In his recent book, Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq, Professor Larry Diamond identifies four key elements of democracy: "choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections; active citizen participation in politics and civic life; protection of the human rights of all citizens; and the rule of law, in which the regulations and procedures apply equally to all citizens." What are the prospects and problems for implementing these principles throughout the Middle East? Professor Diamond will discuss this and other questions with Dr. Abbas Milani, co-director of the Hoover Institution's Iran Democracy Project and director of Stanford's new Iranian Studies Program. Related Themes: democracy, Iraq

What are immediate and long-term effects of experiencing combat firsthand? In this conversation we probe this question as Chris Hedges, a veteran war correspondent, and Anthony Swofford, a former U.S. Marine Corps sniper, describe memories they would each rather forget. The truths they report are often hidden from public view, for they profoundly challenge the romantic mythology of war. The truth of war makes clear the sacrifice demanded of those sent to fight. Soldiers, their families, caregivers, and taxpaying citizens should not to be deceived about what awaits those caught in a military process that brings them face-to-face with incomprehensible violence. How might knowledge of the truth of war help to heal war’s wounds? Related Themes: Iraq, violence, war

In this installment, we hear from three artists whose work helps reshape our understanding of Iraqi culture and the damage the war has wrought.  They will tell their stories, show their art, and join us in a public conversation. Related Themes: art, Iraq

In this first conversation, journalist Marjorie MIller of the Los Angeles Times will interview Washington Post reporter Anthony Shadid, 2004 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting and author of Night Draws Near: Iraq’s People in the Shadow of America’s War, on the effects of the war on Iraqi institutions and civilians.

 

 

Related Themes: Iraq, justice, war

In this third of five conversations in our IRAQ: REFRAME series, Abbas Milani, director of Stanford’s Iranian Studies Program, hosts Nada Shabout, an authority on Iraqi art history, and McGuire Gibson, the University of Chicago archaeologist who co-authored Lost Heritage: Antiquities Stolen from Iraq’s Regional Museums, the first academic publication to call attention to the problem of looting after the First Gulf War. Related Themes: art, Iraq

In this fourth installment in the IRAQ: REFRAME series with Montalvo Arts Center, we enter into conversation with Dahr Jamail, an independent journalist who went to Iraq in 2003 and embedded himself with Iraqi people. His reports have been published in The Nation, The Guardian, and The Independent. On radio as well as television, he has reported for the BBC, Democracy Now! and numerous other stations around the globe. His writings have recently been collected and published in book form as Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq. Related Themes: Iraq, journalism, media

We join three Iraqi artists to discuss the challenges of filmmaking in present-day Iraq.  Maysoon Pachachi and Kasim Abid, who set up the Independent Film & Television College in Baghdad in 2004, will show and discuss clips from their students’ films.  This will be followed by a screening and discussion of producer Fady Hadid’s Hometown Baghdad, a documentary web series that follows the lives of young Iraqis struggling to survive during the war.

Related Themes: film, Iraq