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  • The Democratic Rollback
    By Larry Diamond
    Foreign Affairs Article
    March/April 2008

  • What Will Russia Resemble after Putin?
    Online Debate
    Updated: February 2, 2007

  • Is there a Clash of Civilizations? Islam, Democracy, and U.S.-Middle East Policy
    By Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies
    Testimony
    September 14, 2006

  • Democracy, Our Best Protector
    By Max Boot, Senior Fellow for National Security Studies
    Op-Ed
    September 13, 2006

  • Democracy Promotion as Policy
    Online Debate
    Updated: June 2, 2006

  See Also

  Democracy Promotion, Grand Strategy

  Democratosis

  Author:	Noah Feldman, Adjunct Senior Fellow

  October 7, 2007
  The New York Times Magazine

  It seems strange to the rest of the world, but we Americans can’t seem to stop talking about how other countries should be democratic like we are. From George Washington’s boast of being “irresistibly excited whensoever, in any country, I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom,” to Woodrow Wilson’s vow to make the world safe for democracy, to George W. Bush’s second inaugural, our presidents have invoked the aspiration to expand self-government ever outward. The expansion of democracy is for us what empire was for the great world powers before us: a rallying cry that makes us proud and keeps us unified — while also serving our interests.

  As ideal and slogan, though, the creed of exporting democracy differs from the creed of expanding empire in one important respect: When we fail to follow it, we look hypocritical. An empire that extends itself selectively is just being prudent about its own limitations. A republic that supports democratization selectively is another matter. President Bush’s recent speech to the United Nations, in which he assailed seven repressive regimes, was worthy of applause — but it also opened the door to the fair criticism that he was silent about the dozens of places where the United States colludes with dictators of varying degrees of nastiness.

  Pakistan is a case in point. As Pervez Musharraf pursued his bid to be re-elected as president this weekend, the government jailed key opposition leaders and blocked others, like the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, from entering the country.

  View full text of article

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  New CFR Books

  

  In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.

  

  America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.

  

  In The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.

  Complete list of CFR Books.

  

  

  Task Force Reports

  U.S.-Latin America Relations: A New Direction for a New Reality

  This report identifies four emerging issues—poverty and inequality, public security, human mobility, and energy security—that represent fundamental challenges and opportunities for Latin America and for U.S. policy toward it.

  U.S.-China Relations: An Affirmative Agenda, A Responsible Course

  This report takes stock of the changes under way in China and what they mean for China and for U.S.-China relations.

  About Independent Task Forces at the Council.

  

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