Nathan Brown, a specialist on Arab constitutions who has closely followed Iraq’s constitution-drafting process, predicts that Iraqi politicians, rushing to meet an August 15 deadline, “will have a draft ready to present to the National Assembly within the next week–unless the political situation completely collapses.” But Brown, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on leave from George Washington University, worries that the process is hurried. “My concern is that they’re doing it in such a rushed fashion, focusing so much on meeting this deadline, that they may be undercutting and shortchanging this process,” he says. “So I might give them a good grade for intentions, but I might say to them what I sometimes say to my kids when they are doing their homework: ‘Slow down, take your time, and make sure you do it right.'” Full Story