Supporting freedom around the world does not mean imposing American values or staging military interventions, notes an open letter to the U.S. presidential candidates signed by 139 foreign policy thinkers and professionals.
“In non-democratic countries, it means peacefully and creatively aiding local activists who seek democratic reform and look to the United States for moral, political, diplomatic, and sometimes material support. Helping them upholds the principles upon which our country was founded,” say the signatories, including former senior government officials from both Democratic and Republican administrations, as well as several senior staff and board members of the National Endowment for Democracy and its core institutes.
“America’s strong support for human rights and democracy, under administrations of both parties….has been not only a means of expressing the values upon which our nation was founded, but also a pragmatic choice to promote the governing system that advances security, provides stable markets, and protects human rights,” adds the letter, published today in Foreign Policy’s Democracy Lab, urging the candidates “to embrace this cause and to make it a central part of your foreign policy platform”
The signatories – notable for their political and ideological diversity – make the case for why advancing democracy remains a strategic imperative for U.S. foreign policy.
“Some argue that we can pursue either our democratic ideals or our national security, but not both. This is a false choice,” the letter states:
The letter also cites the authoritarian resurgence as a further reason for advancing democracy. It is also the reason why “NATO needs a geostrategic mission that does not react to one crisis after another, but rather a mission that melds the grand strategies of the nation states that comprise it, headed by the United States,” notes one analyst.
This mission must combine the promotion of democratic civilization, human rights and realist interests, argues Lamont Colucci, author of “The National Security Doctrines of the American Presidency: How they Shape our Present and Future.”
“Whether one calculates geostrategic bases, trade routes, human rights or democracy, Russia and China pose a long-term threat to the United States and her allies,” he adds. “If the electorate is made aware of the threat, both appeasement and hysteria can be prevented.”
An open letter to the presidential candidates.
Dear Presidential Candidates:
The United States is a country founded on the principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and for decades, support for democracy and human rights around the world has been a central tenet of American foreign policy. While the United States must maintain relations with many autocratic governments abroad, there are excellent reasons why most of our closest allies are democracies.
Free nations are more economically successful, more stable, and more reliable partners for the United States. Democratic societies are less likely to launch aggression and war against their neighbors or their own people. They are also less likely to experience state failure and become breeding grounds for instability and terrorism, as we have seen, for example, in Syria. This means that the advance of democracy serves U.S. interests and contributes to order and peace around the globe.
Over the past four decades, the number of countries that are free and democratic has more than doubled. From Latin America and Central Europe to East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, people have opted for accountable government. This remarkable progress is rooted in the universal longing for liberty and dignity — but it is also due to America’s strong support for human rights and democracy, under administrations of both parties. This support has been not only a means of expressing the values upon which our nation was founded, but also a pragmatic choice to promote the governing system that advances security, provides stable markets, and protects human rights. We write to urge you to embrace this cause and to make it a central part of your foreign policy platform.
In recent years, authoritarian regimes such as Russia and China have become more repressive; they see the advance of democracy not only within their borders but in neighboring states as a threat to their monopoly on political power. A regime’s treatment of its own people is often indicative of how it will behave toward its neighbors and beyond. Thus, we should not be surprised that so many of the political, economic and security challenges we face emanate from places like Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang, Tehran, and Damascus.
Repressive regimes are inherently unstable and must rely on suppressing democratic movements and civil society to stay in power. They also are the source and exporter of massive corruption, a pervasive transnational danger to stable democratic governance throughout the world.
The result is that democracy is under attack. According to Freedom House, freedom around the world has declined every year for the past decade. That heightens the imperative for the United States to work with fellow democracies to reinvigorate support for democratic reformers everywhere.
Supporting freedom around the world does not mean imposing American values or staging military interventions. In non-democratic countries, it means peacefully and creatively aiding local activists who seek democratic reform and look to the United States for moral, political, diplomatic, and sometimes material support. These activists often risk prison, torture, and death struggling for a more democratic society, and their resilience and courage amid such threats demand our support. Helping them upholds the principles upon which our country was founded.
Supporting democracy involves partnerships between the U.S. government and non-governmental organizations that are struggling to bring freedom to their countries. Often, it means partnering as well with emerging democracies to strengthen their representative and judicial institutions. This requires resources that Congress must continue to provide, and foreign assistance must be linked to positive performance with regard to human rights and the advancement of fundamental freedoms.
It also requires diplomatic backing at the highest levels of the Executive Branch, throughout the different agencies of government, and from the Congress as well. It means meeting with democratic activists from various parts of the world and speaking out on their behalf. Demonstrating solidarity with and support for these brave individuals’ efforts to build a better future for their country is the right thing to do. In aiding their struggles for freedom and justice, we also build a more secure world for the United States.
There is no cookie-cutter approach to supporting democracy and human rights, but there are fundamental, universal features we should emphasize: representative institutions, rule of law, accountability, free elections, anti-corruption, free media (including the Internet), vibrant civil society, independent trade unions, property rights, open markets, women’s and minority rights, and freedoms of expression, assembly, association, and religion.
Many Americans question why the United States should have to shoulder the burdens of supporting freedom and democracy throughout the world. But a growing number of democracies in Europe and Asia, as well as international organizations, are expending significant resources to lend this kind of assistance. We should continue to build on our partnerships with like-minded organizations and countries, including relatively new democracies that are eager to help others striving for freedom.
Some argue that we can pursue either our democratic ideals or our national security, but not both. This is a false choice. We recognize that we have other interests in the economic, energy, and security realms with other countries and that democracy and human rights cannot be the only items on the foreign policy agenda. But all too often, these issues get shortchanged or dropped entirely in order to smooth bilateral relationships in the short run. The instability that has characterized the Middle East for decades is a direct result of generations of authoritarian repression, the lack of accountable government, and the repression of civil society, not the demands that we witnessed during the Arab Spring of 2011 and since for dignity and respect for basic human rights. In the longer run, we pay the price in instability and conflict when corrupt, autocratic regimes collapse.
Our request is that you elevate democracy and human rights to a prominent place on your foreign policy agenda. These are challenging times for freedom in many respects, as countries struggle to make democracy work and powerful autocracies brutalize their own citizens while undermining their neighbors. But these autocracies are also vulnerable. Around the world, ordinary people continue to show their preference for participatory democracy and accountable government. Thus, there is real potential to renew global democratic progress.
For that to happen, the United States must exercise leadership, in league with our democratic allies, to support homegrown efforts to make societies freer and governments more democratic. We ask you to commit to providing that leadership and to embracing the cause of democracy and human rights if elected president of the United States.
Thank you,
Elliott Abrams
Former Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs
David Adesnik
Anne Applebaum
Brian Atwood
Former Administrator, USAID
Hattie Babbitt
Former U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States
Shawna Bader-Blau
Solidarity Center
Elizabeth Bagley
Former U.S. Ambassador to Portugal
Rodney Bent
Howard Berman
Former Member of Congress
Nicole Bibbins Sedaca
Dennis Blair
Sasakawa Peace Foundation, USA
James Blanchard
Former U.S. Ambassador to Canada
Former Member of Congress
Former Governor of Michigan
Cole Bockenfeld
Project on Middle East Democracy
Paul Bonicelli
Ellen Bork
Foreign Policy Initiative
Jeanne Bourgault
Internews
Charles J.Brown
Strategy for Humanity
Nicholas Burns
Harvard University
Daniel Calingaert
Freedom House
Thomas Carothers
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Scott Carpenter
Johnnie Carson
Former Assistant Secretary of State for Africa
Richard Celeste
Former U.S. Ambassador to India
Former Governor of Ohio
Eliot A. Cohen
Jared Cohen
Lorne Craner
Former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
Seth Cropsey
Hudson Institute
John Danilovich
Former Chief Executive Officer, Millennium Challenge Corporation
Former U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica and Brazil
Robert Danin
Aleksander Dardeli
IREX
Charles Davidson
Hudson Institute
Kim Davis
Charlesbank Capital Partners
Howard Dean
Former Governor of Vermont
Larry Diamond
Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Paula Dobriansky
Former Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs
Thomas Donnelly
American Enterprise Institute
Michele Dunne
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Charles Dunne
Middle East Institute
Nicholas Eberstadt
Eric Edelman
Former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey
Lee Feinstein
Former U.S. Ambassador to Poland
Richard Fontaine
Benjamin Freakley
Lieutenant General, U.S. Army (Ret)
McCain Institute for International Leadership
Martin Frost
Former Member of Congress
Francis Fukuyama
Stanford University
Laurie Fulton
Former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark
Thomas Garrett
International Republican Institute
Jeffrey Gedmin
Sam Gejdenson
Former Member of Congress
Carl Gershman
National Endowment for Democracy
Mark Gitenstein
Former U.S. Ambassador to Romania
John K. Glenn
David Gordon
Mark Green
International Republican Institute
Shannon Green
Christopher Griffin
Barbara Haig
National Endowment for Democracy
Joseph Hall
Halifax International Security Forum
Amy Hawthorne
Project on Middle East Democracy
Bobby Herman
Freedom House
Donald L. Horowitz
Duke University
William Inboden
University of Texas-Austin
Karl F. Inderfurth
Former Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs
Bruce Pitcairn Jackson
Robert Kagan
Ted Kaufman
Former U.S. Senator
Richard Kauzlarich
Former U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan and Bosnia and Herzegovina
George Mason University
Zalmay Khalilzad
Former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the United Nations
Monica V. Kladakis
McCain Institute for International Leadership
Jim Kolbe
Former Member of Congress
Richard Kraemer
National Endowment for Democracy
David J. Kramer
McCain Institute for International Leadership
Mark Lagon
Freedom House
Sam LaHood
International Republican Institute
Greg Lebedev
Delano Lewis
Former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa
Tod Lindberg
Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Kristin Lord
IREX
Princeton Lyman
Elisa Massimino
Human Rights First
Michael McFaul
Stanford University
Gerald S. McGowan
Former U.S. Ambassador to Portugal
Stephen McInerney
Project on Middle East Democracy
Michael Miklaucic
National Defense University
Joshua Muravchik
Moises Naim
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Andrew Nathan
Columbia University
National Endowment for Democracy
Andrew Natsios
Former Administrator, USAID
Diana Villiers Negroponte
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Constance Newman
Former Assistant Secretary of State for Africa
Carmen Group
Suzanne Nossel
Michael O’Hanlon
Brookings Institution
Gardner Peckham
Prime Policy Group
William Perry
19th U.S. Secretary of Defense
Stanford University
Peter Pham
Atlantic Council
Ted Piccone
Brookings Institution
Marc F. Plattner
Journal of Democracy
Michael C. Polt
Former U.S. Ambassador to Serbia and Estonia
McCain Institute for International Leadership
Carlos Ponce
Freedom House
Keith Porter
The Stanley Foundation
Arch Puddington
Freedom House
Stephen Rickard
Open Society Policy Center
Nancy Rubin
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
Dan Runde
Douglas Rutzen
Nadia Schadlow
Kori Schake
Hoover Institution
Randy Scheuneman
Gary Schmitt
Amanda Schnetzer
George W. Bush Institute
Nina Shea
Hudson Institute Center for Religious Freedom
George Shultz
60th U.S. Secretary of State
Hoover Institution
Sichan Siv
David Skaggs
Former Member of Congress
National Endowment for Democracy
Anne-Marie Slaughter
Former Director of Policy Planning, U.S. Department of State
Alan Solomont
Former U.S. Ambassador to Spain
John Sullivan
Louis Susman
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom
Bill Sweeney
International Foundation for Electoral Systems
Dorothy Douglas Taft
The Tantallon Group
Tomicah Tillemann
Harold Trinkunas
Brookings Institution
Robert H. Tuttle
National Endowment for Democracy
Daniel Vajdich
Atlantic Council
Peter Van Praagh
Halifax International Security Forum
Melanne Verveer
Former U.S. Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues
Kurt Volker
Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO
Christopher Walker
National Endowment for Democracy
Erin Walsh
Vin Weber
Mercury
George Weigel
Ethics and Public Policy Center
Jeremy Weinstein
Ken Weinstein
Hudson Institute
Maureen White
Johns Hopkins SAIS
Leon Wieseltier
Clint Williamson
Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues
McCain Institute for International Affairs
Andrew Wilson
Center for International Private Enterprise
Tamara Wittes
Brookings Institution
Kenneth Wollack
National Democratic Institute
Diane Zeleny
Total signatories: 139. Institutional affiliations are for identification purposes only.
