The Folly Of Exporting Democracy

Anatol Lieven and John Hulsman
September 12, 2006

Anatol Lieven is a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington author of "America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism" (2004) and a former British journalist specializing in foreign affairs. John Hulsman is a contributing editor at the National Interest and a visiting fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations. This essay is drawn from the authors’ book, "Ethical Realism: A Vision for America ’s Role in the World," which is being published this month by Pantheon.

A certain awareness of the limits on American power is growing among the wiser U.S. policy elites as a result of the disasters into which the Bush administration has led the United States. Even in these circles, however, a very widespread belief exists that in the former Soviet Union and in the Muslim world, America can compensate for these weaknesses by encouraging the spread of democracy. The idea that “democracy” will solve all problems is also used as a conscious or unconscious excuse to avoid having to think seriously about negotiating compromise solutions to a range of disputes in the Middle East, and especially, of course, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—since this would require a willingness to show moral courage in facing the inevitable backlash within the U.S.

This faith and attitude is shared not just by neoconservatives and liberal hawks, but by a majority of the leaderships of both parties, by majorities in establishment think tanks like the Carnegie Endowment and the Brookings Institution and by much of the foreign policy bureaucracy. It is also not a fantasy cooked up by the neo-conservatives, but has deep roots in certain strands of the American tradition. It is also often tragically mistaken.[i]