Experts divided on the future of post-war Iraqi democracy

The Bristol Hotel in Beirut was the venue of the two day conference entitled The Iraqi Paradox: Self-Determination under Occupation? held on the July 7 and 8, 2003.

The conference was organized by the Orient-Institut Beirut, Freidrich-Ebert-Stiftung, German Embassy of Beirut, and the International Centre for Human Sciences (UNESCO, Byblos).

The two-day event included six sessions covering different aspects of the post-war Iraq question.

Topics of the different sessions included the perspectives of the current state of Iraq, chances of democracy, the role of the Shiites, re-making of Iraq under Arab Nationalism and other ideologies.

The conference witnesed the participation of local and international participants with the majority being particularly Iraqis.

There were also Austrian, German, Omani and American panel participants. The audience for its part, although predominantly composed of senior intellectuals, was also of mixed nationalities.

The attending youth formed a small group of less than ten people out of more than 150 attendees.

The conference aimed at creating an academic level debate among the participants although the level varied from one speaker to another. While some had previously researched their presentations and prepared papers others simply jotted their ideas down and recited them in a speech form.

Maysan Maarouf, a AUB graduate student, said: "A lot of the discussion remained in the domain of the general and the theoretical. However, the last session about what model for the new Iraq was more interesting and down to earth, but ultimately since we were not decision makers it was just frustrating speculation."

Like all academic encounters, the sessions varied from revealing to monotonous. Every session which included at least four speakers, a chairperson and a discussant, presented different views all revolving around a certain theme.

Panel members presented their works that were followed by a brief summary of comments by the discussant after which the floor would be open to discussion. The conference was a valuable experience in which views and ideas were exchanged among academicians, journalists, students, politicians and others.

In addition, the conference provided ample opportunity for the youth and students to meet, discuss, and be exposed to views and ideas that might not reach them in their class rooms after either university or professor censorship.

Raed Al Khadem, an AUB political studies graduate said that although several sessions failed to grab his attention, the coffee and lunch breaks were excellent educational opportunities for him to meet and discuss his views with journalists, diplomats and academicians who were not usually easily accessible to students. "It was a casual conversation to exchange ideas in a free form without the hierarchy of the classroom."