Obama rethinks the goal of democracy-building
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WASHINGTON: Four years after President George W. Bush declared it the mission of America to spread democracy with the goal of "ending tyranny in our world," his successor's team has not picked up the mantle.
Since taking office, neither President Barack Obama nor his advisers have made much mention of democracy-building as a goal. While not directly repudiating Bush's grand, even grandiose vision, Obama appears poised to return to a more traditional American policy of dealing with the world as it is rather than as it might be.
The shift has been met with relief in Washington and much of the world, which never grew comfortable with Bush's missionary rhetoric, seeing it as alternately cynical or naïve. But it also underlines a sharp debate in Democratic circles about the future of Bush's vision.
Idealists, for lack of a better word, agree that democracy-building should be a core American value but pursued with more modesty, less volume and better understanding of the societies in question. The realists, on the other hand, are skeptical of assumptions that what works in America should necessarily be exported elsewhere, or that it should eclipse other American interests.
The essential tension for the Obama team is whether to let Bush's strong association discredit the very idea of spreading democracy.
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"It's sadly ironic that an administration that put democracy promotion at the forefront of its foreign policy has created such controversy about what has been a bipartisan ambition," said Kenneth Wollack, president of the National Democratic Institute, a government-financed group, affiliated with the Democratic Party, that promotes democracy abroad.
Wollack noted that presidents of both parties embraced the idea of nurturing democracy overseas for decades before Bush came along, even if he made it more central to his mission statement. "Now the debate is where it ought to be on that agenda," Wollack said.
To many Democrats, it ought to be lower on the agenda. America should not lecture others, if only because quiet diplomacy may work better, they argue. In this view, the whole focus on elections, particularly, is misplaced when so much of the world is suffering from poverty, hunger and disease. Obama seems to side with that point.
During an interview with The Washington Post before his inauguration, he said he wanted to consider the promotion of democracy "through a lens that is actually delivering a better life for people on the ground and less obsessed with form, more concerned with substance."
His Inaugural Address a few days later was in sharp contrast to Bush's four years ago. Where Bush called the spread of freedom the central goal of American policy, Obama made just passing reference to those who silence dissent being on "the wrong side of history." Indeed, his secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, outlined a policy of the "Three D's" - defense, diplomacy and development. The fourth D, democracy, did not make the list.
And if that were not clear, during her trip to Asia, she said that human rights violations by China "can't interfere" with cooperation between Washington and Beijing on other issues. That may simply be a more honest statement of longstanding reality in the Chinese-American relationship, but it still seemed jarring.
Moreover, Obama's National Security Council has not duplicated the high-profile democracy post Bush had. Instead, Obama's top democracy adviser during the campaign, Michael McFaul, was given the Russia portfolio. Coincidentally, this comes as the State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor is being relocated across the street from headquarters, although the assistant secretary in charge will remain on the executive floor. The move, instigated in the last days of the Bush administration, stems from renovation schedules, but proximity is power in government, and advocates are worried.
"The challenge for the Obama team is to find words and concepts that enable the administration to distinguish itself from the Bush administration, but not to downgrade support for democracy and civil and political rights," said Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House, a group that promotes democracy and liberty abroad. "So far, I haven't seen them even try."
Bush and his advisers took inspiration from popular revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Lebanon that toppled entrenched governments. They were encouraged by the first purple-finger elections in Iraq. They were emboldened when Egypt released Ayman Nour, the imprisoned opposition leader, after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice canceled a trip to protest his arrest.
Yet the vision Bush articulated with passion and clarity was never translated consistently into policy. He began the Millennium Challenge program to steer foreign aid to countries promoting freedom and developing rule of law. He met with the Dalai Lama, hosted Chinese and North Korean dissidents in the Oval Office and slapped sanctions on Myanmar. But he tempered criticism of allies and countries he needed for other priorities, like Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kazakhstan.
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