Don't Sacrifice Democracy in Negotiations With Iran

As the confrontation between the West and Iran over uranium enrichment comes to a head, the internal confrontation in Iran between the partisans of divine sovereignty, allied with the Revolutionary Guard, and popular sovereignty continues to simmer.
In this section, the first president of the Islamic Republic, a leading cleric of the opposition, the Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi and a former British intelligence agent ponder what lies ahead.     

Aspects of Tokugawa Bureaucracy and Modernization

There is perhaps in all history no parallel case to the swiftness and effectiveness of Japanese modernization in the few years following the Meiji Restoration of 1868. A few examples of it will suffice to indicate its extent and thoroughness. The feudal lords (daimyõ) returned their fiefs to the state in 1869, and the new prefectures were created in 1871. At the end of 1869 a telegraphic service began between Tokyo and Yokohama. In 1870 smallpox vaccination was made compulsory throughout the country. In 1871 there was new coinage based on the gold system, and the old currencies were abolished. By the following year a railway line existed from Yokohama to Shimbashi in Tokyo, and a government-operated spinning mill was set up in Tomioka in Gumma prefecture. A national system of primary education was established in these years, and the government not only planned but also intervened with investment in industrial developments, especially in heavy industry. Of quite fundamental importance were the missions which the government sent to Europe and the United States of America to study and report on various governmental, legal, and military systems. In all this there was obviously much central planning, central control and capable administration. There was also, and had to be, a fairly compliant and literate populace. Less obviously, one may assume that there were certain ‘growing points’ in the traditional values and social structure for the modernizing processes to develop from; evidence for that assumption will be offered below.     

Democratic Refusal in Iran

The Iranian revolution—the political realization of the "Great Refusal" of Western modernization—was a direct consequence a half century later of the forced secularization of the Ottoman Caliphate by Kemal Ataturk. With the superstructure of the Muslim ummah dismantled and replaced by the Turkish nation state, insurgent religious movements, from the (Sunni) Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to the Shiite imams of Qum and Najaf, moved into the vacuum to reclaim Islam from the shadow of Western dominance.
Now, history is turning again. Iran has been seized by violent turmoil as it seeks to reconcile democracy and religious rule. Secular Turkey is governed by an Islamist-rooted party. As they struggle to regain their balance, the global economic meltdown threatens a convergence against globalization that joins the Islamist resistance with populist backlashes elsewhere.
Two legendary intelligence agents, a Hezbollah leader, an Iranian dissident philosopher and Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian human rights lawyer and Nobel Laureate, examine this historical turn.     

Reclaiming Futures: A Model for Judicial Leadership in Community Responses to Juvenile Substance Abuse

Juvenile courts across the country have become the leading service delivery system for youths with substance abuse problems, not by choice, but by necessity. At 10 communities around the nation, judges and project staff are in their fifth year of pioneering changes to the way the juvenile justice system helps teens in trouble with drugs, alcohol, and crime. These judges are part of Reclaiming Futures, an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and they are working with local leaders to re‐invent the way law enforcement, courts, probation, detention facilities, treatment providers, families, schools, and the community work together to help troubled youths succeed. Together, they have written a guide for judges, court administrators, government entities, community leaders, and interested citizens to share the knowledge and experience they have gained from the nationwide Reclaiming Futures initiative. Their goal is to encourage and motivate others to launch similar projects in their communities, and to provide a blueprint for judges and others striving to undertake this level of collaboration.