Democracy promotion: aim lower?
U.S. interests and values, particularly when it comes to transforming the governance and political institutions of other countries, are almost always at odds with one another, according to veteran… Read more »
Tag: democracy promotion
Europe’s liberal power ‘a two-way street’?
The West is losing credibility in furthering democracy around the world because of mounting dysfunctionalities in its own political systems, notes Carnegie analyst Richard Youngs. Now in question are two… Read more »
Pope slams efforts to ‘export’ Westernized democracy
Pope Francis has criticized Western powers for trying to export their own brand of democracy to countries such as Iraq and Libya without respecting indigenous political cultures, Reuters reports: Speaking… Read more »
The Democracy Promotion Paradox
The Democracy Promotion Paradox raises difficult but critically important issues by probing the numerous inconsistencies and paradoxes that lie at the heart of the theory and practice of democracy promotion, The… Read more »
From the Bottom, Up: A Strategy to Support Syria’s Opposition
As negotiations continue to uphold a teetering ceasefire in Syria, the primary U.S. effort in Syria should be a bottom-up strategy to build cohesive, moderate, armed opposition institutions with a… Read more »
Democracy Promotion: A Distinctive European Approach?
The fact of different European states’ priorities on democracy and human rights reflecting different historical experiences may be illustrated by the initiative taken by Poland during its presidency for a… Read more »
Long-term investment, not rapid intervention, nurtures democracy
Many Americans no longer seem to value the liberal international order that the United States created after World War II and sustained throughout the Cold War and beyond, according to Ivo… Read more »
Isolation and propaganda: roots and instruments of Russia’s soft power
Russia’s fairly successful propaganda in the West shows that political pluralism and open societies have some significant vulnerabilities compared to authoritarian states, with regard to speed of decision-making and action,… Read more »
Engage civil society in party-building to consolidate democracy
Criticizing U.S. missteps in promoting democracy is certainly reasonable—particularly in light of the debacles in Iraq and Libya—but elevating these criticisms into high doctrine and principled critiques of democracy promotion… Read more »
Democracy must be at the center of U.S. foreign policy
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… Read more »