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Since the end of the Cold War, European security concerns have focused increasingly on the potential for instability on Europe's southern flank. In 1995, the European Union developed a framework for cooperation with the southern Mediterranean nations. These efforts have included some relatively ineffective programs to promote democracy in the region. In the aftermath of 9/11, the goal of encouraging the development of Middle East democracy has acquired greater urgency, not least in the eyes of the United States, which has bolstered its own efforts to spur democratic reform.
In the post-Cold War, post-Gulf War political environment of the Middle East, a debate about democracy and pluralism has begun. In this work, Heather Deegan challenges the view that political reform is unsustainable in the region, and examines the moves towards democratization which have recently taken place. She discusses individual countries on the basis of their political structures: monarchical, authoritarian, theocratic, confessional and multiparty. She considers factors in the democratizing process such as the institution of political parties, the re-introduction of elections, citizenship with associated rights and responsibilities and the role of Islam. Democracy is not confined solely to a liberal democratic model although political change and greater levels of participation may be viewed as steps paving the way for a fuller democratization in a liberal democratic sense. The author identifies certain constraints which tended to undermine political advances in the past: population mobility, communal division and the impact of the Cold War. She places the possibilities for political reform in the wider context of the Third World in order to assess the degree to which prospects for democracy in the Middle East correspond with general conclusions about democratization in the developing world.
The United States faces no greater challenge today than successfully fulfilling its new ambition of helping bring about a democratic transformation of the Middle East. Uncharted Journey contributes a wealth of concise, illuminating insights on this subject, drawing on the contributors' deep knowledge of Arab politics and their substantial experience with democracy-building in other parts of the world. The essays in part one vividly dissect the state of Arab politics today, including an up-to-date examination of the political shock wave in the region produced by the invasion of Iraq. Part two and three set out a provocative exploration of the possible elements of a democracy promotion strategy for the region. The contributors identify potential false steps as well as a productive way forward, avoiding the twin shoals of either reflexive pessimism in the face of the daunting obstacles to Arab democratization or an unrealistic optimism that fails to take into account the region's political complexities. Contributors include Eva Bellin (Hunter College), Daniel Brumberg (Carnegie Endowment), Thomas Carothers (Carnegie Endowment), Michele Dunne (Georgetown University), Graham Fuller, Amy Hawthorne (Carnegie Endowment), Marina Ottaway (Carnegie Endowment), and Richard Youngs (Foreign Policy Centre).
The US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were packaged as democracy promotion, as heralding the beginning of a new phase in the politics of the Middle East when democracy would replace authoritarian regimes. Many of these authoritarian regimes, however, were sustained by US support.
The fallacy of analogy: World War II as American's "good war"--The power of precedent: Arabs' memory of World War I -- Justice interrupted: Arabs' response to occupation -- Conclusion: the use of historical precedent in U.S. policy