US democracy promotion in the Arab Middle East since 11 September 2001: A critique

International Affairs

Volumn 81, Issue 5, 2005, Pages

  Dalacoura, Katerina ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 27444431621     PISSN: 00205850     EISSN: 14682346     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2346.2005.00497.x     Document Type: Article

References (67)

1. See e.g. the 2002 USAID Report, Foreign aid in the national interest, at http://www.usaid.gov/fani/Full_Report-Foreign_Aid_in_the_National_Interest.pdf, accessed 27 June 2005.
2. Arab Human Development Report 2002: Creating opportunities for future generations (New Yotk: United Nations Development Programme, Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, Sept. 2002).
3. US Department of State, 'Middle East Partnership Initiative', at http://mepi.state.gov/mepi/, accessed 24 May 2005.
4. 'Summit background: partnership for progress and a common future with the region of the Broader Middle East and North Africa', Sea Island, Georgia, 9 June 2004, at http://www.g8usa.gov/d_060904c.htm, accessed 6 Oct. 2004.
5. George W. Bush, 'President Bush discusses freedom in Iraq and Middle East: remarks by the President at the 20th anniversary of the National Endowment for Democracy', at http://www.ned.org/events/anniversary/oct1603-Bush.html, accessed 2 Dec. 2003.
6. For examples, see US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Supporting human rights and democracy: the US record, 2003-4 and 2004-5, at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/shrd/2003/31022pg.htm and http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/shrd/2004/31022pg.htm, accessed 26 July 2004 and 10 May 2005.
7. United States Embassy, London, UK fact sheet, 'State Department's Mideast partnership funds over 100 programs', 9 March 2005, at http://www.usembassy. org.uk/mideast603.html, accessed 3 May 2005.
8. United States Embassy, London, UK fact sheet, 'Middle East reform forum accomplishments', 11 Dec. 2004, at http://www.usembassy.org.uk/mideast572.html, accessed 23 May 2005.
9. Charles Levinson, 'Changing priorities: USAID does good work in the health and education spheres but these programs need to match the US administration's new priorities', Cairo Times 8: 7, 15-21 April 2004, p. 9.
10. Tamara Cofman Wittes and Sarah E. Yerkes, 'The Middle East Partnership Initiative: progress, problems and prospects', 29 Nov. 2004, p. 2 (Washington DC: The Brooking? Institution), Saban Center for Middle East Policy memo No. 5, http://www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/fellows/wittes20041129.htm. Bush requested $145m for FY 2004 but the House Appropriations Committee reduced the funding to $451m. The figures for FY 2005 are $150m and $75m.
11. See Jeremy M. Sharp, The Middle East Partnership Initiative: an overview. Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, updated 8 Feb. 2005, pp. 4-5, at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/shrd/2003/31022pg.htm, accessed 25 May 2005.
12. US Department of State fact sheet, 9 March 2005, State Department's Mideast partnership, p. 6.
13. US Department of State, State Department's Mideast partnership, p. 2;
14. Dan Ackman, 'Iraq aid will dwarf US foreign aid budget', Forbes.com, 9 Aug. 2003, at http://www.forbes.com/2003/09/08/cx_da_0908topnews.html, accessed 27 June 2005.
15. Marc Lynch, 'Shattering the "pollues of silence": satellite television talk shows and the transformation of Arab political culture', Arab Reform Bulletin (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) 2: 11, Dec. 2004, pp. 2-3.
16. Thomas Carothets and Marina Ottaway, 'The new democracy imperative', in Thomas Carothers and Marina Ottaway, eds, Uncharted journey: promoting democracy in the Middle East (Washington DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005), p. 8;
17. Amy Hawthorne, 'The new reform ferment', in Carothers and Ottaway, eds, Uncharted journey; pp. 57-77.
18. Marina Ottaway, 'The problem of credibility', in Carothers and Ottaway, eds, Uncharted journey, pp. 185-6.
19. Gamal Essam El-Din, 'Brotherhood steps into the fray', Al Ahram weekly online, 11-17 March 2004, http://weekry.ahrarn.org.eg/2004/681/eg.htm.
20. League of Arab States, 'Sana'a Declaration 10-12 January 2004', 12 Jan. 2004, at http://www.arableagueonline.org/arableague/engljsh/details_en.jsp? art_id=264I&level_id=239, accessed 27 June 2005;
21. Hamdi El-Husseini, '"Alexandria document" calls for serious reforms', IslamOnline, 15 March 2004, at http://www.islamonline.net/English/ News/2004-03/15/article05.shtml, accessed 1 Feb. 2004;
22. 'Doha declaration for democracy and reform', The Daily Star Regional, 29 June 2004, http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?editon_id=IO&categ_id= I5&article_id=5705, accessed 26 July 2004.
23. Hawthorne, 'The new reform ferment', p. 73.
24. Nicholas Blanford, 'The Arab League and political reform: a vague commitment', Arab Reform Bulletin (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) 2: 6, June 2004, pp. 7-8.
25. Charles Levinson, 'NGOs barely at conference', Cairo Times 8: 4, 25-31 March 2004, p. 10;
26. Said El-Naggar, 'The Alexandria statement', Wafd newspaper, 25 April 2004, trans. Ahmed Ezzelarab and Robert Springborg (unofficial communication).
27. Marina Ottaway and Thomas Carothers, 'Getting to the core', in Carothers and Ottaway, eds, Uncharted Journey, p. 262.
28. Daniel Brumberg, 'Liberalization versus democracy', in Carothers and Ottaway, eds, Uncharted journey, pp. 15-35.
29. Even the apparently acquiescent Human Rights Council has been critical of the regime. See Paul Schemm, 'Presidential démarche', Middle East International, no. 749, 29 April 2005, pp. 10-12.
30. Paul Schemm, 'Grand gesture', Middle East International, no. 745, 4 March 2005,
31. and 'Political traffic', Middle East International, no. 747, 1 April 2005.
32. International Crisis Group, 'Hizbollah: rebel without a cause?', Middle East Briefing, 30 July 2003, http://www.icg.org/home/index.cfm?id=I828&I=I, p. 2, accessed 19 Oct. 2004.
33. Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), special dispatch no. 668, 'Syrian intellectuals petition for democratisation and reform', I March 2004.
34. Arab Program for Human Rights Activists, 'Is it a deal? The withdrawal from Lebanon for a free hand in domestic affairs?', email communique, 26 May 2005.
35. Alison Pargeter, 'Libya: reform or rhetoric?', Civility Review (Foreign Policy Centre) I: I, II June 2004, p. 2.
36. Thomas L. Friedman, 'At least Iraq's got the Arabs talking', International Herald Tribune, 20 Feb. 2004.
37. US private contractors have worked to refashion Iraq's legal, economic, social and political institutions. Forums and workshops were organized for local council and NGO leaden, and 'tribal democracy centres' were established across Iraq 'to encourage sheikhs and tribal leaders to take the required classes'. Every week, arter flag ceremonies in elementary and secondary schools, teachers of 'democracy' were given five minutes to expound on various concepts. Herbert Doneca, 'Silent battalions of "democracy"'. Middle East Report, no. 232, Fall 2004, p. 16.
38. Maria Holt, 'Islam and democracy: impact on Arab Muslim women in the 21st century', Civility Review (Foreign Policy Centre), June 2005, pp. 3-4;
39. Graham Fuller, 'Islamists and democracy', in Carothers and Ottaway, eds, Uncharted journey, pp. 37-55.
40. Charles Krauthammer, in Timothy J. Lynch, 'Neoconservative visions of political Islam', paper presented at the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR.) Joint Sessions, Granada, Spain, 14-19 April 2005, p. 12.
41. William A. Rugh, 'Washington and the challenge of Arab press freedom', Arab Reform Bulletin (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) 2: II. Dec. 2004, pp. 6-7.
42. A series of Pew Research Centre reports attest to the unpopularity of the US in the Muslim world and particularly in the Middle East. Anger and even hatred of the US increased dramatically in the two years following the Iraq war of 2003, although these feelings appear to be casing somewhat in some Muslim countries in 2005, with some credit being given to US democratization efforts in the Middle East as well. See the Pew Research Centre, 'A year after the Iraq war', 16 March 2004, at http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID= 206;
43. 'US image up slightly, but still negative', 23 June 2005 http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=247, both accessed 2 Sept. 2005.
44. Radio Sawa was criticized in a State Department report for concentrating too much on pop music and not enough on influencing Arab minds: Edward P. Djerejian, Changing minds, winning peace. Report of the Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World, I Oct. 2003, at http://www.state.gov/ documents/organization/24882.pdf, accessed 28 June 2005.
45. On the ineffectiveness of public relations efforts to improve the US image, see John M. McNcel, 'America, spare Arabs the spin', International Herald Tribune, 9 June 2005.
46. UNDP Arab Human Development Report 2003: building a knowledge society (New York: United Nations Development Programme, Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, 2003), p. 21.
47. Ottaway, 'The problem of credibility', pp. 178-9.
48. A national security strategy of engagement and enlargement (Washington DC: Government Printing Office), Feb. 1995, p. i,
49. quoted in P. H. Liotta and James F. Miskel, 'Dangerous democracy? American internationalism and the greater Near East', Orbis 48: 3, Summer 2002, pp. 440-1.
50. Lynch, 'Neoconservative visions', p. 20.
51. Zbigniew Brzezinski, 'How not to spread democracy: Bush's greater Middle East initiative', International Herald Tribune, 9 March 2004.
52. Liotta and Miskel, 'Dangerous democracy?', p. 442.
53. Thomas Carothers, Promoting the rule of law abroad: the problem of knowledge, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Rule of Law Series, Democracy and Rule of Law Project, working paper no. 34, Jan. 2003, p. 9.
54. Thomas Carothers, 'Choosing a strategy', in Carothers and Ottaway, eds. Uncharted journey, p. 196.
55. International Crisis Group, The Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative: imperilled at birth, Middle East and North Africa Briefing, 7 June 2004, p. 12, quoting an ICG interview in Paris, May 2004, at http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=27952795&1=I.
56. I have developed these views with specific reference to the Middle East in my Engagement or coercion? Weighing western human rights policies towards Turkey, Iran and Egypt (London: Chatham House, 2003).
57. Thomas Carothers, Aiding democracy abroad: the learning curve (Washington DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1999).
58. Carothers and Ottaway, 'The new democracy imperative', pp. 9-10.
59. In Egypt, advocacy NGOs constitute 0.4% of the total number; cynics dub them 'conference-promotion NGOs'. See Emad El-Din Shahin, Political Islam: ready for engagement?, La Fundación para las Relaciones Intemacionales y el Dialogo Exterior (FRIDE) working paper no. 3, Feb. 2005, p. 7.
60. See also Amy Hawthorne, 'Is civil society the answer?', in Carothers and Ottaway, eds, Uncharted journey.
61. Marina Ottaway, 'Don't confuse women's rights and democracy', International Herald Tribune, 30 March 2004.
62. Brumberg, 'Liberalization versus democracy', pp. 21-2.
63. Natan Sharansky, 'The Middle East needs its Helsinki', International Herald Tribune, 30 March 2004.
64. Robert Satloff, The greater Middle East partnership: a work still very much in progress, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Policy Watch no. 836, 25 Feb. 2004, p. 2.
65. Sharansky, 'The Middle East needs its Helsinki'.
66. For a fascinating discussion of how international attention undermined the campaign against honour crimes in Jordan, see Janine A. Clark, '"Honor crimes" and the international spotlight on Jordan', Middle East Report, no. 229, Winter 2003, pp. 38-41.
67. R. G. Khuri, 'Kuwait's election and the freezing of Arab polities', Daily Star, 10 July 2003.