GENEVA — I think I understand the subtleties, complexities and opportunities of our world just a little bit better this week, having participated here in Geneva in an international preparatory meeting for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) — to be held in Tunis in November — while speaking with a range of European colleagues and also reading two important articles in Foreign Affairs magazine related to the United States’ posture in the world.
The common thread is that the projection and prominence of American power in the world is one of the new realities that we are all still adjusting to and trying to manage in a constructive way. In some cases, the unfortunate among us simply try to get out of the way when the American Marines are ordered to march. In other cases, political activists and business people around the world work enthusiastically with their American counterparts on issues like promoting democracy and human rights, raising education standards or investing in high tech industries. Americans themselves are also learning about what they can and cannot do abroad; and in places like Iraq, they are quickly learning the limits of their massive military power.
The link between the World Summit on the Information Society and U.S. foreign policy is simply that information technology (IT), communications and software-based industries are fast becoming the new arena for global competition. Countries that master the business of IT-based productivity, entertainment and creativity will prosper and slowly dominate the global economy in the same way that the European colonial powers did 150 years ago and the United States did last century. The WSIS preparatory conference I attended here clearly showed a global concern with issues such as whether internet regulation will remain in the hands of American-based groups or become institutionalized in the United Nations system, and whether the IT sector will remain driven by private business profit motives or respond more deliberately to human development needs around the world.
Two noteworthy articles in the September/October 2005 issue of Foreign Affairs address important dimensions of American power abroad, and are worth reading and pondering. Associate Professor F. Gregory Gause III of the University of Vermont explores the question “Can Democracy Stop Terrorism?”, and Harvard University Professor and Academic Dean of the Kennedy School of Government Stephen M. Walt discusses “Taming American Power.”
These two authors raise important questions about the style and focus of American foreign policy. Gause analyses available data on terror incidence and regime types and concludes that “the data available do not show a strong relationship between democracy and an absence of or a reduction in terrorism閣here is no relationship between the incidence of terrorism in a given country and the degree of freedom enjoyed by its citizens.”
He also quotes numerous surveys and other evidence showing that Arabs favor democracy, but are cynical of American attempts to promote democracy in the Arab world (such as through the Iraq war). He concludes that American policy to push democratic reforms in the Arab world will probably result in Islamist-led governments that are critical of the United States, and “is unlikely to have much effect on anti-American terrorism emanating from there.”
A better approach, he suggests, would be for Washington to “focus on pushing Arab governments to make political space for liberal, secular, leftist, nationalist and other non-Islamist parties to set down roots and mobilize voters.” He also sees the U.S. focus on elections as the centerpiece of its democracy promotion strategy as “troubling”, along with the “unjustified confidence that Washington has in its ability to predict, and even direct, the course of politics in other countries,” noting that its “hubris should have been crushed in Iraq.”
Walt in his article takes this issue to a global level, saying that leaders around the world must grapple with how they respond to and deal with American power. He says “The United States will not and should not exit the world stage anytime soon. But it must make its dominant position acceptable to others — by using military force sparingly, by fostering greater cooperation with key allies, and, most important of all, by rebuilding its crumbling international image.”
He notes that even America’s allies often oppose and resist its dominance, and things have worsened since September 11, 2001, because American policies “have reinforced the belief that the United States does not abide by its own ideals.”
Walt suggests several appropriate new strategies, including the U.S. resuming its traditional role as an “offshore balancer” (ready to engage directly in areas of strategic importance rather than control or occupy them directly), and defending its international legitimacy. The most important recommendation in the article comes at the end, where Walt says: “U.S. foreign policy must reflect a greater appreciation of what U.S. power can and cannot accomplish. Possessing unmatched strength does not mean the United States can or should impose its values on others, no matter how selfless Americans think their motives are. Instead of telling the world what to do and how to live — a temptation that both neoconservative empire-builders and liberal internationalists find hard to resist — the United States must lead by example. Over time, other nations will see how Americans live and what they stand for, and the rest of the world will want those things too.”
How true, and how evident this is in every country in the world. American ideals and values are appreciated and usually coveted around the world, while American foreign policies often are scorned, laughed at, and actively resisted. Here is some very sensible advice from two knowledgeable American scholars who understand the world rather more thoroughly and accurately that most of the people who formulate American foreign policy these days.
Rami G. Khouri is editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, published throughout the Middle East with the International Herald Tribune.
Copyright ｩ2005 Rami G. Khouri
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Released: 28 September 2005
Word Count: 957
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