Street protest calling for Sharia in Maldives. Wikimedia
Stephen Walt, Foreign Policy: Why Is America So Bad at Promoting Democracy in Other Countries?
There’s no quick, cheap, or military-based way to bring peace to places like Afghanistan, Yemen, and Iraq. It’s time we changed our approach, and we can start at home.
If you’re a dedicated Wilsonian, the past quarter-century must have been pretty discouraging. Convinced liberal democracy was the only viable political formula for a globalizing world, the last three U.S. administrations embraced Wilsonian ideals and made democracy promotion a key element of U.S. foreign policy. For Bill Clinton, it was the “National Security Strategy of Engagement and Enlargement.” For George W. Bush, it was the “Freedom Agenda” set forth in his second inaugural address and echoed by top officials like Condoleezza Rice. Barack Obama has been a less fervent Wilsonian than his predecessors, but he appointed plenty of ardent liberal internationalists to his administration, declaring, “There is no right more fundamental than the ability to choose your leaders.” And he has openly backed democratic transitions in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and several other countries.
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WNU Editor: Democracy cannot be imposed .... it has to come from within the people themselves. Take Russia as an example. In the early 1990s I asked a senior Russian diplomat (my former boss) on how long did he think it would take for Russia to become a true democracy. His answer .... "it took the U.S. over two centuries to have the political system that it has today. Russia's political system (after the fall of the Soviet Union) is/was just only a few years old. Give a few more decades .... maybe a century .... and they will have the political maturity that many Western countries have".
In short ... in countries like Russia, Ukraine, etc. it will take time .... and for many other countries .... Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, etc. .... probably not in this century.
Update: Here is a post from 2013 on why Democracy has failed in the Middle East .... Why Democracy Has Failed In The Arab World
15 comments:
In contrast, in Ukraine, the US promoted anti-Democracy, in Afghanistan, you got to vote for the Warlord of your choice, and in Iraq, they stalled on an elected Government as long as possible.
Then, there's Africa, Latin America, the lists go on and on, the Australian Coup,
So, I have yet to any evidence that the US promotes democracy at all.
The Western tradition goes back thousands of years, slowly - very slowly, and often violently - being built upon from Athens to Rome to Magna Carta to 1776. How could anyone really expect societies that have absolutely no cultural history of government restricted and controlled by its population to just up and accept Democracy? That's like expecting slaves and slave masters to just wake up one day and decide to be friends.
You can't sell something to someone who doesn't even know what it is you are selling. First you have to make them want, or at least believe they want, what you are selling, and Western advertising sucks!
Instead of encouraging freedom, we end up encouraging theft through immigration. And the thieves still do not understand what freedom is.
How do you promote something you don't practice yourself???
Where, pray tell, does this "democracy" exist today?
Perhaps it exists among the reams of paper in an omnibus bill entailing cuts to public services while entrenching the right to profit of private interests? No? Maybe then in an anti-terror legislation sunset clause? --- ah that same sun that never sets on our beloved democracy to be sure-- Missed again? How about in the expropriation without compensation chapter of a free trade agreement?
Not there either?
Maybe in a DOD white paper outlining the new security, urban warfare and expeditionary-- to expedite democracy overseas of course-- "specialization" doctrine of "our" armed forces??
Wrong again?
Well shit.
Thank goodness for the democratically legislated 60+ hour work week, liberally devoid of overtime pay. We will have time to ask the boss wherein democracy lies (certainly no where within the space of our workday/place). Inquiries will be taken during our democratically arrived at unpaid lunch break of course.
The problem with us "over here" is we've come to believe our own bullshit.
I sure I'm missing something here.
Maybe a qoute from Winston Churchill?
Can't argue with you there RRH.
US is not a democracy, It's a Republic. French, German, British, Canadian, Dutch, Swiss, Scandinavian, Indian, South Korean, Japanese, and many other democracies bear little resemblance to US " democracy".
At the First Loya Jurga, tens of thousands of reformers, activists and tribal elders showed up, some were bombed, killed and strafed by US Forces on the way to the Jurga, all in the hopes of building a "better" Afghanistan.
Instead, the US put the Warlords in charge.
On one hand I agree with you, it takes a long time to move from tribal feudalism to a Nation State,
On the other hand, in Iraq for example, you have the constant example of external forces trying to break the transformation.
I didn't expect you would Editor.
Seems to me more and more it's people from your place of origin --often despite themselves-- who are having to explain to the rest of us where the bull shits in the buckwheat.
It must be really something to live to twice see a system collapsing under the weight of its contradictions.
Ah, the Australian coup. Worth investigating for any Canadian deluding themselves about the "merely ceremonial" powers of the Governor General.
Take note of the demise of the Libyan Peoples' Jamahiriyah.
RRH. The Soviet Union collapse .... that was not pretty. The Russian financial collapse in the early 1990s .... that was a nightmare. The West is still far away from what I experienced/witnessed .... but the direction where we are going is not good. What worries me the most is our politicians are addicted to debt. The debt monster .... while appealing to politicians to fund programs and services .... is not a way to run a country for the simple reason that it always catches up to you, and our politicians are not disciplined enough to know that debt should always be a short term exercise, and one that must be paid back ASAP.
Prorogue sound familiar?
Jay. You have made that argument on Afghanistan more than once .... and you have always been entirely right (keep on bringing it up .... this blog gets new readers all the time and they need reminding). My uncle fought for the Soviet army in the 1980s .... his assessment is that 2002 could have been a turning point for Afghanistan .... but too many wrong decisions were made .... and the disaster continues. He passed away a few years ago .... but I would love to know what he thinks about the situation in Afghanistan today .... aside from him always calling the American military/political class stupid .... which by the way sounds really good in Russian. :)
2:30 AM .... groan .... a night owl I am not. I am going to bed.
US Debt isn't a "biggie", ( yet), after all the US prints money for the World Economy, don't want to buy dollars, fine, just try to buy oil in Rai, or digitally transfer it.
The issue has been the debt has been spent on all the "wrong" things.
Spent on the " right" things, it generates added value, revinues, taxes, which can be used to retire some of the debt.
Instead, we are blowing up $21,000 pick ups with $110,000 hellfire missiles, basically just pissing the borrowed money away.
Have a good night.
Amen Jay. Amen.
Public debt. Private interests.
Me, me, me is killing us.
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