The Foreign Service Journal, March 2004

imacy and their political network in a country from which they have been absent too long. This makes the idea of exporting a ready-made model of democracy, unrealistic in any country, particu- larly far-fetched in Iraq. Setting an Example But renouncing the impossible goal of exporting a ready-made set of institutions and values to Iraq does not mean giving up on the possibility of helping nurture a more open political system there. While it still has a large degree of control, the U.S. can try to implant in Iraq the idea that the formation of a political system must be the result of a process of consultation and negotiation among the major political forces. In this sense, it is good that the CPA has been forced by reality to recalibrate its expectations of exporting its vision of democracy to Iraq and is itself negotiating and compromising on major polit- ical issues. Ready-made constitutions and institutions imposed from the outside rarely survive the en- counter with the reality of politi- cal power. The political systems that survive are those that repre- sent a compromise between lofty political principles and political reality, as the U.S. Constitution does. If the United States can start a process leading to compromise, it will make more progress in moving Iraq in the direction of democracy than if it had succeeded in imposing even the best-written constitution. F O C U S M A R C H 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 43 Finally, the balance of power in the country has already made it a foregone conclusion that the interim constitution will have to recognize a special place for Islam in the Iraqi state. We believe in equal benefits for equal work. For more info, go to www.glifaa.org or email us at glifaa@hotmail.com GLIFAA working for a better Iraq and a safer America: GLIFAA Board members David Tessler (EUR/UBI) and Ken Kero (EUR/SE), and a colleague