The event – which celebrated Israeli-German academic and diplomatic collaboration – brought together a panel of senior academics and diplomats, with an equally distinguished audience that included the former President of the Supreme Court, the Honorable Meir Shamgar, Israeli and foreign ambassadors, senior academics, civil society leaders, journalists, and students. The participation of the US embassy in Israel at the conference granted the discussion a broader view on the issue.

Welcome remarks by the President of The Shalem Center, Dr. Daniel Polisar, Professor Dr. Ursula Lehmkuhl, First Vice President of the Freie Universität Berlin and Dr. Lars Hänsel – who particularly reminded the audience of the Fall of the Berlin Wall almost 20 years ago to the day – opened the evening. They emphasized the importance of democracy and the rule of law as shared values between Israel and Germany, but also the significance of the partnership with the United States for better and efficient promotion of those values.

The panel discussion included three speakers and two respondents. Recently the three speakers jointly published a book on Promoting Democracy and the Rule of Law: American and European Strategies. This book represents the first systematic, comparative analysis of post-Cold War American and European efforts in this field.

Dr. Amichai Magen (Director of Academic Affairs and Associate Fellow at The Shalem Center) addressed the audience and provided the essential background to the evening’s discussion by describing the rise of democracy as a world value and system of government in the last three decades, as well as the historical and contemporary efforts of Americans and Europeans to promote democratic values and institutions around the world. Dr. Magen outlined several major challenges facing democracy today. He defined them as the “inverted wave”, referring to states in which in the last decade the democratic system has been falling apart. He mentioned countries like Russia and China which seem to present to the world successful examples of autocratic systems, or other countries, such as Egypt, that is officially considered as a democracy but is not functioning like one. The right to vote is not necessarily the ultimate indication for a democracy, emphasized Dr. Magen.

Professor Dr. Thomas Risse (Professor of International Relations, Freie Universität Berlin) picked up where Amichai Magen had left off – focusing on the similarities and the differences of the American and European approaches to promote democracy. Contrary to popular perception, Risse said, the United States and the European Union share many common features in their strategies and philosophies to promote democracy. The idea that “Americans are from Mars, and the Europeans are from Venus” – that the United States only uses “hard power” and the European Union only “soft power” – is a misleading thought. The differences can be found more in the instruments that each is using to achieve its purposes. The US are more active in establishing NGO’s and working in the fields of promoting civil society. The EU uses the tool of membership in order to achieve its goals to promote democracy among its newest member states. In this context, however, the work of the German foundations can also be considered as a good example of intensive European effort in this field.

Focusing on the European Union’s external relations policies, Professor Dr. Tanja Börzel (Professor of European Integration, Freie Universität Berlin) argued that the enlargement of the EU has been one of the most historically successful strategies for encouraging democratic transformation and consolidation in the world. Prof. Börzel noted, that the EU is suffering from enlargement fatigue and has reached the edges of its capacity to offer membership. This means that the EU must develop new strategies for influencing neighboring countries if it is to continue to encourage democratization and rule of law reforms in North Africa and the Middle East.

Following these three presentations, Ambassador Shimon Stein (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel) and Mr. Alex Daniels (Director, The American Center, Jerusalem, and First Secretary, Embassy of the United States, Israel) offered brief comments on the presentations. Both commentators pointed to the great importance of the subject to the Middle East and transatlantic relations. Ambassador Stein courted controversy when he raised the question of whether the United States and the EU should push for democratization in the Middle East if the result could be an Islamic fundamentalist takeover. He indicated especially the case of the Hamas winning the elections in Gaza in 2006. Responding to that argument, Thomas Risse raised the question whether focusing on stability and supporting non-democratic rulers will indeed bring about security. It happens quite often that people frustrated by dictatorships are pushed to support radical groups.

Alex Daniels described the Bush and Obama administrations’ new development aid policies, in which the promotion of good governance reforms has been made a priority.

The presentations and commentators’ observations set off great interest in the audience. Questions from the public addressed the degree of similarity and differences in American and European approaches to democracy promotion, the viability of democracy as a truly universal value, and prospects of greater democratization in the Middle East. The event also received media coverage on Galei Tzahal and Reshet B – Israel’s two major national radio stations.

The event gave a prominent, discussion platform of high impact to one of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung’s major objectives drawing attention to the importance of democracy and the rule of law, and encouraging the building of sustainable ties between outstanding German and Israeli institutions.