituto Tecnologico
Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM).
Columbia University
School of International and Public Affairs
The Program in Economic
Policy Management (PEPM)
“I chose to attend PEPM because the program puts together
the most important and controversial issues presently
faced
The Program in Economic Policy Management provides professionals
with the skills required to design and implement economic policy effectively, with an emphasis on the issues of developing economies.
The 14-month program includes three semesters of course work, followed by a three-month internship. Students earn a Master of Public
Administration.
Some applicants may qualify for full financial support.
The 2005–2006 program begins in July 2005. Applications should be received
by January 1, 2005.
SIPA
For an application and additional information:
pepm@columbia.edu • 212-854-6982 • 212-854-5935 (fax)
www.columbia.edu/cu/sipa/PEPM
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DONOR LIST
Page 46
SIPA
Listed below are the 618 individuals and organizations who contributed a total
of $100 or more to SIPA between July 1, 2003, and June 30, 2004.
“CER” followed by year = graduate with certificate from a regional institute
“IF” followed by year = graduate of the International Fellows Program
“MIA” followed by year = graduate with a Master in International Affairs
“MPA” followed by year = graduate with a Master in Public Administration
$500,000–$999,999
Anonymous
The Freeman Foundation
Foundation for the Center for
Energy, Marine Transportation and
Public Policy
Arnold A. Saltzman
$250,000–$499,999
Laszlo Z. Bito and Olivia B. Carino
$100,000–$249,999
The William and Flora Hewlett
Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation
Smith Richardson Foundation, Inc.
New York Community Trust
$50,000–$99,999
Abdel Muhsen Al-Qattan
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Christian A. Johnson Endeavor
Foundation
William H. Cosby Jr.
Nemir Kirdar
James Leitner, MIA ’77
Moody’s Foundation
Leonard Riggio
Jack Rudin
Ronald K. Simons
$25,000–$49,999
Anonymous
Anonymous
The A. G. Leventis Foundation
Black Entertainment Television
Bohemian Benevolent and Literary
Association
Robert L. Johnson
James E. Jordan, MIA ’71
The Korea Foundation
Peter Neill Marber, MIA ’87
Mary W. Harriman Foundation
Rasaca Austin, L.P.
Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Inc.
Crystal Rosendaul
Judith O. Rubin
Jeffrey L. Schmidt, IF ’79, CER ’79
Shevchenko Scientific Society, Inc.
Malcolm J. Stewart, IF ’78, MIA ’79
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office
The World Bank
$10,000–$24,999
Wilder K. Abbott, MIA ’61
Mina Schricker Atabai
Serge Bellanger
Antonina Berezovenko
John P. Birkelund
Bolsa de Mercadorias &
Futuros-BM&F
4 6
S I PA
N E W S
James L. Broadhead, Esq., IF ’63
Robert Meade Chilstrom, MIA ’69,
CER ’73
Johnnie L. Cochran Jr.
Consulate General of the Republic of
Poland
Francis Costello
Richard A. Debs
1199 SEIU New York’s Health
Exxon Mobil Education Foundation
Mahshid Farahmand
James Harmon
A. Michael Hoffman, IF ’69, MIA ’73
KeySpan Foundation
Harley L. Lippman, MIA ’79
Merrill Lynch & Company, Inc.
Lucio A. Noto
Open Society Institute
Ronald Owen Perelman
Piper Rudnick LLP
Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union
Eric C. Rudin
Saudi Arabian Oil Company
Joan Schneeweiss
S. L. Green Management LLC
Joan E. Spero, MIA ’68
The Tinker Foundation Incorporated
Ukrainian Studies Fund, Inc.
Jens Ulltveit-Moe, MIA ’68
Unibanco-Uniao de Bancos
Brasileiros S.A.
United Federation of Teachers, Local
2 AFT
Jeanette S. Wagner
Kathryn E. Wilbur
Lan Yang, MIA ’96
$5,000–$9,999
Amy L. Abrams, MIA ’81
American Council of Learned
Societies
American International Group
Anonymous
Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn,
PLLC
David J. Bershad, Esq.
Peter A. Berton, CER ’56
Citco Fund Services (USA) Inc.
Citigroup Incorporated
The Coca-Cola Company
Columbia University Alumni
Association of Korea
Ernst & Young LLP
FWA of New York Educational Fund
Goldman, Sachs & Company
GNYHA Ventures, Inc.
John A. Grammer Jr., MIA ’63
Claus M. Halle
Health Insurance Plan of Greater
New York
Ralph O. Hellmold, IF ’63, MIA ’64
HSBC Bank USA
International Women’s Health
Coalition
The Kosciuszko Foundation, Inc.
Leahey & Johnson, PC
Lehman Brothers, Inc.
Harold F. Lenfest, Esq.
Brian C. Lippey, IF ’78, MIA ’78
Local 32B-32J, SEIU, AFL-CIO
David Markin
Claudette M. Mayer, IF ’76, MIA ’76
Gregory McLaughlin
Gertrude G. Michelson
Basil A. Paterson, Esq.
George C. Paunescu
E. John Rosenwald Jr.
Howard J. Rubenstein
Juan A. Sabater
Alan J. Schwartz
Brent Scowcroft, PhD
Carl Spielvogel
Jonathan M. Tisch Foundation
Geraldine Wang
Norman and Rosita Winston
Foundation
Alexander E. Zagoreos, MIA ’64
$2,500–$4,999
American Federation of
Labor–Congress of Industrial
Organizations
Lisa Anderson CER ’76
The Auschwitz Jewish Center
Bank of America
Judith Meyers Brown, IF ’71
Pamela Hawkins Casaudoume, MIA
’89
Pierre J. de Vegh
40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, Inc.
Elise D. Frick
Joan Helpern
Donald L. Holley, Esq., MIA ’59
Lila J. Kalinich, MD
Victor Alan Kovner, Esq.
Luba Labunka
LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis
Vuitton, Inc.
Dennis Mehiel
Zachary Bennett Metz, MIA ’01
Brett Alan Olsher, MIA ’93
Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP
Claire C. Shipman, MIA ’94
Stuart Alan Shorenstein
Barry F. Sullivan
Franklin A. Thomas, Esq.
Kate R. Whitney
$1,000–$2,500
Endre Balazs
Robin L. Berry, MIA ’78
Donald M. Blinken
Kim Christopher Bradley, MIA ’83
Marcia Beth Burkey, MIA ’88
Linda K. Carlisle, MPA ’81
Charles E. Cheever III
Wha-Sup Chung, MIA ’77
Anna M. Cienciala
Stephen F. Cohen, CER ’69
Jennifer Ragusa Corddry, MPA ’99
Michael C. Creadon, MPA ’96
Gordon Jamison Davis
John William Dickey, MIA ’92
David N. Dinkins
Maurice A. DuBois
Fundacao Instituto de Pesquisas
Zev Furst, MIA ’71
Barbara J. Gallagher, MIA ’85
Ronald T. Gault
Dr. Susan Aurelia Gitelson, MIA ’66
Radmila Gorup
Lawrence G. Hefter
Myron Hnateyko
Fred P. Hochberg
Joseph Kindall Hurd III, IF ’92, MIA
’94
International Committee of
Journalism, Inc.
Yasumitsu Iwasa, MIA ’94
Eva Cristina Jedruch
Andrea Lynn Johnson, MIA ’89
Jacques Lloyd Jones, Esq., IF ’69
Vernon E. Jordan Jr.
Fatima Sbaity Kassem, MIA ’91
Kenneth J. Knuckles
Michael Lehmann, IF ’72
William R. Liesman, CER ’74, MIA
’74
Amy Kay Lipton, MIA ’88
Mary A. H. Rumsey Foundation
Jay Mazur
Stanislaw A. Milewski
Mitsubishi International Corporation
London Morawski
Alexandra Curran Nichols, MIA ’67
Vahid F. Noshirvani
Ernesto Aguilera Rangel, MIA ’99
Barbara Helen Reguero Barbaria,
MIA ’86
James Jerard Richard, MIA ’98
Harland A. Riker Jr.
Safra National Bank of New York
Fred Schwartz
Howard W. Shawn
Ruby B. Sherwood
Thomas H. Shrager, MIA ’84
Suzanne Simmons
Edward Byron Smith Jr., MIA ’70
Alfred C. Stepan III, IF ’65
Transport Workers Union
Yuko Usami, MIA ’77
Katrina Vanden Heuvel
Enzo Viscusi
Carl Weisbrod
Wilford Welch
Gordon James Whiting, IF ’93
Arthur M. Yoshinami, MIA ’80
$500–$999
Carlos Manuel Gouveia Abreu,
MIA ’02
Anonymous
David Seth Baran, MIA ’87
Wensley Barker III, MIA ’98
Roger R. Baumann, IF ’84, MIA ’85
Patrick F. Bohan
Amy Blagg Chao, MIA ’99
Joanna A. Clark
Philip A. Dabice, MIA ’77
Connie J. Dickerson
Thomas John Durkin CER ’87,
MIA ’87
The Dwight School
Walter A. Eberstadt
Peter D. Ehrenhaft, MIA ’57
for pdf
2/10/05
1:41 PM
Page 47
DONOR LIST
Ivy Lindstrom Fredericks, MIA ’98
Peter P. McN. Gates, Esq., IF ’62
Charles A. Gepp, MIA ’93
Joseph E. Gore
John D. Greenwald, Esq., IF ’71
Edgar C. Harrell, CER ’72
Paula S. Harrell
Neal H. Harwood, MIA ’61
George Franz Hollendorfer, MIA ’01
Douglas R. Hunter, MIA ’73
Laurel Bowers Husain, MIA ’81
Marisa Lago
Eugene Kistler Lawson, CER ’69
Margaret Fine
Christopher Joseph Loso, MPA ’97
Harold J. Magid, MIA ’79
Arfan M. K. Malas, MIA ’68
Amy L. Miller, MIA ’82
Sherwood G. Moe, MIA ’48
Katharine A. Morgan
Catherine Mulder, MIA ’81
New York State Democratic
Committee
Jennifer Hirsh Overton, MPA ’93
Carol Jean Patterson, CER ’76,
MIA ’76
Peter J. Pettibone
John H. A. Quitter, IF ’67
Clyde E. Rankin III, Esq., IF ’74
Lucius J. Riccio
Galen B. Ritchie, IF ’61
Andrew Romay
Daiji Sadamori, MIA ’74, CER ’76
Margaret Ann Sekula, CER ’01, MIA
’01
Jean-Francois Seznec, MIA ’73
Romita Shetty, MIA ’89
Christopher William Smart, CER ’89
Richard M. Smith, IF ’69
Marc St. John, IF ’84, MIA ’85
Padraic Joseph Sweeney, MIA ’89
Hajime Takeuchi, MIA ’91
Christos John Thomas, MIA ’90
Miroslav M. Todorovich
Neale X. Trangucci, IF ’81, MIA ’81
Desa V. Wakeman
Kathleen F. Wallace
Laurence Furrey Wallace, MIA ’02
George T. Wein
David A. Weisz, IF ’77
Gavin Conrad Wellington, MPA ’95
Jayne S. Werner
Byung-Kon Yoo, MIA ’92
Jerry Chan Yoon, MIA ’01
Michael J. Zagurek Jr., MIA ’79
$250–$499
Roger E. Ailes
Austin Chinegwu Amalu, MIA ’81
Shehriyar Darius Antia, MIA ’03
Sanford Antignas
Patrick Kenehan Archambault,
MIA ’99
Katharine E. Archibald, MIA ’83
Gaspar Atienza, MIA ’00
Reed David Auerbach, IF ’81,
MIA ’82
Gemma Hyaekyong Bae, MIA ’86
Gordon N. Bardos
Arlene Renee Barilec, MIA ’84
Salwa Berberi, MIA ’86
Matthew A. Berg, MIA ’98
Peggy Robbins Bide, IF ’85, MIA ’85
Melanie June Bixby, MIA ’91
Julius R. Blocker, MIA ’56
Alice K. Bolocan, CER ’57
Donald Bronkema, CER ’57
Jeffrey L. Canfield, CER ’82, MIA ’82
Rafael Cervantes, MIA ’01
Jonathan A. Chanis
Shoma Chatterjee, MIA ’01
Jamsheed Kairshasp Choksy
Wellington Pao-Chun Chu, CER ’87,
MIA ’87
Yung-Woo Chun, IF ’93, MIA ’94
Irene Borecky Coffman, MIA ’82
Richard Wayne Coffman
Charles D. Cook, Esq., MIA ’50
Theodore Albert D’Afflisio, MIA ’71
Stela Maris Dallari, MPA ’03
Edward N. De Lia, MIA ’87
Istvan A. Deak
Alice M. Dear
John Melone Deidrick, MIA ’85
Marc P. Desautels, MIA ’66
Robert Laurence Direnzo, MPA ’94
Jutta E. Dorscher-Kim, MIA ’87
Roberta M. Edge, MPA ’79
Tayeb Yehya El-Hibri
Gordon Epstein, IF ’75, CER ’78,
MIA ’78
Mitchell B. Feldman, MIA ’77
Louise R. Firestone, MIA ’79
Grace Frisone, MIA ’76
Larry S. Gage, Esq., IF ’71
Evans Gerakas, MIA ’59
Sol Glasner, CER ’76, MIA ’76
Gary W. Glick, CER ’72
Marilu Goldberg-Finardi, MIA ’82
Oscar Gomez Cruz, MIA ’01
Matthew Spalckhaver Gordon
John M. Gorup
Victor Gotbaum, MIA ’50
Edward J. Grace
Mahmud Osman Haddad
Kay L. Hancock
Teresa Misty Hathaway, MIA ’89
Rachel Beth Heller, MPA ’01
Anna Katharina Herrhausen, MIA ’02
Peter Alexander Hofmann, MIA ’86
W. E. Holliday
John Schaller Hopley, MIA ’90
Ramya Thambuswamy Hopley,
MIA ’86
Deborah Lee James, MIA ’81
Mark M. Jaskowiak, IF ’77
Edward Van K. Jaycox Jr., CER ’64,
MIA ’64
Horace P. Jen, MIA ’93
Elizabeth Lynn Katkin, Esq., IF ’90,
MIA ’92
Peter N. Kujachich
Miodrag Kukrika, MD
Peter Leon George Laurens, MIA ’01
Steven I. Levine
Jirawat Sophon Liwprasert, MIA ’84
Dallas D. Lloyd, MIA ’58
David J. Lund, MIA ’81
Linda Freed Lund, MIA ’81
Gerard Joseph Maguire, MIA ’02
Jennifer Rebecca Malkin, MIA ’96
Angelo Michael Mancino, MPA ’03
Patrick E. Mathes, MIA ’97
Rodolfo Abelardo Mayer Prieto,
MIA ’02
Stephen Allen Messinger, IF ’88,
MIA ’89
Milton W. Meyer, MIA, ’49
John S. Micgiel, MIA, ’77
Deborah Lynne Mosselson, MIA ’98
Mazen Naous
Richard T. Newman, MIA ’51
Mark David O’Keefe, MIA ’95
Yalman Onaran, MIA ’93
Ruth G. Ornelas, IF ’80, MIA ’81
Richard B. Palmer, MIA ’55
Jose Peralta
Eden Prather Perry, MIA ’01
Elizabeth M. Phillips, MIA ’79
Jefrey Ian Pollock, MPA ’97
Robert W. Pons, MIA ’64
Parvaneh Pourshariati
Milovan T. Rakic
Fauzia Rashid, MIA ’01
John M. Reid, MIA ’64
Robert D. Reischauer, MIA ’66
Brian B. Rigney, MIA ’00
Glenda G. Rosenthal, CER ’71
Sophia Saadeh
Julie Elizabeth Satow, MIA ’01
Uli Schamiloglu
Lilli deBrito Schindler, MIA ’90
Allison H. Schovee, MIA ’85
Ernst J. Schrader, MIA ’65
Olga Shashkina
Elisabeth Deanne Sherk, MIA ’92
John G. Siegal
T. David Stapleton, MIA, ’01
Elizabeth Stern, MIA, ’89
Emanuel Stern, MPA, ’90
Kristine Mary Sudano, MPA ’02
Yuriko Tada, MIA, ’95
Frank C. Taylor, IF ’66
Douglas Boyd Thomas, MIA ’98
Elizabeth F. Thompson, CER ’89,
MIA ’89
Susanne Todt
Stephanie Louise Watnick, MIA ’92
Stephanie Beth Wolk Lawrence,
MPA ’93
Hidemasa Yamakawa, MIA ’92
Neguin Yavari
Zhijing Yin, MPA, ’03
Osamu Yoshida, MPA ’99
Andrew W. Zimmerman, MD, IF ’68
$100–$249
Robert A. Aderhold
Jo Anne C. Adlerstein, Esq., IF ’75
David E. Albright, CER ’71
William W. Alfeld, MIA ’51
Christopher Carl Allieri, MIA ’00
Maria del Rocio Alvarez, MPA ’02
James M. Arrowsmith
Vlado Babic
Suzana Bacvanovic, MIA ’00
Peter J. W. Baillargeon, MIA ’01
Leonard J. Baldyga, MIA ’62
Jillian Barron, MIA, ’88
Hurd Baruch, Esq., IF ’61
Edward J. Bayone, MIA ’79
Edmund Beard, MIA ’68
Robin M. Beckett, IF ’77
SIPA
Martin H. Belsky, IF ’68
Chris Bernhardt
Wendy Lee Kutlow Best, MPA ’87
Jennifer Anne Beubis, MIA ’95
Pieter Anton Bierkens, MIA ’92
Thomas H. Boast, MIA ’72
Holly Bernson Bogin, MIA ’88
Stanley P. Borowiec
Zofia Borowska
Joan Copithorne Bowen, MIA ’67
Paul D. Boyd, IF ’63
Deborah K. Breslof, MIA ’86
Gordon Marshall Burck, MIA ’86
Michael John Burke, MPA ’89
Allen L. Byrum, MIA ’72
Robert Anthony Calaff, MPA ’90
Mary W. Carpenter, MIA ’51
Sally F. Chen, MPA ’99
Jeff Geefen Chyu, MIA ’83
Eugene Ciszewski
Amanda Hoagland Clark, CER ’82
Christopher Noel Clausen, MIA ’00
Susan E. Clelland, MPA ’03
Ellen Miriam Cohen, MPA ’03
Joseph J. Collins, IF ’80, MIA ’80
Richard W. Cortright Jr., MIA ’82
Daniel Joseph Costello, MPA ’01
William V. Cox, MIA ’83
Dustin Craven, MIA ’93
David Cameron Cuthell Jr., MIA ’90
Karl I. Danga, IF ’71, MIA ’72
Jonathan Dean
Daniel Dicker
Stephen D. Docter, MIA ’60
James Donenwirth
Charles F. Dunbar, MIA ’61
Cecilia Elizabeth Dunn, MPA ’93
Andrew J. Dunscomb, MIA ’00
Judith Ann Edstrom, IF ’72, MIA ’72
Sari J. Ellovich, MIA ’75
Sharon E. Epstein, IF ’71, MIA ’71
Brent Herman Feigenbaum, MIA ’84
Alfonso Fernandez, Esq., IF ’81
Vincent A. Ferraro, IF ’73, MIA ’73
Leesa S. Fields, MIA, ’82
Tammy S. Fine, MPA ’94
Benjamin A. Fleck, MIA ’48
Hugh Corning Fraser, MPA ’95
Laurence Todd Freed, MIA ’94
Gerald S. Freedman, MD, IF ’62
Amy Esther Friedman, MIA ’92
Stephen Gerard Fromhart, MIA ’98
Bruno B. Frydman, MIA ’80
Kathryn Lynne Furano, MPA ’90
Ryszard Gajewski
Michael William Galligan, IF ’83,
MIA ’84
Sridhar Ganesan, MIA ’96
Stephen Bernt Gaull, CER ’88,
MIA ’88
Joseph G. Gavin III, MIA ’70
Linda L. Gerlach, MIA ’93
Patricia C. Gloster-Coates, CER ’70,
MIA ’70
Ira E. Goldberg, MIA ’75
Irena G. Gross
Gregory J. Gruber, MIA ’96
Marcello Hallake
Katherine Olivia Hardy, MIA ’97
Peter L. Harnik, MIA ’75
S I PA
N E W S
4 7
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DONOR LIST
Page 48
SIPA
Gary Edward Hayes, CER ’81,
MIA ’81
Jennifer Ann Hemmer, MIA ’89
Miriam E. Hill, MPA ’99
Michael Anthony Hillmeyer, IF ’96,
MIA ’97
William D. Howells, CER ’60,
MIA ’60
Mi-Ae Hur, MIA ’00
Stanislaw Jedrysek
Weirong Jin, MIA ’93
Ray Christopher Johnson, MPA ’89
Richard B. Jones, MIA ’80
John Charles Jove, MIA ’85
Linor Tal Junowicz, MIA ’95
Sharon Kahn-Bernstein, MPA ’97
Maryam D. Kamali, MIA ’92
Rhona Malton Kaplan, MPA ’82
Robert Kaplan, MIA ’48
Jeffrey Shinji Kashida, MIA ’76
Daniel Lewis Katzive, MIA ’92
Peggy Ockkyung Kauh, MPA ’01
Lauren Jennifer Kelley, MIA ’84
John J. Kerr Jr., Esq., IF ’76
Allan R. Kessler, MIA ’82
Brigitte Lehner Kingsbury, MIA ’89
James Henry Kipers Jr., MIA ’02
Donna W. Kirchheimer, MIA ’68
Lidia Kopernik
Andrzej Korbonski
Alicia S. Kossick, MIA ’99
Z. Anthony Kruszewski
Regina Krzych
Walter Kuskowski
Darwin R. LaBarthe, MD, IF ’62
Julie Werner Lane, MPA ’92
Donald A. Lawniczak
Mel Laytner, MIA ’72
Nelson C. Ledsky, MIA ’53
Andre D. Lehmann, CER ’73,
MIA ’73
Jay A. Levy, MD, IF ’62
Nadine Netter Levy, MIA ’70
Scott Louis Licamele, MIA ’97
Catherine L. Liesman
Lauren Liesman
David-Sven Charles Lindholm, IF
’98, MIA ’98
John Joseph Lis, IF ’96, CER ’96,
MIA ’96
Ronald Dean Lorton, IF ’71, MIA ’71
Erica Granetz Lowitz, MPA ’94
Laurie Aileen Macaulay, MPA ’03
Edward E. Malefakis
Donald W. Maley Jr., MIA ’79
Lawrence H. Mamiya, IF ’68
Michael C. Manganiello, MPA ’01
Jennifer Lin Marozas, MPA ’97
Raul Kazimierz Martynek, MIA ’93
Jennifer Lili Match, MIA ’89
Dobrosav Matiasevic
Marc Oliver Matthiensen, MIA ’95
Joseph J. McBrien, MIA ’77
John McDiarmid Jr., MIA ’68
Eugenia McGill, MIA 2000
Kimberley Elizabeth McGill, IF ’98,
CER ’98, MIA ’98
Frederick F. McGoldrick, MIA ’66
James D. McGraw, MIA ’55
Laila M. Mehdi, MIA ’86
Namrata Yogesh Mehta, MIA ’97
Sandeep Mehta, MIA ’96
4 8
S I PA
N E W S
Jeffrey Peter Metzler, MPA ’99
Calvin Marshall Mew, IF ’72
Scott B. Meyer
Peter Mieszkowski
Zoran Milkovich
Kenneth Miller
Deborah Lynn Mitchell-Nagpal,
MPA ’92
Marianne Mitosinka, MIA ’81
Redmond Kathleen Molz
Charlotte T. Morgan-Cato, MIA ’67
James William Morley
Kin W. Moy, MIA ’90
Christine Munn, MIA ’81
Maureen Patricia Murphy, MIA ’99
Anne R. Myers, MIA ’70
Jonathan Jacob Nadler, MPA ’81
James I. Nakamura
Peter Ryan Natiello, IF ’90, MIA ’90
John Rustle Navarro, MIA ’91
Stephen S. Nelmes, MIA ’73
David Michael Nixon, MIA ’83
Mila L. Nolan
Bradley S. Norton, MPA ’02
Aleksandra Nowakowski
Thomas F. O’Connor Jr., MIA ’76
Tracey Ellen O’Connor, MIA ’94
Peter Damian O’Driscoll, MIA ’97
Harry John O’Hara, IF ’90, MIA ’91
Timothy J. C. O’Shea, IF ’84,
MIA ’85
J. Rafal Olbinski
Clarence W. Olmstead Jr., Esq.,
IF ’67
Bruce A. Ortwine, MIA ’78
Charles D. Paolillo, MIA ’61
Constantine G. Papavizas, IF ’81,
MIA ’81
Peter Pastor
Richard J. Pera, MIA ’79
Hilda Renee Perez, MPA ’95
Nis Adolph Petersen, MIA ’54
Shelly Louise Pettigrew, MIA ’96
James Andrew Pickup, MIA ’91
Richard P. Poirier, MPA ’80
Polish Veterans of World War II
SPK, Inc.
Bonnie M. Potter, MIA ’73
Tomasz Potworowski
Peter William Quinn, IF ’97, MIA ’97
David C. Ralph, MIA ’67
K. Steve Rasiej
Julie Ratner
Jeremy Neal Reiskin, MIA ’87
Janet S. Resele-Tiden, MIA ’92
Therese Ruth Revesz, MIA ’69
Scott Andrew Richman, MIA ’91
Jean K. Robinson, MIA ’83
Alina Mercedes Rocha Menocal,
MIA ’98
Susan Rockefeller, MPA ’98
Smedes Rose, MIA ’94
Susan A. S. Rosthal, MIA ’71
Richard C. Rowson, MIA ’50
George F. Ruffner, MIA ’72
Robert R. Ruggiero, MIA ’56
Thomas J. Russo, CER ’76
Julie Ann Ruterbories, CER ’91,
MIA ’91
Mirjana Samardzija
Fernando S. Sanchez, MIA ’90
Mariko Sato, MIA ’94
Marvin A. Schlaff, MIA ’62
Harold B. Segel
Kaoruko Seki, IF ’93, MIA ’93
Mervyn W. Adams Seldon, CER ’64
Albert L. Seligmann, MIA ’49
Steven Harold Semenuk, MPA ’90
Frank G. Serafin
Lillian Siemion
Edward Silverman
Robert Silvers
Melvyn J. Simburg, Esq., IF ’71,
MIA ’71
George W. Simmonds, CER ’52
John Sitilides, MIA ’86
Felix Smigiel
Aurellia Sobczyk
Debra E. Soled, CER ’83, MIA ’82
Jan Solomon, CER ’75
Christian R. Sonne, CER ’62,
MIA ’62
Nicholas J. Spiliotes, CER ’79, IF ’79
Peter Spiller, MIA ’68
Charles H. Srodes, MD, IF ’65
Alan Stern, MIA ’68
Bosiljka Stevanovic
Tara Jayne Sullivan, MPA ’86
Irene B. Susmano, MIA ’88
George Swierbutowicz
John Temple Swing
Emilia Szymanski
Jennifer Kelleher Tamis, MIA ’01
Joanna A. Tan, MIA ’95
Serge Todorovich
Violet Todorovich
Mary Ming-Lung Tsai, MIA ’03
Daniel B. Tunstall, MIA ’68
Robert F. Turetsky, MIA ’72
Natalia Udovik, MIA ’69
Ralph W. Usinger, MIA ’73
Elizabeth K. Valkenier, CER ’51
Harold E. Varmus, MD, IF ’64
Milos M. Velimirovic
James C. Veneau, MIA ’96
Gabor P. Vermes
Alexander R. Vershbow, CER ’76,
MIA ’76
Joseph L. Vidich, MIA ’80
Dragan D. Vuckovic
April Wahlestedt Palmerlee, MIA ’00
Sarah A. Walbert, CER ’80, MIA ’80
Kimberly Anne Wedel, MPA ’88
Marilyn S. Wellemeyer, MIA ’68
Zofia J. Werchun
Szczepan Wesoly
Moine I. West, IF ’75, MIA ’76
Maciej R. Wierzynski
Elizabeth Roberts Wilcox, IF ’93,
CER ’94
Jill Sue Wilkins, MIA ’91
H. David Willey, IF ’63
Paula Wilson
Boji Wong
Brian J. Woods, MPA ’02
Juliet Wurr, IF ’88, MIA ’89
Harry M. Yohalem, Esq., MIA ’69
Rachel Yona Zenner, MPA ’98
Below are the 35 organizations
whose matching gift programs supported the work of SIPA because a
graduate or friend affiliated with
the company made a gift to SIPA.
Altria Group, Inc.
American International Group, Inc.
Bank of America Foundation
The Bank of New York
Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsban
AG, NY Branch
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Citigroup Foundation
Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation
Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
EAI Corporation
ExxonMobil Foundation
Fannie Mae Foundation
First Data Corporation
The Ford Foundation
GE Foundation
IBM International Foundation
ING (U.S.) Financial Services
Corporation
The J. P. Morgan Chase Foundation
KPMG Foundation
W. K. Kellogg Foundation
The McGraw Hill Companies
Foundation
Mellon Financial Corporation Fund
Merrill Lynch & Co. Foundation, Inc.
MetLife Foundation
Mitsubishi International Corporation
MONY Foundation
Moody’s Foundation
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter
Foundation
Motorola Foundation
National City Bank Foundation
New York Life Foundation
Reuters America Inc.
UBS
W. P. Carey Foundation, Inc.
The William Penn Foundation
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Page 49
SIPA News is published bi-annually by SIPA’s Office of External Relations.
Managing Editor: JoAnn Crawford
Editors: Arvin Bhatt, Saira Stewart
Contributing Editor: Deirdre Downey
Contributing writers: Rafis Abazov, Lisa Anderson, Andre Banks, Arvin Bhatt, John Bresnan,
Eric Cantor, Hocine Cherhabil, Geoff Craig, Deirdre Downey, William Eimicke, Albert Fishlow,
Pui Wing Ho, Thomas R. Lansner, Robert C. Lieberman, Maria Ma, Michelle Marston, Rachel
Martin, Sharyn O’Halloran, Vince O’Hara, Mica Rosenberg, Glenda Rosenthal, Veronika Ruff,
Robert Y. Shapiro, Marie Wiltz
Contributing photographers: Guillermo Arias—AP Photo, page 22 (right); Eileen Barroso,
page 39, 40, 41 (right); Mike Clarke—AFP/Getty Images, page 10; MIchael Dames, page 41
(left); Khaled Fazaa—AFP/Getty Images, page 30; Stephen Ferry/Liason, page 35,36,37; Bay
Ismoyo—AFP/Getty Images, page 4; Kamran Jebreili—AP Photo, page 28–29; Thomas R.
Lansner, page 34; Shah Marai—AFP/Getty Images, page 15; Behrouz Mehri—AFP/Getty
Images, page 14; Jamie Puebla—AP Photo, page 22 (left); Joel Robin—AFP/Getty Images,
page 19 (right); John Sommerd II—Reuters, page 24; Schalk van Zuydam/AP Photo, page
32; Ian Waldie—Getty Images, page 7; Aubrey Washington—Reuters/Corbis, page 20, page
22 (right).
Contributing illustrator: Otto Steininger
Cover Photograph: An Estonian woman votes in European elections, June 13, 2004—
AFP/Getty Images
Design and Production: Office of University Publications
School of International and Public Affairs
Dean: Lisa Anderson
Associate Deans: Robin Lewis, Patrick Bohan, and Rob Garris
Office of External Relations:
JoAnn Crawford, Director of Publications and Special Events
Rodrick Dial, Director of Alumni Relations
Yun Won Cho, Director of Development
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