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New York Democracy Forum >> 2005 Lecture Series


Lecture Series

The New York Democracy Forum is an exciting new joint venture of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the Foreign Policy Association (FPA). Since the advance of democracy is one of the fundamental struggles of our time, NED and FPA believe it is critical that the world's leading commercial center engage with those who are part of that struggle. Launched on March 9, 2005 with the first annual Democracy Dinner, and followed by a monthly lecture series held at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College, and during the fall at McGraw-Hill Auditorium, the aim of the New York Democracy Forum is to bring key figures in the democracy movement, individuals who are leading the way in the advance of democratic values and institutions around the world, to New York audiences.

In addition to garnering support for the worldwide democracy movement from New York's civic, educational and financial leaders, the New York Democracy Forum will create opportunities for engaging with some of the world's current and future leaders. In addition, the Forum will help raise public awareness of the work of NED and FPA.
• December 1 - Anwar Ibrahim
• November 3 - Larry Diamond
• October 6 - Mark Malloch Brown
• May 24 - Francis Fukuyama
• April 20 - Azar Nafisi
• March 22 - Richard Gephardt
• March 9 - Annual Democracy Dinner
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Anwar Ibrahim - "The Future of Muslim Democracy"

Anwar Ibrahim is currently a visiting professor at Georgetown University. Formerly the deputy prime minister of Malaysia and vice president of the United Malays National Organization, Ibrahim started in 1971 the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM), the first mass-based NGO in the country to raise social and political awareness and emphasize social justice and human rights. Together with the late Prof. Ismail al-Faruqi and Dr. Taha Jabir al-Awani, Ibrahim founded the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) in 1981 and later set up the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences in Ashburn, Virginia. His criticism of corruption and abuse of power within the Malaysian government and his vocal demand for reform resulted in his arrest and imprisonment in September 1998. Ibrahim, who led a new democratic movement in Malaysia from his prison cell, was released in September 2004.

Lecture: December 1, 2005
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Larry Diamond - "Can the Whole World Become Democratic?"

Larry Diamond is co-director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies, founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy, and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He has written extensively on democracy in the developing world, especially in Africa and Asia. During 2001–2003, Diamond served as a consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development, helping to devise a new strategy for U.S. foreign assistance giving more emphasis to democracy and good governance. From January to March 2004 he was a senior advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. Diamond is the author of Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation (1999) and of numerous other works on democratic development. His latest book is Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq (2005).

Lecture: November 3, 2005
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Mark Malloch Brown - "UN Reform, Democracy and Human Rights"

Mark Malloch Brown has served as Chef de Cabinet to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan since January 2005. From July 1999 to August 2005, he held the position of Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where he oversaw a comprehensive reform effort. Among other accomplishments, Malloch Brown's tenure at UNDP was highlighted by expanded efforts to support democratic governance in developing countries, a new advocacy dimension reflected in pioneering publications including the Arab Human Development Reports. From 1996 to 1999, he served at the World Bank as Vice-President for External Affairs and Vice-President for United Nations Affairs. Malloch Brown has extensive experience in strategic communications and journalism, and is also active in human rights and refugee issues.

Lecture: October 6, 2005*
(*Co-sponsored with the Campaign for a UN Democracy Caucus)
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Francis Fukuyama - "Do we really know how to promote democracy?"

Francis Fukuyama is Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy at the Johns Hopkins University's Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). One of the leading public intellectuals in the U.S., Dr. Fukuyama has written widely on issues relating to democratization, international political economy, the role of culture and social capital in modern economic life, and the social consequences of the transition into an information economy. Dr. Fukuyama's book, The End of History and the Last Man (Free Press, 1992), has appeared in over twenty foreign editions. His most recent book is State-Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century (2004). Previous affiliations include the RAND Corporation and the Policy Planning Staff of the U.S. Department of State.

Lecture: May 24, 2005
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Azar Nafisi - "Women, Culture, Human Rights: the case of Iran"



Azar Nafisi is a Visiting Fellow and professorial lecturer at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University's Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, DC. A professor of aesthetics, culture and literature, Dr. Nafisi is the author of the critically-acclaimed best-seller, Reading Lolita in Teheran: A Memoir in Books, which is based upon her experience in Iran leading a discussion group of young women on forbidden works of Western literature prior to fleeing that country for the U.S. 1997. As a teacher at the Free Islamic University, Allameh Tabatabaii, and the University of Tehran-where she was eventually expelled for refusing to wear the mandatory Islamic veil--she earned national respect and international recognition for advocating on behalf of Iran's intellectuals, youth, and especially young women.

Lecture: April 20, 2005
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The Honorable Richard Gephardt - "Spreading Freedom"



A congressman for nearly three decades beginning in the mid-1970s, Richard Gephardt served in the House Democratic Leadership for twenty years, both as Majority and Minority Leader, prior to his retirement at the end of 2004. Born in the same South St. Louis neighborhood he represented in Congress, Gephardt holds degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Michigan Law School. Described by one scholar as "a politician with strong views on policy, tailored to fit the new world of globalization and technology but clearly sized to accommodate his strong identification with working-class families," Gephardt is the author of An Even Better Place: America in the 21st Century, a treatise on the most pressing concerns affecting the American people in the new millennium.

Lecture: March 22, 2005
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Annual Democracy Dinner

The lecture series kicked off with the first annual New York Democracy Forum dinner on March 9th at the Hotel Pierre. The dinner honored John Whitehead, diplomat, financier and philanthropist and John Richardson, a pioneer in the field of democracy assistance, for their lifelong contributions to democracy and human rights. Remarks were offered by Henry Kissinger, Richard Holbrooke, and Maurice Greenberg.

The Democracy Dinner co-chairs were Gonzolo de Las Heras, Chairman of the Foreign Policy Association, Maurice Greenberg, Chairman of American International Group, Inc., former U.N. Ambassador and NED Board Member Richard Holbrooke, and Robert Miller, Chairman of the Hurford Foundation. Whitehead and Richardson received the Democracy Service Medal, whose other recipients include Lech Walesa, Lane Kirkland, and Senator Richard Lugar.

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John Richardson
John Richardson has been a World War II paratrooper, Wall Street lawyer (Sullivan & Cromwell) and investment banker (Paine Webber) and a dedicated public servant. He has served as CEO of Radio Free Europe, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational & Cultural Affairs, CEO of Youth for Understanding (home-stay exchanges for high school students), was a founding staff member of the U.S. Institute of Peace, and a founding board member and Chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy. He has served as a board member of many other educational and service organizations and currently serves on the board of the Council for a Community of Democracies, the International Rescue Committee, American Forum for Global Education, the Social Science Foundation at the University of Denver, and World Learning. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Law School.
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John C. Whitehead

John C. Whitehead has led an outstanding career as a financier, diplomat, philanthropist and public servant. After graduating from Haverford College in 1943, Whitehead served in the US Navy, participating in the invasions of Normandy, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. After earning an MBA from Harvard Business School, Whitehead began his professional career at Goldman, Sachs & Company as a junior statistician. He stayed with the company for 38 years, becoming senior partner and co-chairman in 1976. Whitehead retired in 1984 and has served as a director of the New York Stock Exchange and chairman of the Securities Industry Association.

In 1985, President Ronald Reagan appointed Whitehead deputy secretary of state under George Schultz. During his four-year tenure, he was instrumental in major diplomatic initiatives, including NATO expansion into Central and Eastern Europe. Upon leaving office, Reagan presented him with the Presidential Citizen's Medal.

A dedicated philanthropist, Whitehead is active in many educational, civic and charitable organizations. He has served as chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the International Rescue Committee, the Asia Society, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Harvard Board of Overseers and the Haverford College Board of Managers. He also is a former president of the International Rescue Committee and has traveled the world for the cause of political refugees.

He is chairman of AEA Investors Inc., a private investment firm. As chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (appointed by New York Governor George Pataki in November 2001), Whitehead presides over the largest and most challenging rebuilding project in Manhattan's history.