Dissidents, Western leaders to meet

Dissidents and democratic leaders will convene in Prague at a conference co-hosted by a Jerusalem think tank. The Shalem Center’s Institute for Strategic Studies, along with the Prague Security Studies Institute and the Foundation for Social Analysis and Studies in Madrid, will host the June 4-6 gathering on “Democracy and Security: Core Values and Sound Policies.” Speakers will include President Bush, former refusenik and Israeli Cabinet minister Natan Sharansky, former Czech President Vaclav Havel and former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. The think tank said in a release Thursday that the event aims to bring together dissidents and leading politicians from democratic nations to discuss challenges to democracy from recent events in the Middle East, ways to promote democracy in totalitarian regimes and the role of dissidents in that process.