America in the World | Notable arguments

John Lewis Gaddis: America must aspire to end tyranny

In the latest edition of The American Interest, Yale's John Lewis Gaddis has a comprehensive account of America's historical role in promoting democracy and opposing tyranny.

Gaddis begins by noting that the normal expectation as the Bush Administration closes ought to be that he will bequeath no foreign policy doctrine to his successors. Very few do - arguably this could be claimed only of President Monroe and President Truman. If Bush leaves a doctrine behind, it will be understood in terms of his second inaugural address: “it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world”.

Prerequisites for democracy
Gaddis explains some of the reasons history has shown such a doctrine can prove problematic:

"Periclean Athens, which blundered into and then lost the Peloponnesian War, and the Roman Republic, which sank so deeply into corruption and violence that its citizens welcomed the benign authoritarianism of Caesar Augustus.

"It’s not just ancient precedents, though ... World War I, which laid so much of the groundwork for despotism, began with widespread public enthusiasm. A free election brought Adolf Hitler to power in Germany in 1933, and he retained the support of most Germans well into the war he started. A persistent American fear throughout the Cold War was that much of the rest of the world might voluntarily choose communism; that led to enlightened counter-measures like the Marshall Plan, but also to unsavory alliances with anti-communist dictators. And the post-Cold War collapse of Yugoslavia together with the events in Rwanda evoked an even more disturbing vision: that people could hate one another to such an extent that ethnic cleansing, even genocide, might have democratic roots.

"Today it seems clear that the people of Russia, if they could have re-elected their increasingly authoritarian President, would overwhelmingly have done so ... Reasonably fair elections have at last been held in the Middle East, but the results have empowered Ahmadinejad in Iran, Hamas in the Palestinian territories, and—despite the courage with which Iraqis risked their lives to vote in three successive elections in 2005—a government in Baghdad that has yet to establish order despite the full military support of the United States and its coalition allies.

"So if ending tyranny is what you want to accomplish, promoting democracy in and of itself may not be enough. Something more seems to be required."

To survive, Gaddis argues, democracy first requires the prerequisites identified by Fareed Zakaria in The Future of Freedom: "personal security, political stability, economic sustainability, the rule of law, the sanctity of contracts, a working constitutional structure. You can’t just topple a tyrant, hold an election and expect a democracy to emerge. How, then, did the idea get started that democracy could sprout where it had no roots?"

Justin Webb: The world wants the modernity that America provides

Justin Webb, BBC North America Editor, from his book on anti-Americanism, Have A Nice Day:

"The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, criticises Americans in 2008 for being less-caring imperialists than even the British had been. He went further. The problem was wider than American imperialism: Western modernity itself "is eating away at the soul". I like Western modernity. It allows my children to survive diseases that would have killed them only decades ago. It creates educational opportunities their ancestors never had; opportunities for leisure and fun and fulfilment. And it is protected, guaranteed around the world (to the extent that it is guaranteed at all) mainly by American power. It is not guaranteed by China or Russia or Tehran or Brussels. Yes, this modernity, particularly at its American extreme, also creates opportunities for type 2 diabetes and crushing ennui, and for the kind of queasy feelings from which the gentle Archbishop apparently suffers. But to focus on the downside of Western modernity is not to tell the whole story. People want it. And America provides it."

Anne Applebaum profiles a typical 'pro-American'

Anne Applebaum in Foreign Policy, July/ August 2005:

"We all know the stereotypes of the anti-Americans: The angry Arab radical, demonstrating in the mythical Arab street; or the left-wing newspaper editor, fulminating at Berlin dinner parties; or the French farmer, railing against McDonald's. Now, perhaps, we should add new stereotypes: The British small businessman, son of a coal miner, who once admired Thatcher and has been to Florida on holiday. Or the Polish anticommunist intellectual, who argued about Reagan with his Parisian friends in the 1980s, and disagrees with them about the Iraqi war now. Or the Indian stockbroker, the South Korean investment banker, and the Philippine manufacturer, all of whom have excellent relations with their American clients, all of whom support a U.S. military presence in their parts of the world, and all of whom probably harbor a fondness for President Bush that they wouldn't confess to their wives. These stock figures should be as firmly a part of the columnists' and commentators' repertoire as their opponents have become."