June 20th, 2008 by Amanda

In Foreign Affairs, Eva Bellin reviews two recent publications on the role of the US in political reform in the Middle East. In the Brookings Institution publication, Freedom’s Unsteady March: America’s Role In Building Arab Democracy, Tamara Cofman Wittes argues that “the region’s long-term stability can be guaranteed only by democratization” and believes the failures by the Bush Administration were caused by “a halfhearted effort rather than the inherent unachievability or inadvisability of the objective.” She disagrees with Wittes on many points, contending that “the bottom line is that U.S. strategic interests do not require democracy promotion in the Arab world.”

Bellin considers the Carnegie Endowment’s Beyond the Façade: Political Reform in the Arab World, edited by Marina Ottaway and Julia Choucair-Vizoso, to be a more “sober account” compared to Wittes’s “impassioned defense of democracy promotion.” Despite the variations of enthusiasm and tone, Bellin notes, “their policy recommendations are surprisingly congruent.”

Posted in Democracy Promotion, US foreign policy |