The Foreign Service Journal, January 2009

34 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 9 Democratization efforts were not confined to Europe, of course. A spring 2008 report from the Na- tional Academy of Sciences esti- mated that between 1990 and 2005, the U.S. Agency for Interna- tional Development spent $8.47 billion in about 120 countries on democracy and governance assis- tance. U.S. administrations of both parties also promoted democracy development programs as a com- ponent of United Nations nation- building efforts in post-conflict zones ranging from Kosovo to East Timor. A summer 2008 report by the heads of NDI and IRI —Kenneth Wollack and Lorne Craner, respectively — noted that, as of 2007, about half of the world’s na- tions had received U.N. assistance in holding and mon- itoring elections. Newly emergent Eastern European states boosted U.S. efforts to expand global democracy development after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. They were also an important part of the founding of the Community of Democracies in Warsaw in 1999, a project enthusiasti- cally supported by then-Secretary of State Madeleine Al- bright. The organization emphasized in its preamble the principle of non-interference in internal affairs, but nonetheless vowed to “cooperate to consolidate and strengthen democratic institutions.” After 9/11: A National Security Imperative The 9/11 attacks injected more urgency into the ef- fort, bringing a focus on strengthening failed states and addressing the democracy deficit in the Arab world. President Bush’s September 2002 National Security Strategy made democracy promotion a core feature, stat- ing his government would make “freedom and the de- velopment of democratic institutions key themes in our bilateral relations, seeking solidarity and cooperation from other democracies while we press governments that deny human rights to move toward a better future.” Bush also sharply adjusted the U.S. approach to de- velopment assistance, announcing a significant increase in such aid, conditioned on countries’ demonstrated com- mitment to improved governance and democratic re- forms. Though development experts have since faulted the slow disbursement of aid, they have credited Bush’s Millennium Challenge Corporation with trig- gering genuine interest in the rule of law and governance reforms in states from West Africa to Central America. The Bush administration ze- roed in on the Middle East, the origin of the 9/11 bombers. By creating transparent and account- able forms of government in re- pressed and backward societies in the Arab world, U.S. policymakers reasoned, they would help elimi- nate the circumstances that served as a breeding ground for terrorists. There were stirrings for change from within Middle Eastern societies, as well. A much-noted report by Arab scholars, commissioned by the U.N. Development Pro- gram and released in July 2002, found those countries had the lowest level of political freedom of any region in the world. The report said the area was plagued by deficits in freedom and knowledge and made a plea for comprehensive political, economic and social reforms. Echoing such concerns, Bush’s speech of Nov. 6, 2003, at the NED’s 20th-anniversary ceremony formally launched his new policy for advancing democracy and freedom in the Middle East, putting U.S. allies and ad- versaries on notice about the new emphasis. “Sixty years of Western nations’ excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe — because in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty,” Bush said. His sec- ond inaugural address 14 months later expressed many of the same themes. “Hypocrisy Is an Essential Element” But the administration made its own job tougher, in part through its prosecution of the war in Iraq in the ini- tial years and its broader declared “war on terror.” The spring 2004 publication of photos revealing degrading treatment of prisoners in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison was a pronounced setback for an administration pressuring Arab states to crack down on torture and other human rights abuses. Former Bush aide Michael Gerson, now a senior fel- F O C U S The 9/11 attacks injected more urgency into the effort, bringing a focus on strengthening failed states and addressing the democracy deficit in the Arab world.