Studies and Analytical Papers
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US Policy Toward Democratization in Europe (1989) and in the Arab World (2011)
2014-09-01
Since the time of President Thomas Jefferson, and on through the
presidents of the 20th century, the United States has talked about itself as
the propagator, protector, and defender of democracy around the world. Yet
America has never showed any qualms of forming military and political alliances
with authoritarian regimes in Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The US
justifies these international alliances on the basis that “not all
dictatorships in the world are enemies of the United States, but all the United
States’ enemies are dictatorships.” The US therefore adopted a two-track
diplomacy: while working to spread democracy (directly or by means of
international organizations and NGOs) the US has no issue in supporting
autocratic governments when its interests are involved. How did US policy apply
to the democratic transformation in the former Eastern bloc states in Europe on
the eve of the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and subsequently, when
American values and interests went hand in hand, and how did it then apply to
the Arab Spring of 2011, when US values and interests were congruent in some
cases and out of sync in others, according to the situation in each country and
its strategic importance from America’s perspective? What are the results of
these policies and what differences emerge from such a comparison of the Arab
and East Europe cases.
