Polling in Iraq and Afghanistan

Talk about asking tough questions in tough places! Matt Warshaw, Senior Research Manager at D3 Systems, and friend and colleague, responded to interview questions about the challenges associated with conducting research in Afghanistan and Iraq at World Public Opinion. Read it. I think you’ll be surprised about a lot of the answers.

My favorite answer? When Matt was asked why this sort of work is worthwhile:

“It’s the third voice in the debate. It’s providing what people in those countries think about that situation. Having some knowledge of what the people in these places think themselves is a very valuable tool when enormous global decisions are going to be made about the future of a country, the direction it’s going to take, whether you’re going to have democracy, elections, invasions, sanctions, etc. These are decisions that could impact not just that country but your own society and other societies. There’s an enormous value in knowing what’s on people’s minds.”

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Bogus Azerbaijani ‘Human Rights Group’ Goes to Washington

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Back in July, Ken Silverstein wrote an interesting article for Harpers about the how big PR firms in Washington acquire and serve foreign governmental clients. He posed as an agent for a shadowy company that wanted to hire a firm to improve Turkmenistan’s image in DC. Under the ruse, he collected proposals and price sheets from the biggest, most well-connected firms.

Although I don’t think the article provided a whole lot of new information about how DC firms work ($50,000 monthly retainers! Shocker!), it was interesting to see the whole package and sit in on the pitches. It is definitely worth the read.

Recently, Silverstein was invited to a press event in Washington featuring the Association for Civil Society Development in Azerbaijan (ACSDA) by a firm called Bob Lawrence and Associates. Since Silverstein pointed out in his article that “independent press events” are among the tools used by Washington firms to improve their clients’ images, he posted a follow-up on Harpers’ website (you have to wonder who thought it was a good idea to invite him in the first place).

Who is ACSDA? It’s an “NGO coalition” backed by the Government of Azerbaijan designed showcase Azerbaijan’s vibrant civil society to outsiders who don’t know any better. Bob Lawrence and Associates also coordinated President Aliyev’s 2006 trip to Washington to meet with Bush, Aliyev’s reward for not killing any election protesters after the 2005 election.
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Fake Polls in Ukraine: So What?

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There’s a lot of handwringing in Kyiv about all the bad polls the newspapers are publishing in the weeks before the election on September 30th. The sociologists have their panties in a bunch that the science of statistics is being used to mislead voters. Bloggers like Mark MacKinnon worry that it’s evidence that it’s 2004 all over again.

I say: So what?

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