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ISLAMABAD (AP) Pakistan announced Tuesday it will not participate in this weeks U.S.-led Summit for Democracy, a move seen in part as an effort by the impoverished Islamic nation to assuage longtime ally China, which was not invited.

The Biden administration has invited 120 global leaders to the summit being held in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday. It will be co-hosted by the governments of Costa Rica, the Netherlands, South Korea and Zambia.

Pakistans Foreign Ministry in a statement thanked the United States and its co-hosts for the invitation. Pakistan was also not part of the first and only other summit held in December 2021.

Pakistan is the fifth largest country in the world with a population of over 220 million. It has a functional democracy, although critics say Pakistan ranks among the worst democracies in the world.

Pakistan would engage bilaterally with the United States and co-hosts of the Summit to promote and strengthen democratic principles and values and work towards advancing human rights and the fight against corruption, the statement said.

Pakistan did not attend the 2021 summit amid growing tension between the government of then-Prime Minister Imran Khan and the U.S. administration of President Joe Biden. Relations between Washington and Khan were further strained when Khan visited Moscow in February 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Two months later Khan, who served as prime minister for over 3 1/2 years, was ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament by an alliance of major political parties.

Since then, Khan has alleged that the vote that removed him was a U.S.-organized plot, a charge that Washington and Khans successor Shahbaz Sharif have denied.

In Tuesdays statement, the foreign ministry under Sharif said Pakistan values its friendship with the United States. Under this Biden Administration, this relationship has widened and expanded substantially. We remain committed to further solidifying this relationship for peace, stability, and prosperity in the region, it said.

The summit is taking place days after a leading international rights group in its annual report expressed concern over continued violations of human rights in Pakistan. These include enforced disappearances, curtailments on peaceful assembly, and tightening of controls on freedom of speech. Amnesty International said blasphemy allegations continued to spark violence against both religious minorities and Muslims in 2022.

Fawad Chaudhry, a senior leader from Khans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, at a news conference in Islamabad released a report describing how the current government under Sharif is continuing a crackdown on Khan supporters that began with his ouster in April. He said hundreds of Khan supporters have been detained in recent weeks.

Pakistani analyst Imtiaz Gull, executive director at the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies, said there were multiple factors behind Pakistans decision to skip the summit. One of them is Pakistans desire to assuage concerns from China, which was not invited.

While relations between the U.S. and China have been strained, China has been helping Pakistans efforts to overcome its deepening economic crisis,

China has invested billions of dollars in Pakistan, much of it in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is a sprawling package that includes everything from road construction and power plants to agriculture. It has an estimated cost of up to $75 billion. The largest component of the CPEC project is a 3,200-kilometer (2,000-mile) road linking China to Pakistans deep-water port of Gwadar in the southwest. Pakistan hopes the project will bring prosperity to this South Asian nation.

China has also deposited much-needed millions into Pakistans central bank to boost its fast-declining foreign exchange reserves to save Pakistan from a default amid the countrys worst-ever economic crisis.

Talks with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout have been on hold since last year. That has annoyed Pakistan, which has been trying to get help from Washington to influence the IMF into releasing the loan to Pakistan.

On Tuesday, Pakistans premier told the parliament that the IMF wants external financing commitments made by several friendly countries to be fulfilled to get the kay $1.1 billion tranche from the $6 billion bailout. Sharif said he hoped that the commitments made by Pakistans friends will be fulfilled.

Gull also noted the growing instability in Pakistan amid a widening crackdown on Khan and his political party as a factor for Pakistan to bow out of the summit.

It does not happen in democracies what is happening in Pakistan, where the countrys former premier Khan has been implicated in more than 127 cases, and hundreds of his party workers have been arrested on a range of charges, including terrorism, he said.

What would you present there if you go to participate in the summit about democracy and democratic values? he said.

Original post:
Pakistan says it will skip US democracy summit amid turmoil - The Associated Press

The arrest and brutal death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, in police custody last September in Iran sparked a wave of protests across the country. Angered by a repressive authoritarian government, protesters calls for Iran to become a secular democracy have since captured global attention.

Shirin Ebadi, left, and Abbas Milani, right, attend the Key Challenges and Pathways to Transition event on Sunday, March 26, 2023, at the Stanford Faculty Club. (Image credit: Trever Tachis)

Abbas Milani, director of the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studiesin Stanfords School of Humanities and Sciences, said the demonstrations have mobilized citizens and the Iranian diaspora like never before.

The events that unfolded over the last six months woke up the world to the reality that theres something serious going on in Iran, Milani said.

On Saturday, March 25, and Sunday, March 26, Stanford hosted the conference Dialogues on Irans Transition to Secular Democracy. It convened Iranian leaders and activists, as well as policy experts and researchers at Stanford to deliberate the challenges, strategies, and pathways for Iran to become a democratic society.

The conference was held at the Stanford Faculty Club and welcomed in-person and virtual attendees who gave presentations and participated in workshops, mostly conducted in Persian. It was co-organized by the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies; Gozar, an independent expert collective; and KAI, a prominent group of Silicon Valley leaders interested in Iran.

The conference kicked off Saturday morning with a discussion on the Woman, Life, Freedom slogan and movement borne out of Aminis death and long-standing gender inequality in Iran. Moderated by scholar and politician Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, PhD, it covered the role that women and other minorities play in pushing for democracy and regime change in Iran.

From left, activists Hamed Esmailion, Masih Alinejad, and Nazanin Bonyadi participate remotely in a panel titled Key Challenges and Pathways to Transition on Sunday, March 26, 2023, at the Stanford Faculty Club. (Image credit: Trever Tachis)

Other panels addressed such topics as the peaceful transfer of political power, economic risks, human rights, the role of technology, and key legal issues surrounding a transition to a democratic government in Iran. In the evening, attendees participated in roundtable discussions about amnesty and overcoming misinformation, among other issues.

On Sunday, Milani moderated Key Challenges and Pathways to Transition. The event conducted in Persian convened prominent exiled Iranians: lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, journalist and activist Masih Alinejad, actress and activist Nazanin Bonyadi, and activist and author Hamed Esmailion. Each was involved in the creation of the Mahsa Charter, a set of proposals for establishing a free and democratic Iran designed to unite Irans pro-democracy opposition.

We need a framework to cooperate and help our country [because] our differences of opinion have let this regime rule over us for 40 years, Ebadi said. Its time to move beyond that.

The panelists said the document incorporates many perspectives and is a starting point for a path forward. They also encouraged revisions.

This is not meant to be the end all be all, Esmailion said. We are open to criticism.

The demonstrations of the last six months have convened tens of thousands of protesters and resulted in hundreds of deaths and injuries by Irans military. When asked what the Iranian diaspora can do to support those on the ground, Alinejad cited correcting misinformation from Irans government, rallying support from other nations, and advocating for Iranians on the global stage.

We are the continuation of the voices from inside Iran, she said.

Panelists noted that many global dictators are united in their support for one another. Irans government, for example, has allied with Russia and supplied ammunition to Vladimir Putins army in Ukraine. Alinejad said that democracy-seekers should also band together.

We need to find our own allies and unite with governments who are on our side, she said.

Milani noted that successful transitions to democracy often unite protesters with some parts of an authoritarian regime, by way of defectors or through negotiations. But Ebadi said that Irans opposition does not yet have the power to be diplomatic and will need more support from risk-averse Iranians who have yet to fully support the democratic cause.

We can only negotiate when we are equals or we have the better hand, she said.

Sundays program included a pre-recorded discussion with Milani; Larry Diamond, the Mosbacher Senior Fellow of Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution; and Michael McFaul, director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and a former U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation. All three have worked together on The Iran Democracy Project within the Hoover Institution to better understand Irans possible transition to democracy.

Diamond shared what he believes to be the necessary conditions for success. There has to be some element of decay and division in the regime and some degree of strategy, organization, unity, and mobilization in the opposition, in order for the situation to be right for a democratic transition, he said.

Given Irans rich oil reserves, he believes the regime is unlikely to disintegrate for lack of resources. The democratic opposition will therefore need greater support from allies as well as international pressure on the regime for a transition to occur.

Integrating diasporas with the people on the ground is often challenging, due to physical distance or differing political or cultural views, among other reasons. McFaul said that transitioning to democracy requires mass cooperation until a regime is replaced.

In the fight against [an] autocratic regime, unity matters a lot, he said.

Milani noted that Irans transition to democracy could have broad implications if successful.

If you look at the last 120 years of history of the Middle East, what happens in Iran does not stay in Iran. It spreads, he said, calling Iran a bellwether in the region.

If we get Iran to become democratic, I think the Middle East will be a different place.

Diamond is also a professor, by courtesy, of sociology and of political science and international studies. McFaul is also the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies, professor of political science in Stanfords School of Humanities and Sciences, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

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Stanford conference explores Iran's pathways to democracy ... - Stanford University News

On Thursday, March 30, 2023, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona will travel to Lusaka, Zambia to lead the U.S. delegation at the Summit for Democracy 2023.

On March 29-30, the United States will co-host the second Summit for Democracy with the governments of Costa Rica, the Netherlands, Republic of Korea, and Republic of Zambia. Building on the first Summit for Democracy held in December 2021, this gathering will highlight how democracies deliver for their citizens and are best equipped to address the world's most pressing challenges. The second Summit for Democracy will assemble world leaders in a virtual, plenary format, followed by hybrid gatherings in each of the co-host countries with representatives from government, civil society, and the private sector.

The theme for the Republic of Zambia's summit is "Free, Fair, and Transparent Elections as the Foundation of Democratic Governance." Secretary Cardona will give remarks on March 30, 2023, which will be livestreamed and can be shared upon request. More information can be found here.

The U.S. delegation will also include:

Continued here:
Secretary Cardona to Lead U.S. Delegation at Summit for ... - US Department of Education

There are more stresses on our democracy than Mr. Trump's indictment, but conservatives can relieve most of them by:

Agreeing to ban consideration of the Ten Commandments in education of children and instead attend drag queen story hour for kids at the local elementary school and promote books that teach kids about various sexual practices.

Agreeing that matrimony and traditional family values are regressive ideals, and instead promote cohabitation with readily available reproductive health when a problem arises.

Agreeing that boys are not necessarily boys and girls are not necessarily girls, and that lavatories, locker rooms, and showers should be open to all varieties of gender.

Agreeing that DEI, critical race theory, and climate change are imperative subjects for study in every school at every level, especially in the military academies, because China, Russia, and Iran are less a threat to us than oil, gas, and nuclear power.

Agreeing that persons charged with felonies should be released without bail, and that police should be derided periodically for making arrests.

Agreeing that indictment of a former president is an appropriate exercise of prosecutorial discretion, and a wholesome act that will be good for the health and stability of our country.

Agreeing that certain speech should rightly be shouted down, and the speaker vilified, including invited speakers such as a federal judge deemed disagreeable by a highly compensated VP of DEI at a prestigious law school.

Agreeing, above all, that Judeo Christian Western civilization is exhausted and finished, and turn to Marx, Lenin, Antifa, and the Southern Poverty Law Center for solutions that will last, all the while engaging in sundry chaos and mayhem in urban streets to make the point, particularly by setting buildings on fire, breaking windows, destroying statues, and censoring all contrary thought.

Jack Kenesey

Palatine

Here is the original post:
Letter: How to help democracy - Daily Herald

In our federalist system, the states are often considered laboratories of democracy. State governments test out different policies, or even political strategies, that may someday reach the whole countryordrive red and blue states further apart.

This year, FiveThirtyEight is tracking what state legislation is being proposed and passed and how Republicans and Democrats are going about things differently. In this installment of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, the crew looks at new proposals on guns, taxes, spending plans and identity.

You can listen to the episode by clicking the play button in the audio player above or by downloading it in iTunes, the ESPN App or your favorite podcast platform. If you are new to podcasts, learn how to listen.

The FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast is recorded Mondays and Thursdays. Help new listeners discover the show by leaving us a rating and review on iTunes. Have a comment, question or suggestion for good polling vs. bad polling? Get in touch by email, on Twitter or in the comments.

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Politics Podcast: What The Laboratories Of Democracy Are Cooking ... - FiveThirtyEight